Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to discover the island of Diego Garcia. The island may have first been explored by the Portuguese navigator Pêro de Mascarenhas (1470–June 23, 1555) during his voyage of 1512–13, but there is little corroborative evidence for this, while cartographic analysis points to a subsequent date, possibly 1532 or later.

In addition considerable uncertainty exists regarding the origin of the name of Diego Garcia, particularly as no navigator of this name can be traced in contemporary records for this part of the world. He might be the same Diego Garcia who sailed to the Río de la Plata in 1526, and possibly with Hernando de Soto's voyage, but as a Spaniard it seems unlikely that he was ever in the Indian Ocean. In fact there is good reason to believe that the Christian name, Diego, of the island's discoverer was a misnomer or misreading which came into use towards the end of the sixteenth century. Although the Cantino Planisphere (1504) and the Ruysch map (1507) clearly delineate the Maldives, giving them the same names, they show no islands to the south which can be identified as the Chagos group.

The Sebastian Cabot map (Antwerp 1544) shows a number of islands to the south which may be the Mascarene group. The first map which identifies and names 'Los Chagos' (in about the right position) is that of Pierre Descelier (Dieppe 1550), although Diego Garcia is not named. An island called 'Don Garcia' appears on the Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis of Abraham Ortelius (Antwerp 1564), together with 'Dos Compagnos', slightly to the north. It may be the case that 'Don Garcia' was named after Garcia de Noronha, although there no evidence exists to support this supposition. The island is also shown as 'Don Garcia' on Mercator's Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Description (Duisburg 1569). However, on the Vera Totius Expeditionis Nauticae Description of Jodocus Hondius (London 1589), 'Don Garcia' mysteriously changes its name to 'I. de Dio Gratia', while the 'I. de Chagues' appears close by.

The first map to delineate the island under its present name, Diego Garcia, is the World Map of Edward Wright (London 1599), possibly as a result of misreading Dio (or simply 'D.') as Diego, and Gratia as Garcia. The Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica of Henricus Hondius (Antwerp 1630) repeats Wright's misreading of the name, which is then proliferated on all subsequent Dutch maps of the period, and to the present day.

The islands were uninhabited until the 18th century, when the French established coconut plantations using slave labour. Diego Garcia became a colony of the United Kingdom after the Napoleonic wars, and from 1814–1965 it was a dependency of Mauritius.

In 1914, the island was visited by the German cruiser SMS Emden.



In 1965, the Chagos Archipelago, which include Diego Garcia, were detached from Mauritius to form part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). In 1966 the crown bought the islands and plantations, which had been under private ownership and which had been unprofitable since the introduction of new oils and lubricants. In 1971, due to an agreement between the UK and the US, the plantations were closed, and the island made available to the US as a military base. No payment was made as part of this arrangement, although it has been claimed that the United Kingdom received a US$14M discount on the acquisition of Polaris missiles from the United States. The agreement forbids any other economic activity on the island.

Until 1971 Diego Garcia had a native population of two thousand Chagossians or Ilois, descendants of Indian workers and African slaves who had been brought to the island in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to work on the coconut and copra plantations. They lived in three settlements: East Point, the main settlement on the eastern rim of the atoll; Minni Minni, north of East Point; and Pointe Marianne, on the western rim. The islands were forcibly depopulated by the UK, their residents moved to the Seychelles and then to Mauritius using controversial techniques. Since their expulsion the Chagossians have continually asserted their right to return to Diego Garcia. In April 2006, 102 Chagossians were allowed to visit Diego Garcia for a day, to tend to graves and visit their birthplaces. For a good general history of the Islands and what happened to the Ilois, refer to The Minority Rights Group Report No 54 - 'Diego Garcia: a contrast to the Falklands' or read the book by David Vine; Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia

Current Military use

Diego Garcia is home to a military base jointly operated by the United States and the United Kingdom. It is a naval refueling and support station and the home of Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Two, the naval unit responsible for the readiness of the ships in Military Sealift Command Prepositioning Program in the Indian Ocean, a vital strategic asset to the United States.It has an air base that primarily supported land-based U.S. Navy P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft during the Cold War. Since 11 September 2001, in addition to P-3 aircraft, it has also supported some of the largest military aircraft. U.S. Air Force B-52 and B-1B, as well as various aerial refueling tanker aircraft have been deployed to Diego Garcia to execute missions. During the 1991 Gulf War, Diego Garcia was home to the 4300th Bomb Wing (Provisional), made up of B-52G bombers from the former Loring AFB, Maine and other B-52G bases. It was also used in support of military missions in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, and to Iraq again during the 2003 invasion. The B-52, and B-1 deployed to Diego Garcia in anticipation of the second Iraq War carried out the initial aerial bombardment on Baghdad on March 22, 2003. Some of these bombers dropped GPS guided bombs and laser guided 1,905 kg (4,200 lb.) bunker busters in "decapitation strikes" intended to kill Saddam Hussein and other Baath Party officials. Although they now primarily deploy to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Diego Garcia still remains a regular deployment site for U.S. Navy P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft.

The base is part of the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, with a three-telescope GEODSS station, and is a NASA Space Shuttle emergency landing site.

Neither the U.S. nor the UK recognises Diego Garcia as being subject to the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty, though the rest of the Chagos Archipelago is included, suggesting they wish to maintain the freedom to base nuclear weapons there.jel/eqn034>

The agreement between the UK and U.S. for the U.S. to use the island as a military base was made in 1966. It runs until 2036, but either government can opt out of the agreement in 2016.

Construction and maintenance of the base's communications equipment, fuel facilities and military hardware are done strictly by military contractors, and inventories of that weaponry are classified. No service-member family dependents are allowed. In 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense said that there were more buildings on Diego Garcia (654) than military personnel.

Politics

In 2000 the British High Court upheld the claims of the islanders that the Ordinance which had been enacted to ensure their removal (although it was never in fact invoked for that purpose) was unlawful. Robin Cook, the British Foreign Secretary at the time, did not appeal. In 2002, the UK Parliament enacted legislation which gave all Chagossians the right to obtain British citizenship, granted the islanders the right to return to the Archipelago and granted them UK citizenship. In 2002, the islanders and their descendants, now numbering 4,500, returned to court requesting compensation, after two years of delays by the British Foreign Office. The Chagossians began proceedings to seek additional compensation payments from the British Government (they had been granted £650,000 compensation on removal in the 1970s, and a further £4 million in the early 1980s). The High Court and Court of Appeal upheld the Government's position that the compensation already paid was fair and lawful, and struck down the Chagossians claims for additional payments. Subsequently, on June 10, 2004, the British government enacted two Orders-in-Council re-establishing immigration controls on the islands and effectively banning the islanders from returning home, reversing the 2000 court decision. Some of the Chagossians are making return plans to turn Diego Garcia into a sugarcane and fishing enterprise as soon as the defence agreement expires, and there have been discussions about the development of a commercial tourism industry on the islands, which may raise environmental concerns. A few dozen other Chagossians are still fighting to be housed in the UK, although they have the same rights as all British citizens.

On May 11, 2006, the High Court ruled that the 2004 Orders-in-Council were unlawful, and that the Chagossians were entitled to return to the Chagos Archipelago.The judges, Lord Justice Hooper and Mr Justice Cresswell concluded: "The suggestion that a minister can, through the means of an order in council, exile a whole population from a British Overseas Territory and claim that he is doing so for the 'peace, order and good government' of the territory is to us repugnant." Olivier Bancoult, the representative of the Chagossians, called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to honour the decision of the court and allow his people to go home.

"We have always believed that a human being has the right to live in the place of his birth.

Everywhere, the British government paints itself as the champion of human rights - so what about the human rights of the Chagossian people?"

This judgment was upheld by the Court of Appeal on May 23, 2007. The British Government then appealed to the House of Lords, which on 22 October 2008 overturned the earlier decision and ruled that the evicted islanders could not return to the archipelago. The Chagossians may now take their legal battle to the European Court of Human Rights.

Prison site allegation

Human rights groups claim that the military base is used by the U.S. government for the controversial extraordinary rendition of prisoners. This claim was supported by the Council of Europe in June 2007. The British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw stated in Parliament that U.S. authorities have repeatedly assured him that no detainees have passed in transit through Diego Garcia or have disembarked there. In October 2007 the all-party Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament announced that it would launch an investigation of the claims, which it is reported were twice confirmed by General Barry McCaffrey.

On October 19, 2007 The Guardian reported: "The all-party foreign affairs committee is to examine long-standing suspicions that the agency has operated one of its so-called 'black site' prisons on Diego Garcia..." The Guardian quoted British Member of Parliament Andrew Tyrie, "Time and time again the UK government has relied on US assurances on this issue, refusing to examine the truth of these allegations for themselves. It is high time our government took its head out of the sand and looked into these allegations."

On July 31, 2008 Time Magazine reported that a former White House official stated that the U.S. had imprisoned and interrogated at least one suspect on Diego Garcia during 2002 and possibly 2003.

Rendition admission by F.O.

On February 21, 2008, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband admitted that two US extraordinary rendition flights refuelled on Diego Garcia in 2002. Further, it has been implied that these actions constituted a direct breach of the treaty between the US and the UK concerning Diego Garcia.

Further allegations from U.N. Official

Manfred Nowak, the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, says that credible evidence exists supporting allegations about the use of Diego Garcia as a prison black site for alleged terrorists.

Clara Gutteridge, an investigator with human rights group Reprieve, states that US-operated ships moored outside the territorial waters of Diego Garcia were used to incarcerate and torture detainees.

Arrests

On 12 March 2008, The Guardian reported that two British protesters had been arrested for "entering the waters [of Diego Garcia] illegally".

Strategic importance

During the Cold War era, the United States was keen on establishing a military base in the Indian Ocean. Because of Diego Garcia's proximity to India, the United States saw the island as a strategically important one. U.S. military activities in Diego Garcia have caused friction between India and U.S. in the past. Various political parties in India repeatedly demanded that the U.S. dismantle the military base as they saw U.S. naval presence in Diego Garcia as a potential threat to India's dominance of the Indian Ocean.



After the end of the Cold War, relations between India and U.S. improved dramatically. Diego Garcia was the site of several naval exercises between the U.S. and Indian Navy held between 2001 and 2004.

Diego Garcia is also located relatively close to the Middle East, and experienced rapid military build-ups during the beginnings of the Iranian revolution and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Diego Garcia has several current missions. U.S. Air Force bombers and air refueling planes operate from the 3,650 m (12,000 ft) runway, and the USAF Space Command has built a satellite tracking station and communications facility.

The atoll shelters the 14 ships of Marine Prepositioning Squadron Two. These ships carry the equipment and supplies to support a major armed force with tanks, armored personnel carriers, munitions, fuel, spare parts and even a mobile field hospital. This equipment was used during the Persian Gulf War, when the Squadron quickly delivered its equipment to Saudi Arabia. There, soldiers flown on air transports from U.S. and European bases quickly unloaded and deployed the pre-positioned material.

Pre-positioned vessels

There are five cargo vessels that each carry Marine Corps supplies sufficient to support a Marine Air-Ground Task Force for 30 days.

• MV Anderson
• MV Baugh
• MV Bonnyman
• MV Hauge
• MV Phillips

The four combat force ships provide rapid-response delivery of U.S. Army equipment to ground troops. Three are Lighter aboard ships (LASH) which carry barges called Lighter that contain Army ammunition to be ferried ashore.

• MV American Cormorant
• SS Green Harbour, (LASH)
• SS Green Valley, (LASH)
• MV Jeb Stuart, (LASH)

Five logistics vessels service the rapid delivery requirements of the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and Defense Logistics Agency. There are two Air Force container ships for munitions, missiles and spare parts; a 500-bed hospital ship, and two floating storage and offloading units assigned to Military Sealift Command supporting the Defense Logistics Agency, including an offshore petroleum discharge system (OPDS) tanker ship.

• MV Buffalo Soldier, container
• MV Fisher container
• MV Green Ridge, hospital
• USNS Henry J. Kaiser, tanker
• SS Potomac, OPDS tanker

GPS

Diego Garcia is one of the five control bases for the Global Positioning System, operated by the US military. The US Air Force also has monitoring stations in Hawaii, Kwajalein, Ascension Island, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. The stations synchronise and update the atomic clocks on the 24 orbiting satellites that emit the signals used by GPS receivers.

ETOPS Emergency Landing Site

Diego Garcia may be identified as an ETOPS (Extended Range Twin Engine Operations) emergency landing site (en route alternate) for flight planning purposes of commercial airliners. This allows twin engine commercial aircraft (such as the Airbus A330, Boeing 767 or Boeing 777) to make theoretical nonstop flights between city pairs such as Perth and Dubai (9,013.61 km), Hong Kong and Johannesburg (10,658 km) or Singapore and São Paulo (15,985.41 km), all while maintaining a suitable diversion airport within 180 minutes flying time with one engine inoperable.

Space Shuttle

The island is one of 33 emergency landing sites worldwide for the NASA Space Shuttle. None of these facilities has been used for a Shuttle landing.

Cargo service

Since 2004 the MV Baffin Strait, often referred to as the "DGAR shuttle," has been chartered to deliver 250 containers each month from Singapore to Diego Garcia. The ship carries everything from fresh food to building supplies to aircraft parts, delivering more than 200,000 tons of cargo to the island each year." On the return trip to Singapore she carries recyclable metals.

In 2004 TransAtlantic Lines outbid Sealift Incorporated for the transport contract between Singapore and Diego Garcia. The route had previously been serviced by Sealift Inc.'s MV Sagamore, manned by members of American Maritime Officers and Seafarers' International Union. TransAtlantic Lines reportedly won the contract by approximately 10 percent, representing a price difference of about US$2.7 million.

The Baffin Strait's last charter ran from January 10, 2005 to September 30, 2008 at a daily rate of US$12,550.

Wildlife

The island is a haven for several types of crab; hermit crabs overrun the jungle at night. The extremely large 4 kg coconut crab, or "robber crab" is found here. The island hosts birds from many different regions, including Indian Barred Ground Dove (Geopelia striata), Turtle Dove (Streptopelia picturata), Indian Mynah (Acridotheres tristis), Madagascar Fody (Foudia madagascariensis), and imported chickens (Gallus gallus).

All the flora and fauna are protected, and it is even unlawful to be in possession of a dead coconut crab. Hefty fines are levied against violators.

See also

• Depopulation of Diego Garcia
• RAF Gan
• James Horsburgh
• Robert Moresby
• Stealing a Nation

References

External links

• UK House of Lords Judgment on Chagos Islands of 22 October 2008
• Let Them Return - The Chagos People's Homeland Campaign
• The UK Chagos Support Association: The story so far
• Chagos Islands Indigenous Population Internet Site
• Diego Garcia Online: Information for locals of Diego Garcia.
• Official site of the United States Navy Support Facility, Diego Garcia.
• Official site of the UK PJHQ Overseas Bases, Diego Garcia.
• Diego Garcia timeline posted at the History Commons
• Diego Garcia "Camp Justice", GlobalSecurity.org
• US/UK BIOT defence agreements, 1966-1982, U.S. Court filing
• Where in the World Is Diego Garcia?, Infoplease.com
• Diego Garcia: Paradise Cleansed, by John Pilger
• The Jewel in the Pentagon's Crown, by Gisle Tangenes, BitsofNews.com
• Atoll Research Bulletin 149: Geography and Ecology of Diego Garcia Atoll
• A Return from Exile in Sight? The Chagossians and their Struggle, from the Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights
• Alex Doherty 'Diego Garcia', in ZNet
• Curtis, Mark Web of Deceit: Britain's Real Role in the World. London:Vintage, 2003.
• BBC News Exiles lose appeal over benefits 02/11/07
• The Island is a jazz opera commissioned and broadcast in the 60's on radio themed on events in Garcia Diego written by William Russo, words Adrian Mitchell performed by the Russo Orchestra sung by Cleo Lane and Denis Quilley
• http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080707.NUKE07/TPStory/National
• A Black and Disgraceful Site by Jonathan Freedland from The New York Review of Books

Video

• Stealing a Nation - A Special Report by John Pilger on Google Video on YouTube.com
• Forcibly Exiled Nearly 40 Years Ago, Diego Garcia Natives Fight to Return to Island - video report by Democracy Now!