In 1965, the United Kingdom split off the Chagos archipelago from Mauritius to form the British Indian Ocean Territory. It also ceded the biggest island in the archipelago, Diego Garcia, to the United States, which was seeking a military base in the Indian Ocean. The United Kingdom forcefully removed to Mauritius and the Seychelles the small population in the archipelago of some 2,000 people in 1973. From the outset, Mauritius opposed British actions and the separation of the archipelago. It sought to overturn the decision as contrary to UN resolutions banning the dismemberment of colonial territories in the run-up to independence. (Mauritius became independent in 1968.) Sands, a British legal scholar who has provided counsel to Mauritius over the last decade, has written a compelling account of 40 years of legal and diplomatic efforts to restore Chagos to Mauritius. Eventually, both the International Court of Justice and the UN General Assembly sided unambiguously with Mauritius—although neither body has the power to force the United Kingdom or the United States to comply. Sands tells the story with verve, presenting the complex legal issues and diplomatic wrangling as adeptly as he explains the emotional attachment of the islanders to the archipelago.
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Source link : https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/last-colony-tale-exile-justice-and-courage
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Publish date : 2023-12-12 08:00:00
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