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Deserted islanders

In 11 days' time, the exiled population of a tiny, little-known British colony will be taking the government to the high court. Natasha Mann on the Chagossians' battle for the right to go home

Thursday July 6, 2000
Natasha Mann and Bonnie Malkin - Guardian

Louis Olivier Bancoult was four when he left his homeland, a coconut palm-covered island in the middle of the sparkling Indian Ocean. He was banished with the rest of the population of the Chagos archipelago, one of Britain's last colonial outposts. Dumped 1,200 miles away in Mauritius, Louis and his compatriots were left in abject poverty, without shelter, food or jobs. And they have been there now for more than 30 years, largely forgotten, an alienated community in exile.

Today, however, the story of the Chagos islands, a ghost of our colonial past, has finally returned to haunt the British government.

In the ramshackle district of Cassis, 10 minutes away from the polished modern buildings of the Mauritian capital, Port Louis, a historic legal challenge is being mounted. Here, the jobless shelter from the heat under a tree or sprawl on the pavement drinking beer. Louis Bancoult's own home is down a rough dirt path past corrugated shacks that overspill with children. It is an unlikely spot for any kind of legal action, but out in the backyard, seated amid roaming chickens, Creole-speaking Chagossians (known as the Ilois) are in discussion. Last year Bancoult, the community leader, was given leave to contest the ban that prevents his people from setting foot in the place they refer to as "the motherland". A judicial review is scheduled for July 17 at London's high court, and the Ilois are gearing themselves up for the next stage in their battle to go home.

Many of the Ilois are elderly now, but they recall the circumstances of their expulsion. With Mauritius, the Chagos islands formed part of a British colony, but in the 60s, when Mauritius was negotiating independence, Britain struck a deal. Mauritius became independent in 1968 with £3m in compensation. Meanwhile Britain retained sovereignty of the archipelago.

The reason for the deal later became transparently clear. On a map of the Indian Ocean, the Chagos islands look like a cluster of dots, but their location, between the eastern coast of Africa, the Middle East and South West Asia, gave them enormous strategic significance. For western defence strategists, jittery about the Soviet empire, they were a gift. Britain leased the US the biggest island, Diego Garcia, allegedly in return for a discount on Polaris submarines.

Today Diego Garcia houses a vital US military base. Complete with a 12,000ft runway and a natural harbour, it was used to launch B-52 bombers during the Gulf war and supported UN intervention in Somalia in 1992.

The British government has always preferred to describe the Illois population, which in the 60s was spread across the British Indian Ocean Territory (which included Chagos), as "migrant workers". But the Ilois, many of whose families had been there since the early 19th century, having originally come from Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique and India to work on copra plantations, certainly liked to think of themselves as a proper, settled community: Diego Garcia boasted a school, a prison, a church and a cemetery. They regarded themselves as British subjects and Bancoult still holds a British passport, which gives his place of birth as the Chagos archipelago. But between 1967 and 1973, the Chagossians claim, they were tricked, bullied and cajoled into leaving the islands. In 1968 Bancoult's family sought medical treatment in Mauritius after a cart drove over his sister's foot. She died two months later and the family prepared to return. "It was a big surprise when my parents registered their names - they were told by the officer that we could not because the land had been given to the US to make a military base," says Bancoult.

"I remember it as if it was today. My mother was crying because she was very sad about our beautiful country and our wonderful life. Her brother and her father were left in the Chagos and all our belongings. We had to stay in Mauritius, and face all the difficulties we still are facing."

The people left behind on the islands had little idea of what was going on but supplies of essential provisions - rice, flour, sugar and oil - stopped. Then in 1971 a meeting was held on Diego Garcia. Lisette Talate, 59, was there. "We were told by the residential manager of the Chagos that the Ilois must move to Mauritius to make way for the military base. The island had been sold in order to give independence to Mauritius. When we received the message we said that we did not want to leave, but we had no choice. Many people wanted to stay but all the provisions had been stopped and there were no doctors and nurses."

At first, the islanders were told that they could stay on the island of Peros Banhos, 100 miles away, but in 1973 a ship arrived to take them to Mauritius, with promises of a new life. "In Chagos they had been told they would have a house, a portion of land, animals and a sum of money," says Bancoult. "But when they arrived nothing had been done." After refusing to disembark for several days, the Ilois were finally offered accommodation in the dockers flats. "They were in very bad condition with no doors or windows, but they had no choice but to go and live there. Another place they had been offered had been used to keep animals. This is the treatment we have had in Mauritius."

Adapting to life on Mauritius was difficult - they might as well have been abandoned on the streets of New York. The islanders were not used to living in a money economy having made a living from the sea and the coconut trees. They had no jobs, their skills were redundant, and they were forced to live in cramped, unsanitary conditions, with up to 20 people sleeping in one room.

Compensation of £650,000 was paid by the Mauritian government, but not until 1978, when the promised sum had been eroded by inflation.

"Life was very difficult," says Rita Elysee, 74, Bancoult's mother. She found work as a domestic servant to feed her nine children. "Sometimes I had to use old bread cooked with sugar to feed the family."

As well as poverty, there was racism. "The Mauritian people did not agree that we came to Mauritius and we have had bad treatment. When facing all these difficulties I became mad. I was thinking my life in Chagos was better than in Mauritius. Mauritius had become a hell for me."

Life is still rough for the 8,000 Ilois living in Mauritius. The displaced community faces problems with alcohol, drugs, prostitution and suicide. Two of Bancoult's brothers died in their 30s, one an alcoholic, the other a drug addict. Illiteracy is common, as is unemployment. What little work there is tends to be loading lorries or domestic service.

Extra compensation was paid to the Ilois in 1982, after the women went on hunger strike, but the agreement included a "no return" clause, which Bancoult says the illiterate Ilois did not understand.

Rita David lives in a corrugated iron hut with a roof perforated with holes. In summer, when temperatures can reach 45C, it is an oven. In the rainy season, it offers little protection. Seventeen people sleep in the three-bedroomed house. With work irregular, David "does" for a local family to provide some sort of income. But it's a poor living.

In the kitchen, Bancoult surveys the grimy, uneven floor and the two aged gas rings, which are all there is to cook on, and says: "This is why I must have the courage to fight for my people."

He knows he has a difficult fight ahead but it will be fuelled by his outrage. "It was a great injustice that the UK government has done to its own people. We consider it is because we are black people, because we came from slaves. Otherwise, I think, we would have had a better treatment."

If the Ilois win the right to return home, it will take financial aid to make living in the Chagos archipelago viable. But for those who want to go, it will mean a new life in the land of their forebears - the place those old enough to remember still call home.

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