Archives have played important roles in the documentation of human rights abuses worldwide. The exile of the Chagossian people during the creation of the U.S. military base on the Indian Ocean island Diego Garcia is one of the world’s least known human rights violations. In recent years, government documents and other archival materials from Britain, the United States, Mauritius, and the Seychelles have been critical to exposing this history in courtrooms, the media, and other settings. The Chagos Archive is attempting to collect and organize all the available documentary material worldwide about the Chagossian exile and the creation of the U.S. military base on Diego Garcia. The Archive hopes to provide an unprecedented resource for Chagossians, lawyers, journalists, scholars, students, teachers, and members of the public interested in learning about and creating new knowledge about the history of the Chagossians and Diego Garcia. For Chagossians, The Archive will also provide an online hub to safeguard their history and culture through photography and visual arts, music, oral history, and other materials. The Chagos Archive expects to document the moment when Chagossians finally win the right to return home.
Warning: Unfortunately, there are still hundreds of pages of important documents that could help the world understand more about this history but that the U.S. and U.K. governments have not released. Over time, students and others working with The Archive will demand the governments declassify more documents, while working to uncover more of this still hidden history with the help of archives and other sources.