Publicity is the lifeblood of any struggle against injustice, which is why the Chagos is never far from the news. Here’s aroundup of what’s been happening of late.

MOST people are familiar with the poster behind Fox Mulder’s desk in the cult TV series, the X- Files , stating that “ The truth is out there”. This message is especially appropriate when taken in context of the Chagos, a place that possesses an almost otherworldly ability to consistently grab headlines.

Recent times have offered particularly rich pickings for followers of this fascinating saga. In the UK, the Freedom of Information Act made volumes of hitherto classified documents available to the general public. The legal battle opposing the Chagos Refugee Group ( CRG) to the Foreign Office spawned a series of unprecedented rulings in the former’s favour.

Media and academic types have also taken a keen interest in the issue, thus ensuring a steady stream of publicity for the Chagossians’ fight against injustice.

After decades of being shrouded in secrecy, the story of the Chagos is beginning to enter the mainstream. Here are a few recent events that will no doubt enliven an already riveting narrative:

Stealing a nation goes to DC

One of the main reasons why the military presence on Diego Garcia and its role as a detention site has largely escaped scrutiny has been the relative lack of information surrounding the issue in the United States. Indeed, the Diego Garcia Issue is all but unheard of in the US. At the beginning of the year, Mauritius’s former economic and trade advisor in Washington DC, Vinod Busjeet, declared in these very pages that, “ Americans think Diego Garcia is a pop star, an illegal immigrant or a football player”. This could changing, albeit very gradually.

Last Tuesday, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the biggest library in Washington DC, screened John Pilger’s scathing documentary Stealing a Nation . The screening was followed by a book reading by David Vine of his excellent book Island of Shame: the Secret History of the US Military Base on Diego Garcia. This sort of exposure is manna for the Chagossian cause.

Detention and torture

The same day, The Guardian published Britain’s own Guantanamo, an article by David Vine, stating that “ the US may have held large numbers of detainees on secret prison ships in Diego Garcia’s lagoon or its surrounding waters”. The article also mentioned former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw’s repeated assertions that nothing untoward was happening on the island.

“ United States authorities have repeatedly assured us that no detainees have at any time passed in transit through Diego Garcia or its territorial waters or have disembarked there.” His successor, David Milliband, has been considerably less gullible. “ Contrary to earlier explicit assurances that Diego Garcia has not been used for rendition flights, recent US investigations have now revealed two occasions, both in 2002, when this had in fact occurred” , the article quoted him as saying in Parliament in February 2008.

Earlier this week, human rights NGO Reprieve instigated legal action against the British government on behalf of Saaq Iqbal Madni who they claim transited through Diego Garcia and was even tortured there.

BIOT in Mauritius

Last week saw the visit to Mauritius of a delegation of Foreign Office officials, including the British Indian Ocean Territory ( BIOT) administrator Joanne Yeadon and BIOT commissioner Colin Roberts. The group met with Fernand Mandarin of the Chagossian Social Committee, Olivier Bancoult of the CRG and with government officials. The visit was meant as a follow- up to the talks that were in London in January.

A picture’s worth a thousand words

In June 2008, Dr John Turner and a team of academics published their evaluation of Returning home – A Proposal for the Resettlement of the Chagos Islands ( also known as the Howell Report).

One of the critique’s main objections to any permanent return had to do with the impact that resettlement would have on the archipelago’s “ unique” coral atoll. It outlined the importance of the islands in terms of the richness of its biodiversity and the need to protect this immense resource from the hazards of development.

“ The Chagos is one of Britain’s largest and most important nature conservation areas. Its Environmental Protection Zone covers about half a million square kilometres.

UK legislation is also in place to protect natural resources, notably in the restricted and reserve areas, with controls on fishing, pollution and the killing, harming or collecting of animals.” Admittedly, the archipelago’s isolation has long spared it the sort of frenetic, unplanned development that has savaged so many other gardens of Eden.

Yet a brief navigation using Google Earth shows that the American military has been far less discerning on Diego Garcia. Indeed, satellite images reveal that the lagoon to the south- west of the horseshoe- shaped island has undergone extensive digging.

Whatever the reason behind these excavations, it seems safe to say that it wasn’t done for conservation purposes.

Apparently, what’s good for the goose isn’t necessarily good for the gander.