Diego García, a remote island in the Indian Ocean, is a paradise of lush vegetation and white sand beaches, surrounded by crystal blue waters.
But it is not a tourist destination. It is strictly off-limits to most civilians: it is the site of a top-secret UK and US military base, shrouded for decades in rumors and mystery.
The island, which is administered from London, is at the center of a long-running territorial dispute between the United Kingdom and Mauritius, and negotiations have intensified in recent weeks.
(On October 3, the United Kingdom announced that it will cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, including the Diego García Atoll, to Mauritius in an agreement reached after years of negotiations.)
The BBC gained unprecedented access to the island in early September.
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“It’s the enemy,” jokes a private security officer when I return to my room one night in Diego García, my name highlighted in yellow on a list he is holding.
For months, the BBC had fought for access to the island, the largest in the Chagos archipelago.
We wanted to cover a historic trial that is taking place about their treatment Sri Lankan Tamils, the first people to seek asylum on the island, who have been stranded there for three years.
Complex legal battles have been fought over their fate and a ruling will soon be handed down that will determine whether they were illegally detained.
Until this point, we could only cover the story remotely.
Diego García, which is located about 1,600 km from the nearest land mass, features on lists of the world’s most remote islands.
There are no commercial flights and getting there by sea is no easier: boat permits are only granted for the outer islands of the archipelago and to allow safe passage through the Indian Ocean.
To enter the island you need a permit, which is only granted to people with connections to military installations or the British authority that manages the territory.
Historically, Journalists have been prohibited from entering.
Lawyers for the UK government sued to try to prevent the BBC from attending the hearing, and even when permission was granted following a ruling by the territory’s Supreme Court, the United States later objected, saying it would not provide food, transportation, nor accommodation for all those who tried to get to the island for the case, including the judge and the lawyers.
Notes exchanged between the two governments this summer, seen by the BBC, suggested that Both were extremely concerned about admitting any media to Diego García.
“As previously discussed, the United States agrees with Her Majesty’s Government’s position that it would be preferable for members of the press to observe the hearing virtually from London, to minimize risks to the security of the facilities,” it said. a note sent by the American government to British officials.
When I was finally granted permission to spend five days on the island, it came with strict restrictions.
These concerned not only information about the court, but also my movements on the island and even the prohibition of reporting on actual restrictions.
British and American officials rejected requests for minor changes to the permit.
Staff from the security company G4S were flown into the territory to protect the BBC and lawyers who had traveled for the hearing.
But despite the limitations, I was still able to observe illuminating details, all of which helped paint a picture of one of the most restricted places in the world.
Approaching by plane, coconut trees and thick vegetation can be seen on this 44 km2 footprint-shaped atoll, with the vegetation dotted with white military structures.
Diego García is one of the 60 islands that make up the Chagos Archipelago or British Indian Ocean Territory (Biot), the last colony established by the United Kingdom when it separated it from Mauritius in 1965.
It is located approximately halfway between East Africa and Indonesia.
As you arrive on the runway next to a gray military plane, a sign in a hangar welcomes you: “Diego García. Footprint of freedom”, over images of the flags of the United States and the United Kingdom.
This is the first of many references to freedom on the island’s signs, a nod to the UK-US military base that has been there since the early 1970s.
Agreements signed in 1966 leased the island to the United States for 50 years initially, with a possible extension for another 20 years. The agreement was renewed and is scheduled to expire in 2036.
As I pass through airport security and beyond, US and UK influences compete for dominance.
In the terminal, there is a door decorated with a print of the British flag and walls with photos of important British figures, including Winston Churchill.
On the island itself, I see British police cars and a nightclub called Brit Club with a bulldog logo. We passed through roads called Britannia Avenue and Churchill Street.
But the cars drive on the right, like in the United States. We are taken on a bright yellow bus reminiscent of an American school bus.
The US dollar is the accepted currency and electrical outlets are US.
The food they offer us for the five days includes “tater tots” (a popular American potato chip dish) and American cookies.
Although the territory is administered from London, most of the personnel and resources are under the control of the United States.
In the BBC’s attempt to gain access to the island, UK officials referred questions to US staff.
When the United States prevented the court hearing on Diego García from taking place this summer, a senior Defense Ministry official said the United Kingdom “did not have the capacity to grant access.”
“US security assessment is classified… [ellos] “They have demonstrated that they have strict controls in place,” he wrote in an email to a Foreign Office colleague.
Acting Commissioner Biot has said it is not possible for him to “force US authorities” to grant access to any part of the US-built military facility under the terms of the UK-US deal, despite be a British territory.
In recent years, The territory has cost the UK tens of millions of pounds, most of which is classified as “migrant costs”.
In July, the BBC obtained a communication between Foreign Office officials regarding Sri Lankan Tamils, warning that “costs are rising and the latest forecast is that they will rise to 50 million pounds ($65 million). .5 million) per year.”
The atmosphere on the island is relaxed. Troops and contractors ride past me on bicycles and I see people playing tennis and windsurfing in the afternoon sun.
A movie theater advertises screenings of Alien and Borderlands, and there’s even a bowling alley and a museum with a gift shop, although I wasn’t allowed inside.
We passed a fast food joint called Jake’s Place and a picturesque seaside lot with a sign that reads, “The Old Swimming Pool and Picnic Area.” T-shirts and mugs with the Diego García brand are sold on the island.
But there are also constant reminders of the confidential basis here. Military drills can be heard early in the morning, and near our accommodation block is a fenced building identified as an armory.
At all times, American and British military officers closely monitor the court’s movements.
The island has striking natural beauty, from lush vegetation to pristine white sand beaches, and is also home to the world’s largest land arthropod: the coconut crab.
Military personnel warn of the dangers of sharks in surrounding waters.
Biot’s website boasts of having the “greatest marine biodiversity in the UK and its overseas territories, as well as some of the cleanest seas and healthiest reef systems in the world”.
But there are also clues that point to his brutal past.
When the United Kingdom took control of the Chagos Islands (Diego García is the southernmost) from the former British colony Mauritius, it attempted to quickly evict its population of more than 1,000 people to make way for the military base.
Enslaved people were brought to the Chagos Islands from Madagascar and Mozambique to work on coconut plantations under French and British rule.
In the following centuries, they developed their own language, music and culture.
To the east of the island I see an old plantation, where the buildings are in poor condition.
At the plantation manager’s house there is a sign that says: “Danger, unsafe structure. Do not enter. By order of the British representative.”
A huge crab climbs through the door of an abandoned guesthouse.
In a church on the plantation, a sign in French below the crucifix reads: “Let us pray for our Chagossian brothers and sisters.”
Wild donkeys still roam the area. David Vine, author of Island of Shame: The Secret History of the US Military Base on Diego Garcia, describes them as a “ghostly remnant.” of the society that had been there for almost 200 years.”
A 1966 Foreign Office memorandum stated that the objective of its plan “was to get some rocks that will remain ours; “There will be no indigenous population except the seagulls.”
A British diplomat responded that the islands were home to “some Tarzans or Friday Men whose origins are obscure and who, with luck, will wish to go to Mauritius.”
Another government document stated that the islands were chosen “not only because of their strategic location, but also because, for all practical purposes, they had no permanent population.”
“The Americans, in particular, attached great importance to this freedom of maneuver, divorced from the normal considerations that apply to a populated dependent territory,” it said.
Vine notes that the plans emerged at a time when the “decolonization movement was winding down.” developing and accelerating” and the US was worried about losing access to military bases around the world.
Diego Garcia was one of many islands considered, he says, but became the “leading candidate” due to its relatively small population and strategic location in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
For the UK, he says, it was an opportunity to maintain close military ties with the US, even with only a “symbolic British presence” there, but there was also a financial motivation, he adds.
The United States accepted a $14 million discount on Britain’s purchase of its Polaris nuclear missiles as part of the secret island deal.
In 1967, the eviction of all residents of the Chagos Islands began.
Dogs, including pets, were picked up and disposed of. The Chagossians have told how they were transferred in groups to cargo ships and taken to Mauritius or the Seychelles.
The UK granted citizenship to some Chagossians in 2002, and many of them came to live in the UK.
In testimony before the International Court of Justice years later, Chagossian Liseby Elysé said that the people of the archipelago had lived a “happy life” in which “they lacked nothing” before the expulsions.
“One day the administrator told us that we had to leave our island, leave our houses and go. All the people were dissatisfied. But we had no choice. “They didn’t give us any reason,” he said.
“No one would like to be uprooted from the island on which one was born, to be uprooted like animals.”
The Chagossians have fought for years to return to the land.
Mauritius, which gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1968, maintains that the islands are its own and the United Nations’ highest court ruled, in an advisory opinion, that the United Kingdom’s administration of the territory is “illegal” and must finish.
It claims that the Chagos Islands must be handed over to Mauritius to complete the “decolonization” of the United Kingdom.
Clive Baldwin, legal advisor at Human Rights Watch, says that the “forced displacement of Chagossians by the United Kingdom and the United States, their persecution on the basis of race, and the continued prevention of their return to their homeland constitute crimes against humanity.” .
“These are the most serious crimes for which a State can be responsible. “It is an ongoing colonial crime as long as they prevent Chagossians from returning home.”
The UK government has previously stated that he has “no doubt” about his claim to the islands, which have been “under continuous British sovereignty since 1814.”
However, in 2022, it agreed to begin negotiations with Mauritius over the territory’s future, with then-foreign minister James Cleverly saying he wanted to “resolve all outstanding issues.”
In early September, 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.
In a statement, the new foreign secretary, David Lammy – who has criticized previous governments for having “ignored for years the views” of various UN bodies on the islands – said the UK was trying to “reach an agreement that protects the interests of the United Kingdom and those of our partners,” while underlining the need to protect “the long-term, secure and effective operation of the joint UK-US military base.”
Matthew Savill, director of military science at the UK defense think tank Rusi, says: Diego García is a “hugely important” base, “due to its position in the Indian Ocean and the facilities it has.”: port, storage and aerodrome.
The nearest British facility is about 3,400 km away, and for the United States, almost 4,800 km away, he explains, the island is also an important location for “space monitoring and observation capabilities.”
Tankers operating from Diego Garcia supplied fuel to American B-2 bombers flying from the United States to carry out the first airstrikes on Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks.
And, during the subsequent “war on terrorism,” planes were also sent directly from the island itself to Afghanistan and Iraq.
The base is also one “of an extremely limited number of locations around the world available to refuel submarines” with weapons such as Tomahawk missiles, Savill says, and the United States has placed a large amount of contingency equipment and supplies there.
Walter Ladwig III, senior lecturer in international relations at King’s College London, agrees that the base serves “many important functions,” but that “There is a level of secrecy that seems to go beyond what we see elsewhere.”
“There has been a hyperfocus on controlling and limiting access, which… appears to go beyond what we publicly know about the assets, capabilities and units that are based there.”
While on the island, I am required to carry a red visitor pass and am closely monitored at all times.
My accommodation is guarded 24 hours a day and The men outside take note of when I leave and return, always under escort.
In the mid-1980s, British journalist Simon Winchester pretended that his ship had run into trouble near the island.
He stayed in the bay for about two days and managed to briefly set foot on shore before he was escorted away and told, “Go away and don’t come back.”
He tells me that he remembers the British authorities being “incredibly hostile” and that the island was “extraordinarily beautiful.”
More than two decades later, a Time magazine journalist spent about 90 minutes on the island when the US presidential plane stopped there to refuel.
Rumors have long circulated about Diego Garcia’s uses, including that it has been used as a clandestine CIA facility, a facility used to house and interrogate terrorism suspects.
The UK government confirmed in 2008 that extradition flights carrying terrorism suspects had landed on the island in 2002, after years of claiming this had not been the case.
“The detainees did not leave the plane and the United States government has assured us that no American detainee has ever been detained in Diego García. “US investigations show no record of any further extradition through Diego Garcia or any other overseas territory or through the UK itself since then,” then foreign secretary David Miliband told parliament.
The same day, former CIA director Michael Hayden indicated that information previously “supplied in good faith” to the United Kingdom about the extradition flights –which claimed they had never landed there – had “turned out to be wrong.”
“None of these individuals were part of the CIA’s high-value terrorist interrogation program. One was eventually transferred to Guantánamo and the other was returned to his home country. “These were extradition operations, nothing more,” he said, while denying reports that the CIA had a detention center in Diego García.
Years later, Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, told Vice News that intelligence sources had told him that Diego García had been used as a site “where people were temporarily housed and interrogated from time to time.” from time to time.”
I was not allowed near any of Diego García’s confidential military zones.
After leaving my accommodation on the island for the last time, I received an email stating They thanked me for my recent stay and asked me for comments.
“We want every guest to experience nothing less than a welcoming and comfortable experience,” it said.
Before flying, they stamped my passport with the territory’s coat of arms. Its motto reads: “In tutela nostra Limuria”, which means “Limuria is in our charge”, a reference to a mythical continent lost in the Indian Ocean.
A continent that does not exist seems an appropriate symbol for an island whose legal status is in doubt and which few, since the Chagossians were expelled, have been allowed to see.
(In the court case over the treatment of Sri Lankan Tamils on the island, a ruling is expected soon and the BBC will report on this in due course.)
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- The United Kingdom agrees to return to Mauritius the strategic Chagos Archipelago where the US has a secret military base