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Britain Hands Over Last African Colony Despite Controversy

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

LONDON/PORT LOUIS (Worthy News) – Britain pledged Thursday to end a years-long struggle over its last African colony by handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, triggering mixed reactions among those who lived there.

Yet the U.K-U.S Diego Garcia military base will remain under British control according to terms of the deal, which could enable people displaced decades ago to return home.

U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed the agreement, saying it would secure the effective operation of Diego Garcia, a strategically important airbase in the Indian Ocean, into the next century.

The agreement will allow a right of return for Chagossians, who Britain expelled from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s, in what critics called “one of the most shameful episodes” of postwar colonialism.

The Chagos Islands — also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory — are a cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean.

They include Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands and the site of the strategically positioned military base.

Among the reasons for the long-running dispute over the archipelago is the decision by Britain, along with the United States, to evict thousands of Indigenous inhabitants to make way for the base’s construction.

HISTORIC AGREEMENT

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said they had reached a “historic political agreement on exercising sovereignty” over the archipelago.

The accord is still subject to the finalization of a treaty, but both sides vowed to move quickly.

In addition, Britain will provide Mauritius with a financial support package that includes annual payments and a partnership to build infrastructure.

However, not all roughly 2,000 Chagossians expelled from the area or their representatives were celebrating.

Chagossian Voices, a group for Chagossians based in Britain and other nations, condemned “the exclusion of the Chagossian community from the negotiations which have produced this statement of intent concerning the sovereignty of our homeland. Chagossians have learned this outcome from the media and remain powerless and voiceless in determining our own future and the future of our homeland.”

It added that the “views of Chagossians, the Indigenous inhabitants of the islands, have been consistently and deliberately ignored, and we demand full inclusion in the drafting of the treaty.”

‘CRIMES CONTINUE’

Advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) agrees.

Clive Baldwin, senior legal adviser at HRW, said: “The agreement says it will address the wrongs against the Chagossians of the past but it looks like it will continue the crimes long into the future.”

Baldwin stressed in published remarks that it does “not guarantee that the Chagossians will return to their homeland, appears to explicitly ban them from the largest island, Diego Garcia, for another century, and does not mention the reparations they are all owed to rebuild their future.”

The adviser said the forthcoming treaty “needs to address their rights, and there should be meaningful consultations with the Chagossians; otherwise, the U.K., U.S., and now Mauritius will be responsible for a still-ongoing colonial crime.”

But Olivier Bancoult, chair of the Chagos Refugee Group, who was four years old when his family was deported to Mauritius, welcomed it, describing it as “a big day.”

“This has been a long struggle lasting more than 40 years, and many of our people have passed away,” stressed Bancoult, who had fought over the sovereignty of the islands in British courts since 2000. “But today is a sign of recognition of the injustice done against Chagossians who were forced to leave their homes.”