Podcast
Behind the Bastards
The book was mentioned in an interview with Rita Bancole, who lived on Chagos and was forcibly exiled. She described life there as simple, working hard with little money but ultimately a good life, and described it as being ripped from paradise and put into hell after being forced to leave.
So Rita told author David Vine in an interview for his book, Island of Shame, life there paid little money, very little, but it was the sweet life.
— Episode: Part Two: How the British Empire and U.S...
Episode: Part Two: How the British Empire and U.S. Departme...
The book was mentioned in an interview with Rita Bancole, who lived on Chagos and was forcibly exiled. She described life there as simple, working hard with little money but ultimately a good life, and described it as being ripped from paradise and put into hell after being forced to leave.
So Rita told author David Vine in an interview for his book, Island of Shame, life there paid little money, very little, but it was the sweet life.
Rita gives his cause of death as sagrin, which is another Chagossian word and it means deep sadness.
She told David Vine, my life has been buried. It is as if I was pulled from my paradise to put me in hell. Everything here you need to buy. I don't have the means to buy them. My children go without eating.
According to Molini, he first tried to shoot the dogs with the help of CBs armed with M16 rifles. When this failed as an expeditious extermination method, he attempted to poison the dogs with strychnine. This too failed. Sitting in his home, overlooking a secluded beach in the Seychelles 33 years later, Molini explained to me how he finally used raw meat to lure the dogs into a sealed copra drying shed, the Calora fire. Locking them in the shed, he gassed the howling dogs with exhaust piped in from US military vehicles. Setting the coconut husks ablaze, he burnt the dog's carcasses in the shed.
I'm gonna quote from the book Island of Shame, a very appropriate title.