almost ten thousand kilometers from London and one of the last redoubts of the British Empire, the Chagos Islands have in common with the Falklands that they are a remote archipelago
–in the Indian Ocean instead of the South Atlantic– whose sovereignty is claimed by a much closer country, and with Ulster whose separation was the price to pay (in this case by Mauritius) for independence. Anyway, colonialism is colonialism.
The International Court of Justice and the General Assembly of the United Nations have asked the United Kingdom on several occasions to withdraw the Union Jack, but Great Britain considers that these are non-binding “opinions”, and that the Chagos are “its” since 1814 and the territorial movements that followed the Napoleonic wars.
Given that London is not going to go away just like that, Mauricio has taken the initiative and sent a “geographical expedition” to the Peros Banhos atoll – one of the most remote points of the archipelago – with a handful of leaders and five natives, who raised the red, blue and yellow flag on a cement structure in the middle of the palm trees, and sang the anthem. A challenge, but not like that of the Argentines when they did the same in 1982 with the albiceleste in Port Stanley, since later they returned the same way they left, and of their fleeting presence only the banner has remained.
London separated the Chagos from the rest of the Mauritius Islands so that the US could establish a base in Diego García
“If the British take down the flag it will be a full-fledged provocation,” says Mauritius’ ambassador to the United Nations, Jagdish Konjool. After all, we have done nothing more or less the same as them so many times throughout history to reclaim a territory, only the Chagos have always been and are ours.” The gesture is significant but that, a simple gesture. Because any possibility that London decides to return them is as remote as that it hands over the Falklands to Argentina or renounces the sovereignty of Gibraltar.
The origin of the current dispute dates back to the mid-1960s. In 1965, preparing the ground for the independence of Mauritius (which would come three years later), Great Britain politically separated the Chagos archipelago and decided to keep it in exchange for a payment of four million euros at the time. In fact, the United States asked him to do so in order to install a military base (which still exists and has been used in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) on its main island, Diego Garcia. If the Malvinas are strategically important due to their proximity to the mineral wealth of Antarctica and the South Seas, and Gibraltar for being on the southern flank of NATO, the Indian Ocean Territory is within range of East Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Very poor, it never had its own currency and it lacks natural resources, but it is a real sweetie in military terms.
London rented Diego García to Washington in a long-term contract and at a friend’s price. He changed the name of Chagos on the maps to the British Indian Ocean Territories, and from one day to the next he expelled its thousand inhabitants to Mauritius and the Seychelles, claiming that it was not a fixed population but itinerant workers. Most of them, however, ended up settling in the United Kingdom, especially in the town of Crawley (West Sussex), where they constitute a poor community with low-paid jobs that depend heavily on state aid. Those affected by exile received British nationality, but not their children and grandchildren.
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At first the colonial power, with some remorse, financed occasional trips by the original Chagos to their old home. But the practice has long since died out, and British-born descendants of exile have never set foot on the land of their ancestors. For the five who have done so now, after a turbulent fourteen-day sea voyage sponsored by Mauritius to lay the flag, it has been a very emotional moment. The first thing they did upon arrival was kneel down and kiss the sand.
According to International Law, it is illegal to divide the territories to grant independence to only one part, but the sentences that require it to return the Chagos to Mauritius are a dead letter for London. “Chagos? The British Indian Ocean territories have been ours since the 19th century and will continue to be so,” the Foreign Office asserts forcefully.
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