A new ruling from the World Court may force Britain to revoke its lease of the island of Diego Garcia to the US military,
with the finding that the British had unlawfully appropriated the
island and expelled its indigenous population prior to the lease.
The court said Britain acted unlawfully in splitting the island off from
the territory of Mauritius in 1965, and the presiding judge called on
Britain to bring the administration to the end “as rapidly as possible.”
At the time of the split, Mauritius and Diego Garcia were both British
colonies. Britain was just three years from granting Mauritius
independence, however, and decided it was keeping Diego Garcia and the
rest of Chagos in the process.
A few more years later, they wanted to lease out Diego Garcia, which
involved evicting some 2,000 civilians from the island. Islanders have
been fighting to be allowed to return since the 1970s, though Britain
has said in the past they wouldn’t be allowed to.
All of this raises an interesting possibility, however. While the US
always turns its nose up at World Court rulings like this, the ruling
isn’t against them, it’s against Britain. It’s not clear what the
British government intends to do yet, but they may decide the
international pressure is just not worth the lease money they get from
the US.
It is astonishing how long colonialism continues.
And then there is the case where the remains of British and Spanish colonialism clash: the Falkland Islands. Indeed, why would the descendants of Spanish colonialism have more right to a solid piece of the Earth’s surface than the descendants of British colonialism?
I cannot imagine Theresa May accepting the Court ruling.
The US and UK, two supremacist nations that we can’t expect will do the right thing.