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 boulevards 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 Mandela’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 Britain’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. 

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. The Chagossians  will also want to await the outcome of the US elections and appeal to the new president. They don’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.

... contd.