A small area disappears from the UK map. Miniature, but militarily particularly important. Several atolls in the Indian Ocean are comparable in size to the area on which Dolný Kubín is located, for example, but the strategic importance of the Chagos Islands is enormous. This is the American Air Force, which established a base there several decades ago with British approval.
Photo: SITA/AP, Mike Corder
A group of protesters with banners in front of the Hague Tribunal. The picture is from 2018, when the International Court of Justice assessed the legal status of the Čagos Islands. Activists expressed displeasure with British colonial rule.
The Chagos Islands have now become one of the great topics of politics in the world, as Britain has agreed to cede sovereignty over them to Mauritius. The interstate dispute lasted for many years. The small island nation in the southwestern part of the Indian Ocean can finally be satisfied, but they don’t have to complain in London. What was it actually about and what does the solution look like? First of all, it should be clarified that the British controlled the Chagos Islands, which are located on an area of 56 square kilometers (Lower Kubin is one square kilometer less), after the period of the Napoleonic Wars. They took over them after the French.
When Mauritius was about to declare its independence six decades ago, the Americans managed to obtain a long-term lease of one of the Chagos Islands from the British. His name is Diego Garcia. Washington began to capitalize on the strategic investment of 1966 in the 21st century, which will be discussed later.
In connection with the planned construction of a military base, the British cleared the space for the Americans, so to speak. With elements of brutality. “They evacuated almost 2,000 residents to Mauritius and Seychelles,” CNN recalled. These people had to leave against their will – it was a clear violation of their basic rights. The British did not even allow them to take their pet four-legged pets with them. “When their dogs were swimming to the departing ships, they shot them,” the Guardian newspaper pointed out. Houses and several churches were left abandoned after the forcibly evicted residents.
It is worth noting that the Diego Garcia rental agreement was concluded without the approval of the US Congress and the British Parliament. American generals were happy to expand military capabilities in the Indian Ocean region, the advantage for Britain was that it received a significant discount from the United States for the purchase of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
By the way, the British despised and ridiculed the natives even before their deportation to Mauritius and Seychelles. “Along with the birds, there are several Tarzans whose origins are unclear. Let’s hope they are welcome in Mauritius,” British diplomat Dennis Greenhill wrote in a dispatch to London. Of course, there weren’t a handful of Tarzans living there, so to speak, but there were about 2,000 of them, and their roots were known, but Greenhill apparently knew nothing about them. “The first people came to the Chagos Islands in the 18th century from Madagascar and Mozambique to work on coconut plantations, which was during the period of French colonial rule,” explained CNN.
Mauritius officially gained independence in March 1968. In recent years, it has become more and more involved in achieving the return of the Chagos Islands under its administration. In 2017, the UN asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to assess the legal status of these atolls. The judges announced their decision after two years of careful examination of the case. They spoke in favor of Britain handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as soon as possible.
However, the decision was not binding, basically it could be called an opinion or a recommendation. When the Conservatives were in power in London, they were in no rush to return the islands. They actually suggested it was a mirage. They claimed that they would hand them over to Mauritius only after they lost their strategic military importance. This can be understood as perhaps never – especially taking into account the expansionist policy of China, which would like to conquer Taiwan.
There are also British soldiers at the base, but they are in the minority, the clear majority belong to members of the American armed forces. Their number is estimated at 2 thousand. The US used the base in 2001 during the invasion of Afghanistan, and deployed warplanes there for operations two years later, when the invasion of Iraq took place. The significant importance of this territory also lies in the fact that its airport serves as an emergency landing area for space shuttles.
While the British conservatives could not get moving almost five years after the decision of the Hague court, on the contrary, the new Labor Prime Minister Keith Starmer acted relatively quickly: he came to power in July of this year and London has now announced that he has agreed on the terms of the return of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. The essential point of the agreement is that the small country, which has a population of less than 1.3 million, can inhabit the returned atolls with the exception of one. Of course he is Diego Garcia. “Mauritius is gaining sovereignty over this archipelago, while guaranteeing the Americans that they can operate on its airbase for the next 99 years,” Reuters wrote.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
