Diego146;s children

The right of abode is a creature of the law,8221; said Lord Hoffmann in the British House of Lords this week. 8220;The law gives it and the law may take it away.8221;

The right of abode is a creature of the law,8221; said Lord Hoffmann in the British House of Lords this week. 8220;The law gives it and the law may take it away.8221; A reasonable remark on the surface. A tenant may move into someone else8217;s house, but must move out again when the lease expires.nbsp;

But this is about Britain creating a new colony, the British Indian Ocean Territory BIOT of Chagos, just to be able to rent out Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago, to the US in exchange for Polaris missiles, in the 8217;60s when it was granting independence to other colonies. In order to pass the islands off as 8220;uninhabited8221; to the UN, a series of secret notes flew between London8217;s foreign office and the British mission to the UN. 8220;Witty8221; officials referred to the Chagossians as simple coconut farmers of African and Indian origin who had lived on the islands for five generations, as 8220;Tarzans8221; and 8220;Man Fridays8221; and therewith dispensable.nbsp; nbsp;

The Chagossians were first terrorised and then forcibly stuffednbsp;into the holds of ships and dumped: on the shores of Mauritius and Seychelles.nbsp;Meagre compensation was paid and the seemingly grand offer of British citizenship made, whichnbsp;few were able to take up. The US got just what they were scouring the globe for: a large island with a deep, natural harbour to build a military base, on lease all the way till 2016. Now, the Chagossians, who after 30 years of living on the fringes of mainstream society as refugees and plagued by depression, alcoholism, joblessness and discrimination, want their home back. But with the US military active in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, Diego Garcia has become the largest and most important US overseasnbsp;air, naval and armynbsp;base; the Pentagon has no intention of vacating the rental island, not now, nor when the lease expires.

And Les Ilois, as the Chagossians are disparagingly called by their Mauritian and Seychellian hosts? Thirty years on, they still live far from the fashionable boulevardsnbsp;of Port Louis or the Seychellian capital, Victoria, in shantytowns; or in temporary housing projects outside Gatwick airport in London. Their lives are marked by squalor, disease and chagrin, Creole for heartbreak, causing a spate of suicides. Memory brings rheumy tears to old faces, when they recall their breezy, sunny homeland.

And yet, the islanders did not call it quits. Operating out of a tiny, asbestos-roofed office in the poor neighbourhood of Cassis in Port Louis, their leader Olivier Bancoult sought and received help from Mandela8217;s advisor, Sydney Kentridge, British advocate Richard Gifford and Mauritian lawyer Robin Mardemootoo.

For years, they fought brave legal battles in British courts. Every court declared their eviction illegal. Just last year, even a rare, royal Order-in-Council banning them from the islands for ever was declared illegal by Britain8217;s highest Appeals Court. Earlier this week, though, the British , under tremendous pressure from the US, took the caseall the way to the House of Lords. Three out of five Lords effectively overruled every earlier judgement. Hoffmann was one.nbsp;

Where do the Chagossians go now? There are few legal avenues left, and it is unclear whether any of these could overturn the latest verdict. The Chagossians can, and will, appeal to the European Human Rights Tribunal.nbsp;The Chagossiansnbsp; will also want to await the outcome of the US elections and appeal to the new president.nbsp;They don8217;t see the Americans as the villains of the piece. They have never asked for removal of the military base, nor even a return to Diego Garcia. All they want is permission to return to the neighbouring islands of Peros Banhos and Salomon.

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Introducing 8220;jamming devices8221; or 8220;intercepting signals8221;, as the Americans ostensibly fear, is farthest on the minds of these coconut farmers. If their dream of building up the other islands into revenue-earning holiday destinations were to be fulfilled, it would still be possible 8212; if undesirable for other reasons 8212; for relatively faraway Diego Garcia8217;s military activities to carry on.

Urgent political intervention from as many international sources as possible is the need of the moment.nbsp;After all, in the name of protecting 8220;British subjects8221;, Britain did go to war to rescue 2000 Falkland islanders. Yet it doesn8217;t appear to care for the fate of another 2000 islanders 8212; also British subjects 8212; of Chagos. The Chagossians point wryly to the weather-beaten coffee-brown of their own skin as explanation.

South Asia is the region closest to and most affected by Diego Garcia. Are the countries of this region 8212; otherwise very vocal champions of human rights and, at least one, an aspirant to global superpower status 8212; listening?

The writer is South Asia bureau chief for 8216;Der Spiegel8217;

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