ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV has affirmed the right of people to return to their homes after an unjust exile. Leo spoke during an audience on Saturday with refugees from Chagos, the Indian Ocean archipelago that is home to a strategic U.S.-U.K. military base. Some 2,000 Chagossians were evicted from their homes by Britain in the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. could build the naval and bomber base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia. Leo said: “All peoples, even the smallest and weakest, must be respected by the powerful in their identity and rights, in particular the right to live on their land; and no one can force them into exile.”
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