The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
December 22, 2010

WikiLeaks: Mauritius Contests Legality of Marine Reserve Near Diego Garcia 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------



There has been political fallout from a Wiki Leaks cable related to the
U.S. military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The nation of
Mauritius announced plans on Tuesday to contest the legality of a new
maritime reserve park around the disputed Chagos Islands after a leaked
U.S. cable suggested the park was a ploy to stop uprooted islanders
returning home. Britain leased the archipelago's biggest island, Diego
Garcia, to the United States in 1966, paving the way for the
construction of a huge airbase which required the forced removal of some
2,000 Chagossians. Publicly, the British portrayed the establishment of
the marine park as a move to save the environment. But a U.S. diplomatic
cable dated May 2009, disclosed by Wiki Leaks, revealed that a British
Foreign Office official had privately told the Americans that the
decision to set up a marine protected area would "effectively end the
islanders' resettlement claims."



.