Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands. Photo / Getty Images
Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands. Photo / Getty Images
The British government has announced it will cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, in an agreement that ends decades of dispute over Britain’s last African colony while maintaining a key US-British military base in the archipelago.
The Chagos Islands – also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory – are a cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean. They include Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands and the site of the strategically positioned military base. Among the reasons for the long-running dispute over the archipelago is the decision byBritain, along with the United States,to evict thousands of Indigenous inhabitants to make way for the base’s construction.
The agreement is still subject to the finalisation of a treaty, but both sides vowed to move quickly. In addition, Britain will provide a financial support package to Mauritius, including annual payments and a partnership to build infrastructure.
Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth. Photo / AFP
Starmer and Jugnauth said that they were committed to the “long-term, secure and effective operation of the existing base on Diego Garcia” and that this would include a 99-year lease for the island. The United States and Britain will retain operational control over the base.
President Joe Biden, who welcomed the agreement, said in a statement that the military facility at Diego Garcia plays a “vital role in national, regional and global security.” The base enables the US to “support operations that demonstrate our shared commitment to regional stability, provide rapid response to crises, and counter some of the most challenging security threats we face”, he said.
Britain’s empire once stretched over large swaths of the globe. And even though it has relinquished control of many countries, largely during the 20th century, there are still a handful of places where Britain’s sovereignty claims are contested, such as Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Photo / AFP
As part of the agreement, Mauritius will now be able to resettle people on the islands of the Chagos Archipelago, with the exception of Diego Garcia. Britain and the US evicted the island’s population in the 1960s and 1970s so the base could be built.
Chagossians have argued for decades that their rights were violated in the forced displacement, which Human Rights Watch has described as a “crime against humanity”. In 2019, the International Court of Justice said in an advisory opinion that Britain’s continued administration of the Chagos Archipelago “constitutes a wrongful act”.
Mauritius has argued that it was forced to give away the islands in return for its own independence from Britain in 1968. At the time, Britain had decided it was going to keep the Chagos Islands for itself and cut a deal with the US, which leased Diego Garcia for the construction of a military base that remains a crucial part of US global power projection.
The base is a naval logistics, communications and refuelling hub and includes a runway that has launched long-distance bombers to Afghanistan and Iraq, The Washington Post has reported.
The agreement follows two years of negotiations but Chagossian Voices, a community organisation representing Chagossians, slammed the British government for not consulting with them ahead of the announcement.
Chagossian demonstration against the UK Government about the depopulation of Diego Garcia. Photo / Getty Images
“Chagossians have learned this outcome from the media and remain powerless and voiceless in determining our own future and the future of our homeland,” the group wrote in a post on social media.
“The views of Chagossians, the indigenous inhabitants of the islands, have been consistently and deliberately ignored and we demand full inclusion in the drafting of the treaty.”
