Comments for Overlooked: "Let Them Return" »
Posted By Dakota 1 year, 8 months ago in NewsStarting in 1968, the United States and Britain began forcibly removing 2,000 Chagossian people from an island in the Indian Ocean so the U.S. could build a military base.
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Endoscopy1 year, 8 months ago
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Were they paid or not for their land. That was not mentioned in the story. If they were not paid they have a valid complaint. If they were tough. I went through it when I was a kid. I80 went diagonally through our farm. End of farm.
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truthiness1 year, 8 months ago
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you are a citizen of the United States and that is the law of the land.
this was a sovereign nation, with a unique culture, that was forcibly removed.. rounded up, watched their pets exterminated, and then shipped as cargo to somwhere else. exiled from their own home by a foreign power, because it wanted control of their land. how evil. how truly opposed to the ideals of America. shame.
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jordan111 year, 8 months ago
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Given that this is all true, obviously they weren't 'paid.' The manner of their expulsion was barbaric, and completely unwarranted. That would make those who decided on the means for doing it quite evil, & I would have to wonder AGAIN about the mentality of those who have been given positions of power in this country.
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Dionys1 year, 8 months ago
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"Were they paid or not for their land. That was not mentioned in the story. If they were not paid they have a valid complaint. If they were tough. I went through it when I was a kid. I80 went diagonally through our farm. End of farm."
What a disgusting attitude. It's find to steal peoples' land as long as they're paid for it? Is that how you felt when the government took your land?
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Goppy1 year, 8 months ago
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OMG!
You libbies crack me up!!
Look, our military nation has got to funnel the BILLIONS AND BILLIONS that we extract in taxes SOMEWHERE!!
What better than some far off distant island that nobody hears bout!
The futher away it is, the more money we ken off load there!
Look, 42% of our tax dollors goes directly to the Military!! Do you realize how much money that is?
We could solve ALL our nations problems if we cut just 10% out of that budget!
JUST 10%!!
But we Christian Cosnervatives will have NONE OF IT!
NONE OF IT I TELLS YA!
We got to give ALL available money to the military so as to keep the rest of the nation in Dire Straits!
The Military, its liek a nation within a nation.
Free health care.
Early retirement.
Expense accounts.
Unlimited budgets.
The only ones on the short end of the stick is the soliders fightin in war. Republicans dont much care for soldiers or veterans ... just the GRAND MILITARY INDUSTRIAL MACHINE.
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hyperbola1 year, 8 months ago
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Why are you surprised by this? The american "elite" does exactly the same thing with americans. Forcing americans to live in nuclear waste dumps is how you get enough corruption backing to be a presidential candidate.
Senator McCain's history of Human Rights Violations
Do No Evil â;; The Dineh-Navajo were literally swept off of lands they'd owned since 1500 A.D. by legislations authored by Senator McCain on a ruse that handed the coal beneath them over to the largest unsustainable energy corporation in America. Forced resettlements have led to disease and early death among more than 7,000 of the Dineh-Navajo.
http://donoevil.propeller.com/story/2008/04/02/...
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Neophile1 year, 8 months ago
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This "Overlooked" entry is about a story originally submitted by berkeley, not one submitted by the Propeller staff.
http://politics.propeller.com/story/2008/04/04/...
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1-2-Oscar1 year, 8 months ago
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Then why doesn't the Dakota give berkley credit? A previous "Overlooked" entry, initially submitted by a "Scout," acknowledged the original contributor. Or is it only staff members that get credit?
Do you think that Dakota is as petty as you are, Neophile? I suppose that's the REAL question.
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puffin1 year, 8 months ago
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FTA:
"Diego Garcia may be far away, but Propeller member Berkeley certainly noticed the story on the AntiWar.com site (where Vine's story appeared), one of many web sites that he reads every few days. "It's a story that gives an excellent brief summary of the military take-over, " he writes in email. "And it [covers] the crime of removing the inhabitants, and the CIA prison."
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JamesMarcus1 year, 8 months ago
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Oscar, did you actually read the story? Dakota gives credit to Berkeley in a paragraph near the end, at which point she also quotes the submitting member. All Overlooked stories now incorporate such contributions--they are intended to spotlight the community. If anybody is being petty here, it's you.
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bill29361 year, 8 months ago
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Few erros in the story:
One the american media reports from the island every now and then. (Note the quote saying that they can't get a reporter there)
The people from the Island are the 'Ilois' not 'Chagossian'.
And finally, the origin of the 'Ilois':
Probably the place's prickliest subject is the issue of the 1,200 to 2,000 members of the Ilois, former inhabitants the British moved off the island in the late 1960s. They now live 1,200 miles away on the isle of Mauritus. As the descendants of workers who arrived on the island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
And one other note, if you look at the map in the article and then a map of were DG is, you will notice that the map show in the article is not even close.
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Charlson1 year, 8 months ago
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Until 1971 Diego Garcia had a native population of 2,000 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; and Pointe Marianne, on the western rim. The islanders were forcibly depopulated to the Seychelles and then to Mauritius amid starvation and intimidation tactics by the UK government. 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 week, to tend to graves and visit their birthplaces.
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Neophile1 year, 8 months ago
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John Pilger did a great documentary about Diego Garcia a couple years back. You can watch it here:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-3667764...
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jovial1 year, 8 months ago
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I spent many a time on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Diego Garcia. We never got to disembark. We almost always got our mail and supplies sent to us while we patrolled the waters of the Indian ocean. Diego Garcia was the closest base available to us at the time. Our main operating area was known as "Gonzo station". A patch of water in the Northern Indian ocean. Thanks for the story. I never knew that there were indigenous natives there.
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Georgia501 year, 8 months ago
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There needs to be return, compensation, and punitive damages paid to these people.
The US Navy's interests are better served by island-like super structures that can ply the seas, service entire battle groups at a time, and provide 5,000' runways for both military and emergency use.
One per ocean ought to do it.
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dissent1 year, 8 months ago
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yeah, with a great big bullseye on all of 'em! btw.... the US Navy's interests? one per ocean? 5000 runways? you have to be kidding me but in case you're not, what might those interests be, hmmmmm georgia? you planning on having the empire take over the world sometime soon?
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Georgia501 year, 8 months ago
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There are already plans in the private sector to create a huge floating city, complete with landing facilities for private aircraft.
A military application is not that far-fetched. Huge, modular, mobile. Carriers already are 1,000 feet in length, with the flight deck limited by by ship's superstructure. Eliminate the superstructure, attach 5 in a row, and you're there. That's not the only configuration...starting from scratch would be better. But that's the easiest way on a budget.
And clearly it's the solution that permits the US Navy to have autonomy at sea without having to displace basic human rights to perform their missions.
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skeek1 year, 8 months ago
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You have failed to grasp the lesson to be learnt from the experience of Diego Garcia. What is fortunate in this instance for you and your nation is that the people of Diego Garcia are unable to fight back. The world is not your backyard for your country and its "missions." How many debacles does it have to take before you wake up to that reality?
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