The UK failed to meet a UN deadline Friday to hand over their last African colony back to its people. The Chagos Islands are far removed from mainland Africa and lay in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
In 1968, the British granted the Island of Mauritius its independence from colonial rule. Mauritius lies over 1,300 miles southwest of the Chagos Islands and was part of the same colonial territory.
Over 2,000 residents of Diego Garcia, the largest island of the Chagos, were forced to move to Mauritius to make way for a US military base. Since the expulsion, the people of Chagos have been fighting to return to their homeland.
In February, the International Court of Justice ruled that the islands are legally a part of Mauritius. In May, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of the court’s ruling and gave the UK six months to hand back the islands. 116 countries voted in favor of the decision, and only six voted against it. Those six countries were the US, UK, Israel, Australia, Hungary, and the Maldives.
In defense of their colonial rule, the British government released a statement, “The UK has no doubt as to our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814.”
Ultimately, the UN resolution is not binding, and the UK will likely hold onto the colony while the US still has a lease on Diego Garcia, which they extended in 2016 to last until 2036.
The base at Diego Garcia was allegedly used as a CIA “blacksite” to interrogate and torture suspected terrorists. In 2015, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff Col. Lawrence Wilkerson said the CIA used Diego Garcia for “nefarious activities.”
Delenda Brittania.
Mauritius claims Chagos; Argentina claims Falkans. I’d hate to live in either place, for fear of invasion.
Nobody lives in Chagos now, it’s just a military base and a torture prison.
“a military base and a torture prison.”
You are right, Sir. And these both British and American are The Real WAR CRIMINAL TERRORISTS along with other so-called western civilized countries, now, supporting their new nazi war criminal boss; Israel.
If the United States was wiped off the face of the earth. How? The country relies heavily on the success of its financial institutions. If this was to collapse/disintegrate, the currency would plummet to less than the Venezuelan Unit notes. It would then be carved up into something like 100 new nations. The consequences are Cuba reclaiming Guantanamo Bay (North Cuba), the existence of Israel will be challenged at the U.N.. UN. Permanent Security Council will be dissolved, colonies will be reclaimed, Turkey will have a bigger say on the future of Cyprus and N.A.T.O. will be dissolved (to say the least).
Wow, only 3000 people living there, or with the right of return (whichever). It sounds like Pitcairn Island, Ascension, Triston, and St. Helena: Too small to provide a decent living standard. Everyone ends up just moving to the UK as the elderly pass away on the islands.
Ascension survives just as a military colony and for whatever industrial/economic reasons, including astronomy, I think. I’m unfamiliar with Chagos, however. Filtering water, providing Internet, and providing electricity all seem prohibitively expensive for such tiny islands. Not to mention healthcare.
If the military base goes and the islanders return, they’ll make a good living turning it into a tourist resort.
Possibly, but look at St Helena. It relies on money from the British government. Maybe their islands are different.
Indeed, and it wouldn’t be independent, it would be connected to Mauritius, so it wouldn’t be able to run itself freely.
Neither the US nor the UK believe in sovereignty, freedom, liberty, or anything moral anymore.
did they ever well did uk ever believe in anything noble
The Chagos Islands are far removed from mainland Africa and lay in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
They lay there until a huge wave swept them away? If the writer means to describe the present tense, “lie” would be correct. “Lay” is transitive: it must have an object.