ICJ ruling on Diego Garcia: Boost for Lanka’s Indian Ocean Peace Zone plan

Last week Sri Lanka's longstanding, much-touted UN proposal for an Indian Ocean Zone of Peace ( IOPZ) got a much-needed boost as Mauritius's claims over the decolonisation of the strategically important Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, was upheld by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague.

The ICJ said Britain must hand over to Mauritius the future control of the Chagos Archipelago, where a US military base is located on its Diego Garcia island.

The proposed Zone of Peace rules out any military bases in the Indian Ocean.

The opinion issued in The Hague by the court's majority that included Judge Dalveer Bhandari of India said that the decolonisation of Mauritius “was not lawfully completed” when it attained independence because Britain carved away the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius and retained control of it.

The opinion handed down by the majority of 13 judges said Britain “is under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.”

The sole dissenter was American Judge Joan E. Donoghue. The court gave the opinion, which is non-binding, following a request by the United Nations General Assembly through a 2017 resolution. Vehemently opposed by the US and Britain, the resolution received the vote of 94 countries while 15 voted against it and 65 abstained, according to an Inter Press Service ( IPS) report from the United Nations.

Britain opposed the referral to the court saying it was a bilateral matter with Mauritius and indicated it would reject it.

The people living on Diego Garcia were forcibly removed from there by the colonial administration and it was leased to the US, which set up its strategic Indian Ocean military base on the island. In the 1970s and 1980s India had vehemently opposed the US base in Diego Garcia. India’s then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi called the base, 2,000 kilometres from India, a threat to India.