Expulsion of the Chagossians
[8] Various petitions and lawsuits have been ongoing since then, but have not had much effect due to the repeated refusal of the USA and UK to provide reparations and repatriation beyond limited monetary compensation.
[9] In 2019, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion stating that the United Kingdom did not have sovereignty over the Chagos Islands and that the administration of the archipelago should be handed over "as rapidly as possible" to Mauritius.
[10] The United Nations General Assembly then voted to give Britain a six-month deadline to begin the process of handing over the islands.
[14] The Chagos Archipelago was uninhabited when first visited by European explorers, and remained that way until the French established a small colony on the island of Diego Garcia, composed of 50–60 men and "a complement of slaves".
With no other work to be had, and all the islands granted by the Governor of Mauritius to the plantation owners,[18]: par 7 life continued for the Chagossians as before, with European managers and Ilois workers and their families.
[19] On the Chagos, this involved specific tasks and rewards, including housing, rations and rum, and a relatively distinct Creole society developed.
[20] Over the decades, Mauritian, Seychellois, Chinese, Somali, and Indian workers were employed on the island at various times in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, contributing to the Chagossian culture, as did plantation managers and administrators, visiting ships' crews and passengers, British and Indian garrison troops stationed on the island in World War II, and residents of Mauritius — to which individual Chagossians and their families traveled and spent lengthy periods of time.
The U.S. was deeply concerned with the stability of the host nation of any potential base, and sought an unpopulated territory, to avoid the U.N.'s decolonization requirements and the resulting political issues of sovereignty or anti-Western sentiment.
The political posture of an independent Mauritius, from which the remote British islands of the central Indian Ocean were administered, was not clearly known, but was of a nature expected to work against the security of the base.
This devise, although rather transparent, would at least give us a defensible position to take up at the UN.Chagossian human rights activists charge that the number of Chagossian residents on Diego Garcia was deliberately under-counted in order to play down the scale of the proposed mass deportation.
Three years before the depopulation plan was created, Sir Robert Scott, Governor of Mauritius, estimated the permanent population of Diego Garcia at 1,700.
The first paragraph of the FCO's reply read: The purpose of the Immigration Ordinance is to maintain the fiction that the inhabitants of the Chagos are not a permanent or semi-permanent population.
As recorded by John Pilger: Sir Bruce Greatbatch, KCVO, CMG, MBE, governor of the Seychelles, ordered all the dogs on Diego Garcia to be killed.
[32] While no appropriate venue was found to hear the case for many decades, the International Court of Justice offered an Advisory Opinion at the request of the UN General Assembly on 25 February 2019.
[35][36] On 23 June 2017, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted in favour of referring the territorial dispute between Mauritius and the UK to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in order to clarify the legal status of the Chagos Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
The Court delivered its opinion that "the process of decolonization of Mauritius was not lawfully completed when that country acceded to independence" and that "the United Kingdom is under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.
[41] In 1975, David Ottaway of The Washington Post wrote and published an article titled "Islanders Were Evicted for U.S. Base" which related the plight of the Chagossians in detail.
In 1978, at Bain Des Dames in Port Louis, six Chagossian women went on a hunger strike, and there were demonstrations in the streets (mainly organised by the MMM) over Diego Garcia.
[47] In 2007, Mauritian President Sir Anerood Jugnauth threatened to leave the Commonwealth of Nations in protest at the treatment of the islanders and to take the UK to the International Court of Justice.
The lawsuit accused the United States of "trespass, intentional infliction of emotional distress, forced relocation, racial discrimination, torture, and genocide.
"[52][53] On 10 June 2004 the British government made two Orders in Council under the Royal Prerogative forever banning the islanders from returning home,[54] to override the effect of the 2000 court decision.
As of May 2010, some of the Chagossians were still making return plans to turn Diego Garcia into a sugarcane and fishing enterprise as soon as the defence agreement expired (which some thought would happen as early as 2016).
The summary of the diplomatic cable is as follows: HMG would like to establish a "marine park" or "reserve" providing comprehensive environmental protection to the reefs and waters of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) official informed Polcouns on May 12.
The official insisted that the establishment of a marine park – the world's largest – would in no way impinge on USG use of the BIOT, including Diego Garcia, for military purposes.
Facing social, cultural, and economic despair, the Chagossians now live as a marginalized community in Mauritius and Seychelles and have not been allowed to return home.
The recent passing of the oldest member of the exiled population underscores the urgent need to improve the human rights of the Chagossians.
In the decades following the resettlement of Chagossians in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United Kingdom has taken numerous steps to compensate former inhabitants for the hardships they endured, including cash payments and eligibility for British citizenship.
[67] On 23 June 2017, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted in favour of referring the territorial dispute between Mauritius and the UK to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in order to clarify the legal status of the Chagos Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
[68][38] In September 2018, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, heard arguments in a case regarding whether Britain violated Mauritian sovereignty when it took possession of the islands for its own purposes.
[73] The deal would also see the Mauritian government lease the current area occupied by the UK-US military base to the UK for an initial period of 99 years.
