UN’s top court to rule in Chagos islands row
THE HAGUE: The UN’s top court will hand down its view Monday in a bitter dispute between Britain and Mauritius over the fate of the Chagos islands, home to key UK and US military base.
Judges at the International Court of Justice will give their opinion on the future status of the remote Indian Ocean archipelago housing the US base of Diego Garcia, leased from Britain on territory claimed by Mauritius.
Colonial power Britain between in the late 1960s and early 1970s evicted around 2,000 Chagos islanders to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for the base, in a lease which expires in 2036.
Chagos islanders – who have been banned from visiting the islands without special authorisation – have been fighting for their return since first launching legal action in 1975, with some receiving compensation from London in 1982.
In a new diplomatic blow to Britain, the UN General Assembly in 2017 adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the ICJ to offer legal advice on the island chain’s fate.
The ICJ’s 15-judge bench will now hand down a non-binding “advisory opinion” at 1400 GMT at its headquarters at the Peace Palace in The Hague.
London split off the remote islands from Mauritius three years before Port Louis gained independence in 1968.
Their status has since been at the centre of a bitter dispute spanning five decades.
During the Cold War, London established a combined military base with the US on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands, which was a key staging ground for bombing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. — AFP