The agreement follows 13 rounds of negotiations that began in 2022 after Mauritius’ call for sovereignty was recognized International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the United Nations General Assembly in 2019 and 2021.
The World Court, also known as the ICJ, is the main judicial body of the United Nations that adjudicates disputes between nations.
Before granting independence to Mauritius in 1968, Britain was discovered to have illegally separated the country to establish a new colony on the Chagos archipelago called the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).
The UK initially rejected the UN rulings and the court ruling requiring it to return the islands to Mauritius, arguing that the ICJ ruling was only an advisory opinion.
Forced relocation of islanders
When separating the islands from Mauritius, the United Kingdom expelled between 1,500 and 2,000 islanders so that Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos islands, could be leased to the United States for private use. military that the two allies have run together ever since.
According to news reports, the United Kingdom falsely claimed that Chagos had no permanent population so as not to have to report its colonial rule to the United Nations. In fact, the Chagossian community has lived in Chagos for centuries.
The British and US governments forcibly relocated the Chagossian population between 1967 and 1973, not only in Diego Garcia but also in Peros Banhos and Salomon.
The campaign challenging British ownership of the Chagos archipelago included Mauritius’ ambassador to the United Nations, Jagdish Koonjul, raising his country’s flag above the Peros Banhos atoll in a ceremony in February 2019. 2022 to mark the first time Mauritius has led an expedition to the territory since then. deportations.
New deal
Under Thursday’s deal, the UK will retain it control of the Anglo-American military base at Diego Garcia.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the British government had secured the future of the military base “as well as securing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close partner of the Commonwealth”.
However, many Chagossians remain disappointed by the British government’s lack of consultation with them before Thursday’s announcement, according to news reports.
Chagossian Voices, a community organization for the Chagossian people based in the UK and several other countries where the islanders have settled, condemned “the exclusion of the Chagossian community from the negotiations”, which left them “powerless and voiceless in determining our own and our future.” hometown”.
“The views of the Chagossians, the indigenous inhabitants of the archipelago, have been consistently and deliberately ignored and we demand full participation in the drafting of the treaty,” they added.
