Subject: Re: Diego Garcia
Except for Mauritius, which wasn't inhabited by anyone *but* some colonial power.

That doesn't make them an exception. Like everywhere else, they were uninhabited until people got there. The fact that the people got there after the formation of nation states as part of a system of colonization, rather than other systems, doesn't really matter. The people that live in an area generally have the right to self-determination, rather than being ruled by a colonial power halfway round the globe - whether they were natives or arrived there a few centuries earlier. Right there in the Declaration of Independence, doncha know.

Oh my goodness. Heaven knows the UN is as pure as the driven snow and just about everyone on the planet waits with bated breath as to what they might say.

They aren't, and they don't. But that doesn't mean that violating ICJ orders and UN Resolutions is costless. Especially when it's for a purpose that isn't a great look to begin with. "We want to continue having this territory which we acquired by colonization, then withheld from the grant of independence for the entire rest of the area, then displaced all the people who had been living there for a few centuries, over their objections and against their express desire for sovereignty." Makes it harder to win the hearts of minds of many of the folks in the Indo-Pacific region that you need to persuade to join Team West against the expanding influence of China in the region. Regardless of your opinion of the UN.