FAQ
Ask Martini A Question!
Martini Gotje has been working with Sam of Cindik over the last few years and has become somewhat of an expert on the Chagossian situation. He has a wealth of knowledge so if you have any questions regarding The People's Navy and its cause please complete the form below and Martini will endevour to answer your question and publish them on this page.
Click on the question to the taken to the answer.
The Answers
Where are the Chagossian Islands?
The Chagos Archipelago is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual tropical islands roughly in the centre of the Indian Ocean.
The Chagos lies about 500 km (300 miles) due south of the Maldives, its nearest neighbour, 1600 km (1000 miles) southwest of India, half way between Tanzania and Java. For more general information please take a look at the Wikipedia entry.
Why are they relevant?
Whomsoever commands the sea
Commands the trade; whomsoever
Commands the trade of the world
Commands the riches of the world, and
Consequently the world itself
Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552 - 1618
From a January 2003 paper on Joint Warfare and Crisis resolution in the 21st century, written by General Peter Pace, Vice Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff:
The United States will continue to have global interests and commitments requiring military power to protect and advance them.
* The joint force battle space will be global and extend from the US homeland to include cyberspace and space.
* The speed and scale of the proliferation of missile technology and the spread of WMD weapons and their means of delivery will increase, posing a fast growing challenge to land, maritime, air, and space capabilities at home and abroad.
* The United States will retain the capacity to intervene unilaterally, but will usually operate within a coalition of like-minded powers and actors. Such coalitions may be relatively short lived and involve temporary arrangements rather than long term, pre-existing relationships.
* Despite an increase in the sophistication of adversary anti-access and area denial strategies, US military capabilities will become more rapidly deployable, immediately employable, and increasingly lethal with extended operational reach.
* Future joint forces will increasingly be expected to conduct combat or crisis resolution operations within urban areas or across densely populated complex terrain.
Diego Garcia is and has been:
* From a line in the books of a coconut oil trading company and a speck in the Ocean to;
* A giant in US (and UK) global policies;
* The crown, or rather the stick, of globalisation.
* The key to US and UK naval and air logistics in South West Asia
* Staging ground for indiscriminate bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan with forward basing of B52 and B2
* Watchdog of critical trading lanes, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Cape of Good Hope, Strait of Malacca, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal
* Controller of Global Position System (GPS) in support of precision weapons
* Home of equipment and supplies to support a U.S. Marine Expeditionary Brigade of about 17,000 personnel for 30 days and two Heavy Armoured Brigades on 20 ships
* Defense Fuel Support Point with 15 million gallon storage capacity
* Prison camp for Taliban, Al Qaeda and lower half of the Iraqi deck of cards
How did you first hear about the Chagossian people and their plight?
In 1977 I was in Cochin, India on a peace vessel called the Fri. She had just finished the Pacific Peace Odyssey, which had started from Wellington in 1974 and finished in Madras some month earlier. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fri_(yacht) for more detail on this vessel and http://free-fri.dk/.
During the Peace Odyssey we first learned about the Chagossians and their plight at the hands of military interest. Our destination from Cochin was Mauritius and since Diego Garcia was on the route we decided to try and stop there. The vessel never made it, as her age of 65 years at that time had its toll on her sailing capacities. We were prevented by strong headwinds from landing. We did meet the Chagossians in Mauritius and heard first hand of their inhumane treatment
Ask A Question!
