As reported in the press recently, 30 years ago Britain booted 2,000 inhabitants off the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
It was then leased to the USA as a military base because the island was in a good strategic position for their B52 bombers to strike Russia if needed. (In more recent years they have flown from the island to strike Iraq.)
Despite many protests over the years, successive British governments have managed to keep this violation of human rights quiet.
Diego Garcia was an idyllic island where the inhabitants were happy to live, fishing for a living in their paradise. Since 1967 they have been living in poverty and squalor on the island of Mauritius. It is only now that their protests have been listened to, and moves are being made to win their battle to return home.
In 1982 in the Falklands 267 men lost their lives fighting for the rights of British subjects on islands where the sovereignty is still being questioned.
With yet another example of total hypocrisy and also the indiscriminate arms sales worldwide, Britain rates very high on the list of evil perpetrators of past and future conflicts.
JOHN CARTER
Wiltshire Avenue
Swindon
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