Chagos issue: Parliamentary committee denounces “unilateral” position of UK

The restoration of Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago is in dire straits. A meeting of the Committee of Parliamentarians on the Chagos Archipelago was chaired by the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, on 23 November 2016. 

The latest meeting follows declarations made by the occupying British authorities denying the Mauritian sovereignty over this part of its national territory which was forcefully and illegally excised prior to the country’s independence in violation of United Nations resolutions. On 16 November 2016, a statement was made in the UK Parliament by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister, Sir Alan Duncan, to an Urgent Question asked by Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford, on the future of the people of the Chagos Islands.

The Mauritian side “noted with deep concern” that this statement made in the UK Parliament “is completely silent on the discussions that were intended to take place between Mauritius and the UK on the completion of the decolonisation process of Mauritius and on sovereignty, on the basis of the understanding reached in New York last September as well as on the clear obligations of the UK under the UNCLOS Award.”

The Mauritian Parliamentary Committee strongly denounces “the unilateral decisions purportedly taken by the UK government with regard to resettlement in the Chagos Archipelago and the continuation of the UK-US agreement in respect of the Chagos Archipelago until 2036.”

The Committee once more “unreservedly condemned” the wrong done to the former inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago by the UK “in total disregard” of their human rights. “No amount of money and no public expression of regret by the UK can repair or undo that wrong,” read a communiqué issued on Thursday morning by the Prime Minister’s Office. The local side considers that the £40 million compensation package proposed to Chagossians is “utterly disrespectful of their dignity” and “an attempt to trade” their right of return for money.

Should the UK persist in its refusal to engage in talks with Mauritius on decolonisation and sovereignty in line with the understanding reached in New York, the government would relentlessly pursue its initiatives in conformity with international law, noted parliamentarians sitting on the committee.

Prior to the meeting, the Prime Minister met Mr. Olivier Bancoult, leader of the Chagos Refugees Group. They discussed the latest developments in respect of the Chagos Archipelago, including the UK Government’s proposal to fund a £40 million package for the Chagossian community. Both denounced this act of the UK Government and strongly condemned “the unilateral decision taken in utter disregard of international law and the human rights” of the Chagossian community.

The Parliamentary Committee, which was set up following the Award delivered on 18 March 2015 in the case brought by Mauritius against the United Kingdom under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), comprises the Leader of the Opposition, Paul Bérenger, as well as a representative of each political party represented in the National Assembly.

Lalit enters the fray

Left-wing political party Lalit, which has made the return of Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago its cause célèbre, has issued a statement following the stance taken by the UK occupiers. In a statement issued to the press on Thursday, Linsay Collen, from Lalit, claims that the Resolution brought by Mauritius to the United Nation’s General Assembly for a recourse to the International Court of Justice, “worries Britain”. As a result, she adds, the UK side called for a 6-month truce before a UN debate and vote.

The Mauritian-sponsored Resolution challenging UK sovereignty over Chagos is already assured of support from African Union and Non-Aligned countries, as well as the ACP and the Group of 77. It calls for an ICJ hearing on the issue of Mauritian sovereignty over Chagos. The freedom of movement over all the Mauritian islands, including Chagos, is what is necessary for all Mauritians including Chagossians, says Lindsay Collen. 

“We in Lalit have never agreed with the offer of the British (which was only a ploy, anyway) to grant some kind of anachronistic, colonial “native reserve”. And we deplore the cynicism with which the British executive branch has used the judiciary in order to drag out court cases, case after case, appeal after appeal, without taking a principled stand, but just stringing the Bancoult legal team along, while waiting for all the Chagossians born on the islands to die of old age or broken hearts,” read the statement.

“We deplore the cynicism of the British executive misleading the elected Parliament to such an outrageous extent in a supposed “up-date”. And we deplore the continued colonial mentality in the British executive branch of Government, a mentality so severely criticized by so many British judges in the course of the Bancoult cases, and partly attributed to the colonial mentality of the times. Obviously this mentality dies hard,” wrote Mrs Collen.