Diego Garcia (DGAR) is an atoll just south of the equator in the central Indian Ocean, and the largest of 60 small islands comprising the Chagos Archipelago. It was settled by the French in the 1790s and was transferred to British rule after the Napoleonic Wars. It was one of the "Dependencies" of the British Colony of Mauritius until it was detached for inclusion in the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) in 1965.
Occupying an area of 17 square miles (44 square km), it consists of a V-shaped, sand-fringed cay about 15 miles (24 km) in length with a maximum width of about 7 miles (11 km); its lagoon is open at the north end.Between 1968 and 1973, the population was forcibly removed by the United Kingdom and the United States to establish an American base through intimidation of locals and denying the return of any who left the island. Most of them went to Mauritius and Seychelles, and a few to Great Britan. The Naval Base of US Navy is operational till date.
DGAR is the only inhabited island of the BIOT; the population is composed of military personnel and supporting contractors. It is one of two critical US bomber bases in the Asia Pacific region, along with Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, Pacific Ocean.
DGAR is host for U.S. maritime prepositioning vessels, combat support vessels, communications facilities, fuel stores, and has the port and airport facilities to accommodate large vessels or combat aircraft. Since DGAR is sovereign British territory, it is beyond the legal jurisdiction of U.S. courts (and habeas corpus petitions) and for this possible reason it has reportedly been used as a terrorist detention site. Diego Garcia is 1,100 miles south of India and about 2,200 miles east of the Africa’s Eastern Coast. Its 12,000-foot runways can accommodate long range aircraft; including B-52, B-1, and B-2 bombers and also considered as ETOPS emergency landing site and also considered as one of the emergency space shuttle landing sites.
In the late 1990s, islanders from the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia, sued for the right to return home, and in 2000 a British court ruled that the 1971 ordinance banning them from the islands was unlawful. U.S. and British officials opposed the plan for resettlement, but in 2006 the court upheld its decision. In 2007 the British government lost its case before the Court of Appeal but announced its intention to challenge that decision in the House of Lords. The following year a majority of the panel of five Law Lords ruled against the islanders, although the government expressed regret for the original removal.
On 23 June 2017, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted in favor of referring the territorial dispute between Mauritius and the UK to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in order to clarify the legal status of the Chagos Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The motion was approved by a majority vote with 94 voting for and 15 against.
In February 2019, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the United Kingdom must transfer the islands to Mauritius as they were not legally separated from the latter in 1965.
Discovery
The uninhabited islands are asserted to have been discovered by the Portuguese navigator, explorer, and diplomat Pedro Mascarenhas in 1512, first named as Dom Garcia, in honour of his patron, Dom Garcia de Noronha. nother Portuguese expedition with a Spanish explorer of Andalusian origin, Diego García de Moguer,rediscovered the island in 1544 and named it after himself.
Purchase by the United Kingdom
To accomplish the UK-USA mutual defense strategy, in November 1965, the UK purchased the Chagos Archipelago, which includes Diego Garcia, from the then self-governing colony of Mauritius for £3 million to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), with the intent of ultimately closing the plantations to provide the uninhabited British territory from which the United States would conduct its military activities in the region.
On 30 December 1966, the United States and the UK executed an agreement through an Exchange of Notes which permitted the United States to use the BIOT for defence purposes for 50 years until December 2016, followed by a 20-year extension (to 2036) as long as neither party gives notice of termination in a two-year window (December 2014 – December 2016) and the UK may decide on what additional terms to extend the agreement.
Diego Garcia & the US Navy
To the United States, Diego Garcia was a prime territory for setting up a foreign military base. According to Stuart Barber—a civilian working for the US Navy at the Pentagon—Diego Garcia was located far away from any potential threats, it was low in a native population and it was an island that was not sought after by other countries as it lacked economic interest. To Barber, Diego Garcia and other acquired islands would play a key role in maintaining US dominance. Here Barber designed the strategic island concept, where the US would obtain as many less populated islands as possible for military purposes. According to Barber, this was the only way to ensure security for a foreign base. Diego Garcia is often referred to as "Fantasy Island" for its seclusion.
After obtaining islands from UK, in 1968, initial tactics were put into action to decrease the population of Diego Garcia. Those who had left the island (for leisure,medical or any other purpose) were not allowed to return, and those who stayed at the island, could obtain restricted food and supplies. This eventually forced others also to leave.
In March 1971, United States Naval construction battalions, (Seabees), arrived on Diego Garcia to begin the construction of the communications station and an airfield. Those who still remained on the island of Diego Garcia between 1971 and 1973 were forced onto cargo ships that were heading to Mauritius and the Seychelles.
Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia
Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia provides Base Operating Services to tenant commands located on the island. The command's mission is "To provide logistic support to operational forces forward deployed to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf AORs in support of national policy objectives."
ETOPS emergency landing site
Diego Garcia may be identified as an ETOPS (Extended Range Twin Engine Operations) emergency landing site (en route alternate) for flight planning purposes of commercial airliners. This allows twin-engine commercial aircraft (such as the Airbus A330, Boeing 767 or Boeing 777) to make theoretical nonstop flights between city pairs such as Perth and Dubai (9,013.61 km), Hong Kong and Johannesburg (10,658 km) or Singapore and São Paulo (15,985.41 km), all while maintaining a suitable diversion airport within 180 minutes' flying time with one engine inoperable.
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