Between 1965 and 1973 the total of some 2000 inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago were expelled and deported to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for a joint UK-US military base on its largest atoll, Diego Garcia. The Mauritian claim to the territory, illegally detached from the former colony of Mauritius upon granting its independence, is not recognized by the UK. The latter maintains a physical co-presence with the US military in what is recognized as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Over the last forty years the Chagossians have fought for compensations and their right to return. In November 2000 a British High Court ruling granted the Chagossians full British citizenship. In consequence, a massive immigration to England in search for better paid employment has come about. The Chagossians now constitute a highly organized Diaspora fighting for justice and social recognition.

The Artist:

On 17^th January 1947, like his parents and grand-parents before him, Clement Siatous was born in Peros Banhos. Both his parents and grandparents were also born in Peros Banhos. At the age of five he moved to Diego Garcia and stayed until the plantations were closed down. Since then he has been living on the outskirts of the Mauritian capital Port Louis. He started painting in reaction to the British policy of trying to hide the fact that there used to be a settled population in the Chagos archipelago. He is therefore completing no less than forty pictures based on his memories of how life was like in the Chagos archipelago. The list of paintings below is therefore not complete, but they are still for sale. He intends, whenafter being able to finance the remaining of the project, to establish a fund for the defavourized Chagossian children growing up in poor conditions due to what happened to their parents. In 1998 he was decorated with the Mauritius Star and Key (MSK) for an exhibition in Port Louis the year before.