Diego Garcia

During my Navy duty, I had the opportunity to visit Diego Garcia, the speck of British-owned coral just south of the equator in the Indian Ocean. It is a beautiful piece of land: quite a tropical island paradise, with crystal-clear waters lapping on white, palm-tree topped coral beaches.

Diego Garcia is also one-hundred-percent military base. This military base needs no fences due to its remote location and dozens of patrolling ships. It is home to numerous B-52s, B-2 bombers, as well as serving as a staging area for materials bound for the Persian Gulf. During the cold war, it proved to be an ideal place from which to monitor the Soviets in the Indian Ocean. Thus, the Naval Security Group (of which I was a part) was the first to move in.

It wasn’t until after my visit to Diego Garcia that I learned how the indigenous people of Diego Garcia were unceremoniously packed up and shipped off, with only a suitcase of their belongings. To this day, they are not allowed to return to their homeland, even to visit. Kinda sad.

The people of Diego Garcia won a victory in British court in 2001, but a hollow one at best. The U.S. lease on the base runs through 2016, and even if we leave, the reef is now so damaged that its existence and that of the wildlife it supports is threatened.

Once again, individual rights get evicted by “national security.”