UK misses UN deadline to give back the Chagos Islands to its people.

(November 23, 2019)The United Kingdom failed to meet a deadline Friday set by the UN to hand over its last African colony back over to its people. The Chagos Islands are far from the African mainland and are in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Background

Back in 1968 the UK granted the island of Mauritius independence but the Chagos Islands which are over 1,300 miles southwest of militia were part of the same territory. However, the islands were not returned to Mauritius but became what is called British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).

As a recent article notes: "Between 1968 and 1973, up to 2,000 residents of the Chagos archipelago were forced to move to Mauritius, the Seychelles and UK in order to establish a military base on the main island, Diego Garcia. In the meantime, the UK has leased it to the US until 2036. Chagos served as a military base for both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. "

The more than 2,000 residents of the largest island Diego Garcia were forced to move to Mauritius in order for the US to establish a military base there. The residents have been fighting to return to their homeland ever since.

The International Court of Justice ruling and UN vote

Last February, the International Court of Justice ruled that the Chagos islands are legally a part of Mauritius. In May the UN General Assembly supported the court's ruling and gave the UK six months to give the islands back to Mauritius. 116 countries supported the resolution and only six voted against it including the US, UK, Israel, and Australia. Unfortunately, the UN ruling is not binding and cannot be enforced. The UK is likely to hold unto the islands until at least 2036 when the US lease on Diego Garcia, renewed in 2016, expires.

The UK rejected the ruling: " "The UK has no doubt as to our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814," read a statement by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The statement, however, alleged that Britain had pledged to hand over the islands to Mauritius when they are no longer needed for defense purposes."

The US argument against the UN resolution: "... the United States delegate stressing that it was inappropriate to seek an advisory opinion for a bilateral dispute. He voiced concern over the scope of the text and misuse of the Court’s advisory function, recalling that the United Kingdom is sovereign over the British Indian Ocean Territory and underscoring the United States support for that sovereignty. The joint base is critical to security in the area, allowing allies and partners to combat threats and to provide a powerful response in times of humanitarian crisis. "

The Diego Garcia base was allegedly one of the CIA's blacksites

There is some evidence that the US military base was used as one of the blacksites where terrorist suspects were housed, interrogated and often tortured. Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to Colin Powell at the US State Dept. from 2002 to 2005, said that Diego Garcia was used as a transit site where suspects were temporarily kept and interrogated from time to time. Wilkerson said three US intelligence sources had told him that the CIA had used the base for "nefarious activities".

Wilkerson said: “What I heard was more along the lines of using it as a transit location when perhaps other places were full or other places were deemed too dangerous or insecure, or unavailable at the moment. So you might have a case where you simply go in and use a facility at Diego Garcia for a month or two weeks or whatever and you do your nefarious activities there.”

Jeremy Corbyn supports return of the islanders

The head of the UK Labour Party and leader of the opposition does not support his government's position: "Meanwhile, UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would end his country's occupation of the territory if elected prime minister in next month's election."What happened to the Chagos Islanders was utterly disgraceful. [They were] forcibly removed from their own islands, unfortunately, by this country," Corbyn, the leader of the main opposition Labour party, told The Guardian newspaper. "The right of return to those islands is absolutely important as a symbol of the way in which we wish to behave in international law. So yes, we will carry that out," he added."

Previously published in the Digital Journal