UK’s last African colony Chagos Archipelago returns to Mauritius
UK’s last African colony Chagos Archipelago returns to Mauritius a famous Tourism hub that attracts a million of Tourists
Addressing the General Assembly on the request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice regarding the legal ramifications of the Chagos Archipelago’s separation from Mauritius (f..), Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth of Mauritius
October 3, 2024 Affairs of the UN
The Chagos Islands have been agreed to be turned over to Mauritius, the United Kingdom announced on Thursday.
This brings an end to decades of disagreement and negotiations over Britain’s final African colony.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the UN General Assembly acknowledged Mauritius’ claims for sovereignty in 2019 and 2021, respectively, and this accord came about after 13 rounds of negotiations that started in 2022.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the primary UN judicial body that settles international disputes.
Prior to Mauritius’s 1968 independence, it was discovered that Britain had illegally divided the island nation into the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a new colony on the Chagos archipelago.
The UK first claimed that the ICJ decision was only an advisory opinion, rejecting UN decrees and court orders requiring it to surrender the Touristic islands to Mauritius.
Islanders forcibly relocated
Between 1,500 and 2,000 people were forced to leave when the UK divided the islands from Mauritius in order to lease Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos islands, to the US for military use.
The two allies have since collaborated on operations on the island.
News reports claim that the UK made up the claim that Chagos was permanently empty in order to avoid having to notify the UN of its colonial authority.
In truth, the Chagossian population had been on Chagos for millennia.
Between 1967 and 1973, the Chagossian people was allegedly forcibly relocated by the US and UK governments, who also apparently did it on Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, and Salomon.
In February 2022, the Mauritian ambassador to the UN, Jagdish Koonjul, raised his nation’s flag above the atoll of Peros Banhos as part of the campaign opposing British ownership of the Chagos archipelago.
This marked the first time Mauritius had led an expedition to the territory since the expulsions.
The updated contract
The agreement on Thursday states that the UK will continue to be in charge of the Diego Garcia UK-US military base.
The UK government has guaranteed the military base’s survival “as well as our long-term relationship with Mauritius.
This popular Tourism destination is a close Commonwealth partner,” according to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
News sources state that many Chagossians are still irritated with the UK government for not consulting them before to Thursday’s announcement.
An organisation for Chagossians based in the UK and a few other nations where islanders have made their home, Chagossian Voices, bemoaned “the exclusion of the Chagossian community from the negotiations,” saying it left them “powerless and voiceless in determining our own future and the future of our homeland.”
The indigenous people of the Chagos Islands, known as Chagossians, said, “We demand full inclusion in the draughting of the treaty, as our views have been consistently and deliberately ignored.”
Compiled by
World Travel News, Gorilla Trekking Uganda and Gorilla Trekking Rwanda
