With Chagos, Finally the End of an Empire

Anyone who spends a lot of time talking up the need for a rules-based international order would be wise to follow the rules themselves. The United States is an exception, because it sees diplomatic, economic and military strength as trumping the need to stick to the small print of international law. After all, if you have hard power, why bother with soft power. 

But Britain’s new government has come to the realisation that it can’t lecture others – Russia, China and Iran – about breaching international law and be at fault itself. And so it’s announced this week that it will fall into line with a UN court advisory judgement which it has long sought to sidestep. It is to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

You may not have heard of the Chagos archipelago – a group of seven atolls comprising sixty or so islands spread in the Indian Ocean 300 miles south of the Maldives. You certainly won’t have been there. You can’t. Unless you are working at the huge American/British military base on the largest island, Diego Garcia.

These islands were, during the colonial era, administered as part of Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island which is a member of the African Union. But in the run-up to Mauritius gaining independence in 1968, Britain hived the islands off into what was officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory. This was seen as a ploy to enable the US to embark on construction of its vast military facility on Diego Garcia, which is a base for navy ships and bomber aircraft and seen by Washington as crucial to its security presence in Asia.

Shamefully, the British forcibly removed all the residents of the islands, up to 2,000 in total, to ensure that there was no obstacle to the development of military facilities. This was, in the words of human rights campaigners, ‘an appalling colonial crime’. The Chagossians – many resettled in Mauritius, and a few now living in Britain – were understandably furious. Mauritius has in recent years been insistent that it should regain sovereignty in line with a ruling by the International Court of Justice. Crucially, sentiment in many African capitals has been strongly in support of Mauritius, wanting to see the end of what has been described as the last British colony in Africa. 

Negotiations between London and Port Louis started two years ago and got a huge boost with the victory of the Labour Party in Britain’s general election in July. The new prime minister, Keir Starmer – himself a lawyer – has clearly decided that he can’t deliver lectures about the need to abide by global treaties and be delinquent himself.

So Mauritius is to assume sovereignty over all the Chagos islands – though it has agreed that the American base on Diego Garcia can remain for another hundred years. Mauritius will receive some financial support from Britain and the Chagossians will in principle be able to return home (though Diego Garcia will remain off limits for them).

Oliver Bancoult, the chair of the Chagos Refugee Group – who was just four when his family was forced to leave the islands – hailed the agreement as a ‘recognition of the injustice done against Chagossians’. It was, he said, a ‘big day’ for the community.

Also read: India Welcomes UK’s Decision to Return Chagos Islands to Mauritius

How many of the islanders will seek to head back is far from clear. Few Chagossians alive today have ever lived on the islands. The coconut plantations are now overgrown. Fishing will offer a meagre livelihood. And when it comes to attracting tourists, it will be difficult for the islands to outshine neighbours such as the Maldives and the Seychelles.

Nor is it clear what will become of the group of 60 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, who fled across the Indian Ocean on a fishing boat and have been stranded on Diego Garcia for the past three years. A court ruling is expected soon on whether they have been unlawfully detained.

Some opposition politicians in Britain have complained that London has opened up the prospect of China starting to meddle in this corner of the Indian Ocean. But for many in Britain, the sentiment is: about time! The UK has fallen in line with international legal rulings. And almost 70 years after it began the process of decolonisation in Africa, British rule on the continent is finally about to end. 

Andrew Whitehead is a former BBC India correspondent.

London Calling: How does India look from afar? Looming world power or dysfunctional democracy? And what’s happening in Britain, and the West, that India needs to know about and perhaps learn from? This fortnightly column helps forge the connections so essential in our globalising world.