Two
Island Tales, The Use
And Abuse Of Power
By Brian McAfee
18 July, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The
idyllic lives of two island based populations were inexorably changed
and came close to annihilation just to accommodate U.S. supposed protection
of democracy. Both Bikini Atoll in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean's
Diego Garcia island were populated by thriving, self sufficient, fishing
based population until coming under the radar screen of British and
U.S. hegemonic interests. The disregard and callus indifference towards
the effected populations show the true nature of U.S. "values."
Both Bikini and Diego Garcia
resurfaced as issues earlier this year when survivors of the hydrogen
bomb tests in the Pacific and Chagos islanders (Diego Garcia) won court
cases recognizing the injustices forced upon them by the U.S. in the
case of Bikinians and by the British in the case of the Chagos islanders.
The Bikinians were awarded $1 billion in damages for the impact and
effect of U.S. nuclear and hydrogen tests. They will likely never see
a cent of it as the bank reserve designated for awarding payment is
said to have no funds to accommodate the ruling. The obvious irony here
is that the funding to continue the Iraq war is seemingly boundless
and unending but to rectify an earlier injustice is economically unfeasible.
From 1946 through 1958 the U.S. had carried out 23 atomic and hydrogen
bomb tests with the 1954 Bravo test the most significant one. The Bikinians
were first moved to Rongeric, where they nearly starved to death, then
they were shipped to Kwajalein and finally to tiny Kili where now their
population is more then fifteen times bigger than the original 167 that
were forcibly removed in 1946. The health effect of being down wind
and contamination of the food supply of the resettled Bikini Islanders
continue to be a factor in the health and food supply of Pacific islands
of the Marshall Island Region.
The Chagos islanders won
a hollow victory that they would be allowed to return to their islands,
with the exception of Diego Garcia, the largest and main island in the
archipelago, and the primary home of the exiled islanders. The U.S.
which has a naval and air base on the island remains unwilling to give
back the stolen island. In the case of Diego Garcia, Britain and the
U.S. both were culprits in the theft of the island. While the U.S. media
has, for the most part, not covered the issue of Diego Garcia two journalists
have made a point of keeping it alive as an issue. Both William Blum
and John Pilger have kept the story and issue alive over the years.
Diego Garcia is an example of an ongoing injustice with elements of
imperialism, racism and ongoing abuse of power in the name of "democracy."
Blum in his recent book "Rogue State" described what happened
in the Chagos Islands, "A few thousand inhabitants of the Chagos
Islands in the Indian Ocean were summarily uprooted by Great Britain
and shipped against their will to Mauritius and the Seychelles, each
more than a thousand miles away. No one helped them resettle or paid
for the homes they lost. They simply were forced to become squatters
in foreign lands. The reason for this was to make room for a U.S. military
base on the biggest of the Chagos Islands, Diego Garcis." John
Piler's new book "Freedom Nest Time" goes in to more details
of what happened with the Chagos Islands and Diego Garcia with updated
details.
In both cases the apparent
writing of wrongs were deceptive. In the case of the Bikinian legal
victory of $1 billion the funds, according to the U.S., no longer exists
to pay them despite the current ruling, how convenient. In the case
of Diego Garcia the main goal in the native pursuit of justice, the
Island of Diego Garcia itself, remains off limits to its rightful owners,
the Chagossian people. The U.S. continues to scoff at the legal and
moral basis for justice, for simply doing the right things.
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