The human problem of compensating local people for the arbitrary whims of imperialist policy is the same as in Diego GarciaWith controversy still raging over Britain’s treatment of the islanders of Diego Garcia when the atoll was handed over to the United States Navy 10 years ago,Whitehall is negotiating compensation terms for another group of Indian Ocean islanders - the Maldivian and Pakistani inhabitants of Gan - which could prove just as politically explosive in another 10 years.
This time there is no question of evacuation, except by the RAF, and which is scheduled to pull out on April 1 next year. And nobody else has been invited to race in. On the opposite,the strategic object of the negotiations is to make certain of keeping the Soviet Navy out of what could be an exact counterpart of the base facilities the US Navy wants to supply for itself in Diego Garcia.
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Source: theguardian.com