Chagos Islands. Chagos Islands - available only on the Internet. The UK Chagos Support Association. The Chagos Islands: A sordid tale. "A very sad and by no means creditable episode in British history.
" That was how Sir Sydney Kentridge QC, barrister for the Chagos islanders or Ilois, described their forced removal from their "paradise" homeland in the 1960s and 1970s. It is hard to disagree with him. The story involves "bribes" from the United States, racism among senior civil servants, and the UK Government deceiving parliament and the United Nations. And the reason? Cold War 'realpolitik'. Islanders less important than tortoises In the mid-1960s, the US was worried about possible Soviet expansion in the Indian Ocean and wanted a base in the region - but one without a "population problem" which might upset the base's operation. In return, the US was willing to offer the UK an $11m subsidy on the Polaris submarine nuclear deterrent. A memo from then Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart to Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1969 admitted that the payment was kept secret from Parliament and the US Congress.
Creating a fiction. Chagos Archipelago. The Chagos Archipelago (/ˈtʃɑːɡoʊs/ or /ˈtʃɑːɡəs/; formerly Bassas de Chagas[1] and later also Oil Islands, is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual tropical islands in the Indian Ocean; situated some 500 kilometres (310 mi) due south of the Maldives archipelago.
This chain of islands is the southernmost archipelago of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, a long submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean.[2] The Chagos also form a terrestrial ecoregion together with the Maldives and the Lakshadweep.[3] The islands and their surrounding waters are also a vast oceanic Environment Preservation and Protection Zone (EPPZ) (Fisheries Conservation and Management Zone (FCMZ) of 544,000 square kilometres (210,000 sq mi)), an area twice the size of the UK's land surface. The sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago is being disputed between the UK and Mauritius. The United Kingdom excised the archipelago from Mauritian territory prior to Mauritius' independence.[4] Geography[edit] British Indian Ocean Territory. The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) or Chagos Islands is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia.
The territory comprises the six atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands – many tiny – amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi).[5] The largest island is Diego Garcia, 44 km2 (17 sq mi), the site of a joint military facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Following the eviction of the native population (Chagossians) in the 1960s, the only inhabitants are US and British military personnel and associated contractors, who collectively number around 4,000 (2004 figures).[5] Mauritius sought to resume control over the Chagos Archipelago which was split from its territory by the UK in 1965 to form the British Indian Ocean Territory.
History[edit] In 1990, the first BIOT flag was unfurled. Population[edit] Politics and law[edit] Geography[edit] See also[edit]