Britain hands over colonial islands

Britain is giving up one of its colonies after decades of legal cases and political wrangling. But a top-secret US military base will be allowed to remain.

An agreement has been reached to hand over the long-disputed Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the British and Mauritian governments have announced.

The Chagos Islands essentially consist of seven atolls located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, far northeast of Mauritius. Technically, if they are to be considered part of Mauritius, they can be counted as Britain’s last African colony.

Kept the atolls

The scattered group of islands belonged to Mauritius until the 1960s, when Mauritius was still a British colony. In connection with Mauritius becoming independent, Great Britain separated the Chagos Islands and retained control over them – then forcibly relocated their indigenous population, the Chagossians, to Mauritius.

This was followed by the US and UK allies building one of their most secret military bases on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia. There, among other things, it has been reported that the American intelligence service CIA has had a secret prison for people labeled as terrorists.

The base will remain under the same conditions as before.

“Today’s agreement secures this important military base for the future,” announced British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

HRW: Human rights violations

The Chagossians have been fighting for decades to be allowed to return to their home islands, where today, apart from the military base, no people live.

In 2019, the International Court of Justice in The Hague (ICJ) ruled that Britain should return the islands to Mauritius to “complete the decolonization of its territory”. In the same year, the UN General Assembly voted with a large majority that this should happen.

Last year, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch declared that the forced displacements of the 1960s constituted British and American crimes against humanity.