After reading through the websites outlining the Diego Garcia history I realized the articles said nothing about the native residents of Diego Garcia. So through a little internet surfing I come to realize exactly why the websites wouldn't say anything.... it's because the native residents of Diego Garcia were part of a forced migration during the 1960s and 1970s. The British and US governments settled an agreement to share the island for military purposes. The native people were relocated to Mauritius. I found it pretty difficult to find any information of the depopulation of Diego Garcia. The websites that we read for class seemed to care more about the flora and fauna of the islands than the people they had displaced. There is an active movement in progress for Diego Garcians to be allowed to return to their land, but little has come out of it. In the quest for military control and presence in the pacific both the UK and the US have displaced an entire population. It made me really sad to think about the native population being forced to migrate to Mauritius and then not being assimilated in to that culture. Essentially the natives of Diego Garcia are a stateless group because of the quest for military influence and power. Obviously, the right thing to do is allow Diego Garcians to return to Diego Garcia, but even with that right granted, there are still 16 seperate military commands on the island. The only way to rectify any of this is to demobilize and leave Diego Garcia so that future Diego Garcians can live in their own country without the threat of military presence.
