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LONDON (AP) – Islanders forced from their remote homes in the Indian Ocean half a century ago to build U.S. military bases spoke Monday in front of Britain’s parliament about a deal that decided the fate of their homeland without them. There were protests against the.
The British government announced last week that it would hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius under a deal that would leave the US navy and bomber base on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.
Opponents accuse the government of abdicating sovereignty over the British territory. And the agreement leaves displaced people unsure whether they will be able to return home.
“They announced the deal without consulting us. This is at the heart of all this tragedy,” said Frankie Bontemps, describing the UK-Mauritius deal as “history repeating itself”.
“They have a contract that suits them and of course is best for them. And what about the people? What happened to the people they ignored like 65 years ago?”
The Chagos Islands are a tropical archipelago located just south of the equator at the tip of India and have been under British administration since 1814. It has been known as the British Indian Ocean Territory since its separation from Mauritius, then a British colony, in 1965. The colony gained independence three years later.
Britain evicted as many as 2,000 people from the island in the 1960s and 1970s to allow the US military to build the Diego Garcia base and support US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, the United States admitted that it had also been used for covert transport flights of terrorist suspects.
Many of the islanders settled in Britain and unsuccessfully fought in British courts for their return. Their cause has gained international support, particularly in African countries and within the United Nations. In a non-binding opinion in 2019, the International Court of Justice ruled that Britain illegally partitioned Mauritius when it agreed to end colonial rule in the late 1960s.
Following this opinion, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the United Kingdom to end its “colonial rule” of the Chagos Islands and return them to Mauritius.
Britain’s newly elected Labor government has said that without a deal, the military base’s status will be under threat of legal challenge.
Foreign Secretary David Lamy said the new government had “inherited unfinished business” from the previous Conservative government, which began negotiations with Mauritius in 2022.
“The current situation was not sustainable,” Mr Lamy told MPs in the House of Commons. “A binding judgment against Britain seemed inevitable.”
Under the agreement, Britain will retain sovereignty over Diego Garcia for an initial period of 99 years and will pay an undisclosed ground rent to Mauritius.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the agreement, saying it “ensures the effective operation of the Diego Garcia joint facility well into the next century.”
But Britain’s opposition party, the Conservative Party, said the decision to hand over parts of British territory could be a concern for other far-flung territories, such as Gibraltar, claimed by Spain, and the Falkland Islands, claimed by Argentina. He argued that it would set a precedent.
The government strongly denies it. Starmer’s spokesman Dave Palace said on Monday: “British sovereignty over Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands is non-negotiable.”
The agreement will create a resettlement fund for displaced persons, with the aim of allowing all Chagossians, except Diego Garcia, to return to the island. Britain says the details of the return are now the responsibility of Mauritius.
“They shouldn’t have made this deal without asking us what we want,” said Jamie Simon, whose grandparents were expelled from the Chagos Islands. “It might be another island to them. It might just be a military base to them. It might just be keeping other people safe. But for us, it’s home. is.”
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Associated Press journalist Kwiyong Ha contributed to this article.
