UK told to give islands back to Mauritius

“IT IS now time for the sun to set on the last British colony in Africa,” Mauritian Prime Minister Pravid Kumar Jugnauth said this week.

Mauritius and the African Union have hailed the recent ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that the decolonisation of Mauritius was not lawfully completed by Britain at independence in 1968 and that the UK has a legal obligation to restore the Chagos islands to Mauritius as soon as possible.

“It is unthinkable that today, in the 21st century, there is a part of Africa that still remains subject to European colonial rule,” Ambassador Namira Negm, the legal counsel to the African Union, has said.

The ICJ found that the dismemberment of Mauritius in 1965, the retention of the Chagos archipelago as a UK colony and the forcible removal of the Chagossians violated international law.

The court ruled that the UK was under a legal duty to restore the islands to Mauritius “as rapidly as possible”.

“This is an historic moment for Mauritius and all its people, including the Chagossians who were unconscionably removed from their homeland and prevented from returning for the last half-century.

“Our territorial integrity will now be made complete, and when that occurs, the Chagossians and their descendants will finally be able to return home,” Jugnauth said.

The case was submitted to the ICJ by the UN General Assembly in June 2017, although the UK asked the ICJ to rule that decolonisation had been completed. The ICJ, as the principal judicial organ of the UN, rejected the UK’S arguments.

The African Union has responded to the ICJ judgement, saying that the UK is under an obligation to end the administration of the Chagos archipelago and that AU member states are under an obligation to co-operate with the UN to complete the decolonisation of Mauritius.

The African Union praised the historic ICJ opinion for bringing colonialism to an end and promoting human rights, self-determination, and the rule of law.

The UK said in response: “This is an advisory opinion, not a judgment. Of course we will look at the detail carefully. The defence facilities on the British Indian Ocean Territory help to protect people in Britain and around the world from terrorist threats, organised crime and piracy.”

By 13 votes to one, the judges backed the decision. The issue now is whether the UK will respect and implement the ruling of the ICJ in keeping with its obligations to adhere to international law.

Reuters reports Britain split the archipelago off from its colonial island territory of Mauritius in 1965, three years before granting independence to Mauritius – minus the islands.

In the early 1970s, it evicted almost 2000 residents to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for the base on the largest island, Diego Garcia, which it had leased to the US.

For years Chagossians lobbied London to let them return. In 2016, Britain extended the US lease of Diego Garcia to 2036 and said expelled islanders could not go back.

Mauritius argued that it had been forced to give up the archipelago to gain independence from Britain. Britain maintained that Mauritius had given up the islands willingly.

Diego Garcia has played an important role in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan since 1991, acting as a launch pad for US long-range bombers.

Philippe Sands, a member of the Mauritius legal team at the ICJ, said the next step would be for Britain and Mauritius to sit down and work out a handover:

“A way will be found to move this forward, safeguarding the interests of everyone but recognising what the court has said.”