In the mid-1960s, Great Britain gave independence to the remaining colonies – to create a new one at the same time. In 1965, colonial rulers separated the 58 islands of Chagos from the administration of Mauritius to remain with Great Britain on the country’s imminent independence in 1968. Since then, it has functioned as the last British colony in Africa under the name “British Territory of the Indian Ocean”.
The Cold War was behind the calculation: Washington was looking for a suitable base in the Indian Ocean. The remote Diego Garcia atoll came in handy, a deal for use rights was negotiated with the British, and finally a strategically important military base was built. It maintained its importance long after the end of the Cold War: aircraft that bombed Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 took off from here and were later used in the Gulf War. In 2008, the US admitted that the CIA had interrogated Diego Garcia. The atoll is also an important fueling station for the US submarine fleet.
IMAGO/AGB Photo The location between Africa, Australia, India and the Arabian Peninsula made the island strategically interesting for the US
Deportation of thousands of people
Because they descended from plantation workers, residents of Diego Garcia were simply classified as “contracted workers” who had no official right to reside on the island, wrote American author Daniel Smith in his book “The 100 Most Secret Places in the World”. .World”: “They learned from the British that their stay on the island would be illegal if they could not produce documents to prove their ancestral right of residence. Of course, there were no such roles. The British then began forced resettlement of the islanders.”
The islands’ approximately 2,000 residents were “shipped on the bellies of old barges that would otherwise carry bird droppings as fertilizer”, as the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (“SZ”) recently wrote. They were taken to Seychelles and Mauritius and left to fend for themselves in poverty. The displaced had no formal education or money.
Long fight for compensation
The Chagossians soon began to protest measures that had robbed them of their land, and indeed some of those who now reside in Mauritius were deprived of a small compensation years later. From the point of view of the changing British governments, it was a question of “fair compensation”, from the point of view of the Chagos Refugee Group based in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, not at all.
Court rulings in Britain that were in favor of the evictees have been overturned in a rarely used decree on behalf of the queen, the (“FAZ”) reported. The British government thus argued that it did not consider a return compatible with the “peace, order and good administration” of the territory. According to studies, resettlement would be expensive and risky for residents, not least because of climate change and rising sea levels.
Not only do the military base staff currently live in Diego Garcia, but also people from Mauritius, the Maldives, the Philippines and Sri Lanka who hire themselves out as cooks and cleaners. The Chagossians, on the other hand, are still not allowed to live on the islands. As a sign of protest, the Port Louis government organized several expeditions by former Diego Garcia residents to their former home last year – but they never lasted long.
Photo IMAGO/AGB Diego Garcia is the largest atoll in the Chagos Archipelago, the last remaining part of the “British Indian Ocean Territory”
UN opposes “colonial administration”
However, Britain’s claim to the islands is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in 2019 that Britain’s claim to the archipelago was illegal and that the continued use of the archipelago by the British and US military was a relic of colonialism. A subsequent UN General Assembly resolution, passed by a large majority, called for Britain to withdraw its “colonial administration” from the islands by the end of 2019.
In 2021, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ISGH) upheld Mauritius’ sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, criticizing the UK and US for failing to comply with the 2019 UN resolution. since 2020 the archipelago is listed as an indisputable part of Mauritius. In a symbolic move, the UN Postal Agency decreed that letters from the islands could no longer be franked with British postage.
Also in February, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report accusing Great Britain and the United States of crimes against humanity against the Chagossians. The “racist persecution and continued blockade of their return home” represent a “continued colonial crime”. Both countries should compensate the former inhabitants of the archipelago and allow them to return to their homes.
picturedesk.com/Science Photo Library The atoll is sometimes referred to as the “unsinkable aircraft carrier” of the USA.
Small spot of great geopolitical importance
Even before that, there was movement in the debate: in November of the previous year, the London government signaled for the first time its willingness to talk about the sovereignty of the islands, and in January London and Mauritius began negotiations. The deliberations are secret, wrote the Economist, but Britain can be expected to relinquish its claim to the archipelago. Mauritius offered guarantees of the “unimpeded operation” of the American base and a new 99-year lease. Britain itself could maintain a military presence on Diego Garcia until its current contract with the Americans expires in 2036.
As small as the archipelago is, its geopolitical importance seems great: for the US, it is still the only relevant outpost in the Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, in India, concerns have emerged that Mauritius may open up the Chagos Islands to Beijing in the future, for example, to get rid of some of the Chinese debt under this deal. And the supposed island paradise is also indirectly involved in Ukraine’s war: when British diplomats tried to solicit Ukraine’s support, African heads of state and government are said to have asked where Britain got the right to want to expel Russian armed forces while occupying Ukraine. illegally the Chagos Islands.