Mauritius has called the UK an “illegal colonial occupier” after it ignored a UN deadline to return the Chagos Islands, a small archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius. Mauritius has argued that the islands have been a part of its territory since the 18th century till the UK snatched them away in 1965 along with the islands of Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches from the Seychelles to form the British Indian Ocean Territory.

In the case of Seychelles, the UK returned Aldabra, Farquhar and Desroches after the country gained independence in June 1976. But in Mauritius’ case, it was a different story.

Even after Mauritius gained independence in 1968, the UK refused to return the Chagos Islands, claiming they were required to “accommodate the US’ desire to use islands in the Indian Ocean for defence purposes”.

The largest island in the archipelago, Diego Garcia, is where the US and the UK operate a large military base. It was used as a US military base for the US-led attacks against Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the military facility was used as a CIA interrogation site.

After independence, Mauritius had proposed an exchange, allowing the UK to let the US use the Chagos Islands for defence purposes till those needs ceased, in exchange for increasing the quota of sugar imports into the US, in a bid to boost the Mauritius’ economy.

However, the UK rejected the proposal saying that the US could not be involved in any treaty despite using the islands themselves.

In addition to claiming the islands as its territory, the UK in conjunction with the US embarked on a six-year-long forced depopulation of the Chagos Islands. To accommodate the military base where UK and US military personnel live and work, native inhabitants of the land were forcefully removed and subsequent denials were issued by the UK, claiming that the displaced people did not belong to the Chagos Islands.

In 2015, Mauritius initiated legal proceedings against the UK at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in the Netherlands.

The court ruled in 2015 that the “UK failed to give due regard to Mauritius’ rights” and declared that “the UK had breached its obligations under the (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea)”. The ruling called out the UK for creating a marine protected area in the waters surrounding Chagos Islands in 2010.

What happened at the UN General Assembly?

* In June 2017, 94 countries voted in support of Mauritius’ resolution at the UN General Assembly to seek an advisory opinion on the legal status of the Chagos Islands from the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

* The US and the UK were among the 15 countries that voted against the resolution. The vote came as a blow for the UK and the US because 65 countries abstained from voting, including many EU countries, on whom the duo may have been banking on for support.

* Observers said the result was a signal that the UN was unlikely to support continued colonisation of territories or colonial legacies of which occupiers were unwilling to divest control.

What happened at the ICJ?

* In February, the UN’s highest court of justice, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ordered the UK to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius “as rapidly as possible”.  However, the UK argued that the ICJ did not have any jurisdiction to hear the case at all. Of the 14 judges overseeing the ruling, the only judge to dissent was an American.

* After the ICJ ruling, the UK Foreign Office said it was “an advisory opinion, not a judgment” and claimed that “the defence facilities on the British Indian Ocean Territory help to protect people here in Britain and around the world from terrorist threats, organised crime and piracy”.

What happens now?

* The UN had given the UK six months to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. After the UK missed the deadline, Mauritius called the UK an “illegal colonial occupier”. The African Union also issued its own rebuke against the UK and demanded that the nation put an end to its “continued colonial administration”.

* The UK is finding itself more diplomatically isolated after its failures at the UN General Assembly concerning Chagos Islands.

* The shambles that is Brexit has also alienated the UK to a certain degree in terms of its relations with other EU members. For now, the UK might possibly be searching for reassurance in the fact that the ICJ ruling is not binding and no immediate sanctions or adverse actions will be taken against it.

* The next step at the UN General Assembly in 2020 would be the question of resettlement of and potential compensation for the displaced Chagos Islanders who faced homelessness, poverty and associated hardships after being forcefully removed from their homeland by the UK and the US.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store