Crawley, an unassuming town in the West Sussex commuter belt, holds a dark secret. Hidden within its streets is a story of tragedy and deceit that has left thousands of refugees living in misery for 40 years, exiled from their homeland by a conniving and unrepentant government. It is a story – described by some as one of the darkest days in British overseas policy – that has transfixed me for more than a decade and shaken my very principles on conservation, ecology and the environment movement.
Lies, bribes and Wikileaks – this tale has it all. It starts in the mid-Sixties when the US, worried about possible Soviet expansion, was seeking a base in the Indian Ocean. The catch? They wanted somewhere without an indigenous “population problem” that could interfere with the base’s operation.
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But there was a problem: the UK had overlooked the existence of the native population of about 1,800 Chagosian people, mainly descendents of slaves, living on the islands. And, as members of an overseas territory, they were British nationals. Yet it was vital for the British government, in its own words, “to maintain the pretence there were no permanent inhabitants” on the islands. This was because permanent residents would need to be recognised as people with democratic rights. So the islanders effectively became non-people. Full story...
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yes just beacuse they don't hold much power to make movies, books, memorials about their suffering , like jews.
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