Stealing a Nation, a great documentary by John Pilger Beginning...

By only

Thursday October 23, 2008

Stealing a Nation, a great documentary by John Pilger

Beginning in 1968, Britain removed 3,000 people from the Chagos islands, a Crown dependency, to provide space for a US Naval Base at Diego Garcia to assist in conducting the Vietnam War.

The population was sent to Mauritius and the Seychelles and left to fend for themselves in city slums. No compensation or assistance was provided.

Yesterday, after 30 years of litigation to get their home back, the Law Lords have ruled that the exile was done with a callous disregard of their interests but it was reasonable for one nation (Britain) to exile another (Chagos Islanders) because of the national security concerns of a third nation (the US).