‘Piece by piece, the truth is finally coming out about Britain’s own Guantánamo Bay – Diego Garcia. Today the human rights lawyers group Reprieve began a legal case on behalf of Saad Iqbal Madni, who they say was transited through the UK-controlled Indian Ocean island as part of the CIA’s secret rendition programme.’
‘Months later, however, Reprieve and the Spanish newspaper El País offered new evidence that the US may have held large numbers of detainees on secret prison ships in Diego Garcia’s lagoon or its surrounding waters. Subsequent Time and Guardian articles, citing interviews with intelligence officials, indicated that as many as 10 detainees had been held on or around the island from 2002 until as late as 2006.
Other recent revelations are showing the broader extent of UK complicity in US interrogation and torture policies. The Liberal Democrats and Reprieve have found evidence that the British government systematically destroyed flight logs for Diego Garcia, possibly covering up more proof of UK involvement in secret detention. It is increasingly difficult to believe officials’ claims that they’ve been unaware of US activities on the island.
This is not how democracies are supposed to operate. The tawdry back and forth of denials and revelations, of lies and cover-ups, is a stain on the governments of both nations. Sadly it’s an all too familiar tale on an island base created when, from 1968 to 1973, UK and US officials conspired to expel the entire local population of Chagossians, to hide the expulsion from the world, and to callously stymie the people’s struggle to return home.’
It makes me want to weep. Is this what our parents and grandparents fought for? So that we could allow the filth that runs the UK such free reign to commit crimes in our name?
It’s time for someone to pay!
