A BBC investigation into a historic court case on Diego Garcia, a highly secretive UK-US military base in the Indian Ocean, reveals its remote location, territorial dispute, and complex legal battle over asylum seekers.
Diego Garcia , a remote island in the Indian Ocean, is a paradise of lush vegetation and white-sand beaches, surrounded by crystal blue waters.
UK government lawyers brought a legal challenge to try to block the BBC from attending the hearing, and even when permission was granted following a ruling by the territory's Supreme Court,, saying it would not provide food, transport or accommodation to all those attempting to reach the island for the case - including the judge and barristers.
When permission was finally granted for me to spend five days on the island, it came with stringent restrictions. These did not just cover the court reporting. They also extended to my movements on the island and even a ban on reporting what the actual restrictions were.Personnel from the security company G4S were flown to the territory to guard the BBC and lawyers who had flown out for the hearing.
This is the first of many references to freedom on the island’s signage, a nod to the UK-US military base that has been there since the early 1970s. The US dollar is the accepted currency and the electricity sockets are American. The food offered to us for the five days includes “tater tots” - a popular American fried-potato side dish - and American biscuits, similar to British scones.Archive image from 1981 - US Naval Construction Battalion at the swimming pool on Diego Garcia
Biot's acting commissioner has said it is not possible for him to “compel the US authorities” to grant access to any part of the military facility constructed by the US under the terms of the UK-US agreement, despite it being a British territory. But there are also constant reminders of the sensitive base that is here. Military drills can be heard early in the morning, and near our accommodation block is a fenced-off building identified as an armoury.Palm trees fringe the island's white-sand beaches, which - according to the Biot website - lead into some of the cleanest seas
At a church on the plantation site, a sign, in French, beneath the crucifix reads: “Let us pray for our Chagossian brothers and sisters.” Another government document stated that the islands were chosen “not only for their strategic location but also because they had, for all practical purposes, no permanent population”.
For the UK, he says, it was a chance to maintain close military ties with the US, even with only a “token British presence” there - but there was also financial motivation, he adds. It said the Chagos Islands should be handed over to Mauritius in order to complete the UK's “decolonisation”. Earlier this month, the government announced that former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, who played a central role in negotiating the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, had been appointed to negotiate with Mauritius over the islands.
Tankers operating from Diego Garcia refuelled US B-2 bombers that had flown from the US to carry out the first airstrikes on Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. And, during the subsequent “war on terror”, aircraft were also sent directly from the island itself to Afghanistan and Iraq.
In the mid-1980s, British journalist Simon Winchester pretended his boat had run into trouble next to the island. He remained in the bay for about two days, and managed to briefly step on shore before being escorted away and told: “Go away and don’t come back.” “The detainees did not leave the plane, and the US Government has assured us that no US detainees have ever been held on Diego Garcia. US investigations show no record of any other rendition through Diego Garcia or any other Overseas Territory or through the UK itself since then,” then-Foreign Secretary David Miliband told parliament at the time.
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