NZ SAS troops deployed on Diego Garcia

25 October 2001

Forwarded from CAFCA.

»New Zealand SAS troops now deployed on Diego Garcia.- BBC New Zealand government refuses comment.« -TVNZ

At 0520hrs this morning [24.10.01] the BBC World Service (rebroadcast on TV One) carried a report about two x 650 men detachments of British troops on exercises in the east Arabian peninsula nation of Oman. Of most intrigue was the mention that some of these troops would not be returning to the UK as planned, but would be joining Australian and New Zealand SAS troops already stationed on the military base at Diego Garcia, site of the huge airfield from which USAF B52s are presently launching their raids on Afghanistan.

TVNZ news briefly mentioned the NZSAS presence on Diego Garcia on its 0830hrs bulletin and added that the New Zealand government was refusing to comment on this BBC report.

John Pilger includes a brief background comment about the sorry story of Diego Garcia in his latest “New Statesman” article, (October 15th):

“Once again, newsreaders refer to Diego Garcia without explanation. It is where the B52s refuel. Thirty-five years ago, in high secrecy and in defiance of the United Nations, the British government of Harold Wilson expelled the entire population of the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in order to hand it to the Americans in perpetuity as a nuclear arms dump and a base from which its long-range bombers could police the Middle East. Until the islanders finally won a high court action last year, almost nothing about their imperial dispossession appeared in the British media.”

- To read the full article go to http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/rob00116.htm

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