Britain said on Thursday that the deal was preceded by 13 rounds of talks in 2022. Earlier, Mauritius claimed the restoration of its sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, which was recognized by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2019 and the United Nations General Assembly in 2021.
The World Court, located in The Hague, is the main judicial organ of the United Nations that settles disputes between nations.
Britain granted independence to Mauritius in 1968, but before that Britain partitioned Mauritius and established a new colonial colony in the Chagos Islands. The name of that colony was – British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).
Britain initially rejected decisions by the United Nations and the International Court of Justice that asked it to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Britain said the International Court of Justice decision was only advisory in nature.
Forced displacement from the Chagos Islands
When Britain partitioned Mauritius, it evicted some 2,000 people living on the islands, in order to lease Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos Islands, to the United States for military purposes. Since then, the site has been jointly used by Britain and the United States.
According to media reports, Britain falsely declared that Chagos had no permanent population so that it could not notify the United Nations of its colonial rule.
In fact, the Chagossian community has lived in Chagos for centuries.
Between 1967 and 1973, the governments of Britain and the United States forcibly evicted not only Diaga Garcia, but also the Chagossian population of Peros Banhouse and the Solomon Islands.
new deal
Under the deal agreed on Thursday, Britain will retain control of Diego Garcia – a British-US military base.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that by securing the future of the base, the British government had also guaranteed a long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner.
However, media reports say that many Chagosnian people are still angry with the British government because they were not consulted before the deal was made.
Chagossian Voice, a community organization of Chagossin people settled in Britain, condemned the “exclusion of the Chagossi community from the discussion”, “powerless and silent in determining their future and their homeland”. has been abandoned.
“The views of the Chagosi people – the indigenous people of this island group – have been consistently and deliberately ignored, and we demand their full inclusion in the draft agreement,” they say.