The agreement follows thirteen rounds of talks that began in 2022 after the Mauritian claim for sovereignty was recognized by the government. International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the UN General Assembly in 2019 and 2021.
The World Court, as the International Court of Justice is known, is the UN’s main judicial body that settles disputes between nations.
Before Britain granted independence to Mauritius in 1968, the country was found to have unlawfully seceded to form a new colony on the Chagos Archipelago, the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).
Britain had initially rejected UN rulings and court decisions demanding it return the islands to Mauritius, arguing that the International Court of Justice ruling was merely an advisory opinion.
Forced displacement of islanders
In splitting off the islands from Mauritius, Britain expelled between 1,500 and 2,000 islanders so that it could lease Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, to the United States for military use, which the two allies have since jointly exploited.
According to news reports, Britain incorrectly declared that Chagos had no permanent population so it did not have to report its colonial rule to the UN. In reality, the Chagossian community had lived on Chagos for centuries.
The British and American governments forcibly expelled the Chagossian population between 1967 and 1973, not only to Diego Garcia, but also to Peros Banhos and Salomon.
In the campaign to challenge British ownership of the Chagos Archipelago, Mauritian Ambassador to the UN Jagdish Koonjul raised his country’s flag over Peros Banhos atoll during a ceremony in February 2022 to mark the first time that Mauritius had since led an expedition to the area. the evictions.
The new agreement
Under Thursday’s deal, Britain will still retaincontrol of the British-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 safeguarding our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner.”
However, according to news reports, many Chagossians are still frustrated by the lack of consultation with them before Thursday’s announcement.
Chagossian Voices, a community organization for Chagossians based in Britain and several other countries where islanders have settled, lamented “the exclusion of the Chagossian community from the negotiations,” leaving them “powerless and voiceless in determining our own future and the future of our society”. homeland”.
“The views of Chagossians, the indigenous inhabitants of the islands, have been consistently and deliberately ignored and we demand full involvement in the drafting of the treaty,” she added.