Small People Without Blonde Hair

It's encouraging to see people beginning to show an interest in the plight of the Chagossians. I fear, however, that I've run out of interesting things to say about the legal challenge currently being heard by the High Court (discussed previously here and here) at least for the timebeing. That being the case, I'll take this opportunity to point you in the direction of some good pieces by other people which I recommend you peruse at your leisure.

For start-offs, Unity has a helpful explanation of the process whereby Orders in Council become law:

1. A conniving slime-ball New Labour Scumbag Privy Councillor stands in front of Her Maj and reads out the title of the order... Note, I said the title of the order - the Chagossians don't even get the courtesy of Her Maj having to listen to the whole order that's fucking with their lives.

2. Her Maj says whatever she says on such occasions - 'yeah, alright then you've talked me into, I s'pose' for all I know or fucking care - and then signs the thing - or more likely it gets pp'd by the Grovelling Keeper of the Royal Biro.

And that's it - it takes less time for this government to fuck over 4,500 people than it used to take Bush to sign death warrants and the not even any of that messy bullshit about democracy or Parliament to get in the way.

I happen to think that banning the Chagossians from their own homes would have been contemptible even if it had been done with the full support of Parliament (as I'm sure does Unity). That the government felt the need to utlise such archaic and undemocratic methods is an indication, I think, of how difficult they felt it would have been to sell the idea to Parliament.

Elsewhere, Daniel Simpson describes the eviction of the Chagossians as the "special relationship's dirty secret," asserting, "nothing demonstrates British subservience to the United States quite as blatantly as the theft of Diego Garcia." Padma Rao, meanwhile, has an article in Der Spiegel (reprinted in the New York Times and no doubt elsewhere). Both are good places to start for anybody wanting to understand how we got to the present situation. So to is John Pilger's slightly older documentary which is available in RealVideo format from here (via) if you missed it the first two times around. The Rao article, ends with a quote from Chagossian leader Olivier Bancoult which seems to sum everything up succinctly:

"We are a small people without blonde hair and without education," says Bancoult. "But we ask the world to respect us and let us return home."

Is that so unreasonable?