‘Historic Sellout’: LALIT Communique on UK-Mauritius Chagos Agreement

October 5, 2024

by LALIT

Editor’s note: Philippe Sands—the lawyer involved in drafting “the original legal arguments” for returning the Mauritian islands to their rightful inhabitants—crowed: “It’s a settlement which Mauritius and the United Kingdom can both be proud to be associated with. It allows the United Kingdom to stand tall with its head held high on international law.” But those who worked for decades to have the Chagos Islands returned to the people who had lived there for centuries from the talons of both the UK and the U.S. rightly disagree. The entire long history of struggle reveals that, rather than “standing tall,” the UK and U.S. should hang their heads in shame. Below, LALIT speaks for itself.

If you want to learn more about this struggle, see coverage on the News and Letters Committees website, or go directly to LALIT’s website.


Oct. 3, 2024

Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth of Mauritius, as his term in office comes to an end, has announced in extremis that there is an “historic” agreement, in the form of a Joint Statement, by himself and Keir Starmer, UK Prime Minister. In this one-page-and-a-bit document, the third paragraph is the key. It assures that the UK agrees “Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia.” Then in the same paragraph, we read the sellout:

“For an initial period of 99 years, the United Kingdom will be authorized to exercise with respect to Diego Garcia the SOVEREIGN RIGHTS AND AUTHORITIES OF MAURITIUS required to ensure the continued operation of the [U.S. military] base well into the next century.” [Our caps]. 

Satellite photo of the military base in Diego Garcia, at the northwest of the island. Author: Steve Swayne, CC BY-SA 2.0

Really?

What kind of Mauritian “sovereignty” is this?

The International Court of Justice had already said that by international law Chagos, including Diego Garcia, is and always has been part of Mauritius, and so did the UN General Assembly. LALIT and all those who have worked closely with us have said that from the beginning.

After the judgment and UN General Assembly resolution, Britain was in a bad place. It was seen as an outlaw to the whole world. The UK had been declared publicly to be in an illegal situation. Its illegality was even being tested by groups of poor refugees arriving in Chagos in small boats. Moreover, Britain had previously been condemned for the illegal, forcible removal of all the Chagossians.

So, Britain was isolated. It badly needed to decolonize the whole of Chagos or sink in the slime.

Then, Pravind Jugnauth announces his great “achievement” of making Britain agree to obey international law—EXCEPT as it concerns Diego Garcia and its USA military base—and that for the next 99 years! Worse still is that now Jugnauth agrees to this should the Treaty go ahead. He is signing away sovereignty—if such a thing is possible. To make matters worse, remember that Jugnauth is head of what is a borderline caretaker government at the same time as he does this sellout of sovereignty and the military occupation of Mauritius.

As everyone knows, for the past 50 years LALIT has fought to prevent this exact kind of sellout. We warned of the danger of separating the issues of sovereignty and displacement from the military occupation issue. We have had big fights with many intellectuals, here and abroad, and mainstream politicians in all parties about the mortal danger of this kind of unprincipled behavior of separating what, in the real world, is not separate. We have warned about this a million times. Now, the struggle risks losing ground on all three issues: sovereignty, displacement and military occupation. Remember, it is the military base that is the source of all the suffering. It can never be accepted. 

This Treaty must not go ahead in this form.

For all those years, Britain and the U.S. have disregarded international law regarding decolonization and the sovereignty of Mauritius, including Chagos that includes Diego Garcia. Now, Pravind Jugnauth wants to sign away this same bit of international law that Britain and the U.S. have flouted for so long—by falling into the same old “bilateral negotiations” trap that the powerful states brandish.

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