Diego Garcia became one of the world's most strategic military bases

In the middle of the Indian Ocean lies Diego Garcia, a remote coral atoll that became one of the most strategically important military bases on earth. Long before its runways, warships and military operations existed, the island was home to an entire community, the Chagossians, whose ancestors had lived across the Chagos Archipelago for generations. Between 1967 and 1973, the United Kingdom and United States forcibly removed the islands' entire population to make way for a joint military base, a decision that decades of legal battles, human rights findings and international court rulings have since described as a serious violation of international law.How the deal to remove an entire population was struckAccording to the International Court of Justice's own summary of its 2019 advisory opinion, the United States approached the United Kingdom in 1964 expressing interest in establishing a military base on Diego Garcia, and the two governments subsequently agreed to remove the archipelago's population entirely to clear the way for it. The court found that between 1967 and 1973, the UK either prevented the Chagossian population from returning to the islands or forcibly removed them, wi...