Time to hand over paradise islands, judges tell Britain
‘A big victory against injustice’
The UK should give up its control of a remote Indian ocean archipelago that houses a controversial Us military base ‘as rapidly as possible’, the United nations’ highest court ruled yesterday.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) also said, in a rare ‘advisory opinion’ on the decades‑old dispute, that Britain illegally split the Chagos Islands from mauritius in 1965 – three years before it gained independence.
The islands’ inhabitants accuse Britain of unfairly orchestrating their expulsion from the land, referred to by Britain as part of the British Indian ocean Territory, in order to house the american base on the largest island, diego Garcia.
The ICJ’s 14‑member tribunal was asked to step into the dispute after Britain was defeated in a 2017 vote by the Un General assembly on its claim to the islands.
Yesterday the judges in The hague decided by a majority of 13 to one that ‘the United Kingdom is under an obligation to bring an end to its administration of the Chagos archipelago as rapidly as possible’.
The court’s view is not binding and does not mean islanders can return, but it carries a heavy symbolic importance on the world stage.
Between 1968 and 1973 about 2,000 Chagos islanders – or ‘Chagossians’, as they are known – were evicted, to Britain, mauritius and the seychelles. The evictions were described in a British diplomatic cable at the time as the removal of ‘some few Tarzans and man Fridays’.
an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Chagossians and their descendants live in the UK.
mauritius prime minister Pravind Jugnauth said the ICJ’s pronouncement was a ‘historic moment for mauritius and all its people’, adding: ‘our territorial integrity will now be made complete, and when that occurs, the Chagossians and their descendants will finally be able to return home.’
olivier Bancoult, chairman of the mauritius‑based Chagos Refugees Group, said: ‘ It is a big victory against an injustice done by the British Government for many years.’
But UK Chagos support association vice‑chairman stefan donnelly said: ‘ It remains to be seen whether or not this is a win for the Chagossian people. We hope that... a consensus can quickly be reached that finally gives a measure of justice to Chagossians.’
last night the Foreign office said it would look ‘carefully’ at the detail of the ICJ’s opinion and stressed it was ‘ not a judgment’. a spokesman added: ‘ The defence facilities on the British Indian ocean Territory help to protect people here in Britain and around the world from terrorist threats, organised crime and piracy.’
Britain leased the islands to the Us in 1966.
diego Garcia played a key strategic role in the Cold War before being used as a staging ground for Us bombing in afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s. It is also suspected of being a staging post in the Us rendition and torture programme.
Tony Blair said during his last days in no 10 that he was ‘satisfied’ the Us had never transferred detainees through any British territories, but human rights groups uncovered proof that military aircraft linked to rendition – the transfer of alleged terrorists – had landed on diego Garcia.
The judges also said that because Britain had split the islands from mauritius before independence, the process of decolonisation was not lawfully completed. They said it was up to the General assembly to decide how to ‘ensure the completion of the decolonisation of mauritius’.