Chagos Archipelago
Disputed islands | |
---|---|
Geography | |
Location | Indian Ocean |
Coordinates | 6°00′S 71°30′E / 6.000°S 71.500°E |
Major islands | Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, Salomon Islands, Egmont Islands |
Area | 56.13 km2 (21.67 sq mi) |
Administration | |
Territory | British Indian Ocean Territory |
Claimed by | |
Outer Islands | Chagos Archipelago |
Demographics | |
Demonym | Chagossian Chagos Islander |
Population | ≈3,000 (Eclipse Point Town) (2014) |
Ethnic groups |
The Chagos Archipelago (
The Chagos Islands had been home to the Chagossians from the 1700s brought as workers by the French from Africa and India, a Bourbonnais Creole-speaking people, until the United Kingdom expelled them from the archipelago at the request of the United States between 1967 and 1973 to allow the United States to build Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, a military base on Diego Garcia, on land leased from the UK military in the British Indian Ocean Territories. Since 1971, only the atoll of Diego Garcia has been inhabited, and only by employees of the US military, including American civilian contracted personnel. Since being expelled, Chagossians, like all others not permitted by the UK or US governments, have been prevented from entering the islands.
When
In 1965, while planning for Mauritian independence the UK constituted the Chagos as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT).[4][5] Mauritius gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1968, and has since claimed the Chagos Archipelago as Mauritian territory.
In 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a non-binding advisory opinion stating that the UK "...has an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible, and that all Member States must co-operate with the United Nations to complete the decolonization of Mauritius".[6] In December of that year, the Sega tambour Chagos genre was recognized as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage from Mauritius.[7] In January 2021, the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution proclaiming this.[8] In 2021, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea confirmed for its jurisdiction that the UK has "no sovereignty over the Chagos Islands" thus the islands should be handed back to Mauritius.[8][9]
In August 2021, the Universal Postal Union banned British stamps from being used in BIOT, a move Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth called a "big step in favour of the recognition of the sovereignty of Mauritius over the Chago".[10]
Geography
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2021) |
The archipelago is about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives, 1,880 kilometres (1,170 mi) east of the Seychelles, 1,680 kilometres (1,040 mi) north-east of Rodrigues Island, 2,700 kilometres (1,700 mi) west of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and 3,400 kilometres (2,100 mi) north of Amsterdam Island.
The land area of the islands is 56.13 km2 (21.7 sq. miles), the largest island, Diego Garcia, having an area of 32.5 km2. The total area, including lagoons within atolls, is more than 15 000 km2, of which 12 642 km2 are accounted by the Great Chagos Bank, the largest acknowledged atoll structure of the world (the completely submerged
The Chagos group is a combination of different
The Chagos contain the world's largest coral atoll, The Great Chagos Bank, which supports half the total area of good quality reefs in the Indian Ocean. As a result, the ecosystems of the Chagos have so far proven resilient to climate change and environmental disruptions.
The largest individual islands are Diego Garcia (32.5 km2), Eagle (Great Chagos Bank, 3.1 km2), Île Pierre (Peros Banhos, 1.40 km2), Eastern Egmont (Egmont Islands, 2.17 km2), Île du Coin (Peros Banhos, 1.32 km2) and Île Boddam (Salomon Islands, 1.27 km2).
In addition to the seven atolls with dry land reaching at least the high-water mark, there are nine reefs and
Resources
The main
All economic activity is concentrated on the largest island of Diego Garcia, where joint UK–US military facilities are located. Construction projects and various services needed to support the military installations are done by military and contract employees from the UK, Mauritius, the Philippines, and the US. There are currently no industrial or agricultural activities on the islands. All the water, food and other essentials of daily life are shipped to the island. An independent feasibility study led to the conclusion that resettlement would be "costly and precarious". Another feasibility study, commissioned by organisations supporting resettlement, found that resettlement would be possible at a cost to the British taxpayer of £25 million. If the Chagossians return, they plan to re-establish copra production and fishing, and to begin the commercial development of the islands for tourism.
Until October 2010,
Climate
The Chagos Archipelago has a
History
Early history
According to Southern Maldivian oral tradition, local traders and fishermen were occasionally lost at sea and became stranded in one of the islands of the Chagos. Eventually they were rescued and brought back home.[12] However, these islands were judged to be too far away from the Maldives to be settled permanently by Maldivians. Thus for many centuries the Chagos were ignored by their northern neighbours.
In Maldivian lore the whole group is known as Fōlhavahi or Hollhavai (the latter name in the Southern Maldives
16th to 19th century
The first Europeans to become aware of the archipelago were
The earliest and most interesting description of the Chagos, before coconut trees grew widely on the islands, was written by Manoel Rangel, a castaway from the Portuguese ship Conceição which ran aground on the Peros Banhos reefs in 1556.[17]
The French were the first to lay claim to the Chagos after they settled Île Bourbon (now Réunion, in 1665) and Isle de France (now Mauritius, in 1715). The French began issuing permits for companies to establish coconut oil plantations on the Chagos in the 1770s.[18]
On 27 April 1786 the Chagos Islands and Diego Garcia were claimed for Great Britain. However, the territory was ceded to Britain by treaty only after Napoleon's defeat, in 1814. The Chagos were governed from Mauritius, which was by that time also a British colony.[19]
In 1793, when the first successful colony was founded on Diego Garcia, the largest island,
Commander
20th century
On 31 August 1903 the Chagos Archipelago was administratively separated from the Seychelles and attached to Mauritius.[21]
In November 1965, the UK purchased the entire Chagos Archipelago from the then self-governing colony of Mauritius for £3 million to create the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT),[22] with the intent of ultimately closing the plantations to provide the British territory from which the United States would conduct its military activities in the region. On 30 December 1966, the United States and the United Kingdom executed an agreement through an Exchange of Notes which permit the United States Armed Forces to use any island of the BIOT for defence purposes for 50 years, until December 2016,[22] followed by a 20-year optional extension (to 2036) to which both parties must agree by December 2014. As of 2010[update], only the atoll of Diego Garcia has been transformed into a military facility.
In 1967 the British Government bought the entire assets and real property of the
Between 1967 and 1973, the population was forcibly removed from the islands and moved to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for a joint United States–United Kingdom military base on Diego Garcia.[26] In March 1971, Seabees, United States naval construction battalions, arrived on Diego Garcia to begin the construction of the Communications Station and an airfield. To satisfy the terms of an agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States for an uninhabited island, the plantation on Diego Garcia was closed in October of that year.[27]
The plantation workers and their families were initially deported to the plantations on Peros Banhos and Salomon atolls in the group; those who requested were transported to the Seychelles or Mauritius. In 1972, the UK closed the remaining plantations (all being now uneconomic) of the Chagos, and deported the Ilois who would have faced economic hardship to the Seychelles or Mauritius. The independent Mauritian government refused to accept these further displaced islanders without payment and in 1973, the United Kingdom agreed and gave them an additional £650,000 as reparation payments to resettle the people.[28] Some in many of their reasonable views were less than ideally rehoused and employed by Mauritius, compared to others. The islands were becoming costly to live in due to industrial moves away from coconut oils and copra fibre markets and the success of larger plantations in the far east.
2000–present
In 2002, Diego Garcia was used twice for US rendition flights.[29]
On 1 April 2010, the British government announced the establishment of the Chagos Marine Protected Area as the world's largest marine reserve. At 640,000 km2, it is larger than France or the U.S. state of California. It doubled the total area of environmental no-take zones worldwide.[30] On 18 March 2015, the Permanent Court of Arbitration unanimously held that the marine protected area (MPA) which the United Kingdom declared around the Chagos Archipelago in April 2010 violates international law. Anerood Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Mauritius, pointed out that it is the first time that the United Kingdom's conduct with regard to the Chagos Archipelago has been considered and condemned by any international court or tribunal.[31][32]
On 20 December 2010 Mauritius initiated proceedings against the United Kingdom under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to challenge the legality of the Chagos Archipelago MPA.
The issue of compensation and repatriation of the former inhabitants of several of the archipelago's atolls, exiled since 1973, continues in litigation and as of 23 August 2010[update] has been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights by a group of former residents.[33]
Litigation continues as of 2012[update] regarding the right of return for the displaced islanders and Mauritian sovereignty claims. In addition, advocacy on the Chagossians' behalf continues both in the United States and in Europe. As of 2018[update], Mauritius has taken the matter to the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion, against British objections.[34]
In November 2016, the United Kingdom restated it would not permit Chagossians to return to the islands.[35]
In July 2021, the
Sovereignty dispute
The Chagos had been administered from imperial offices in Mauritius since the 18th century when the French first named the islands (see map of 18th century, right).[where?] All of the islands forming part of the French colonial territory of Isle de France (as Mauritius was often then known) were ceded to the British in 1810 under the Act of Capitulation. In 1965, in planning before Mauritian independence, the UK split the archipelago from the territory of Mauritius to form the British Indian Ocean Territory, looking to provide the US with an uninhabited island base, the country's main creditor after the turmoil of World War II.[4]
United Nations' resolutions on self-determination deprecated the parcelling up of imperial territories before independence, without its endorsement and local support, mindful of the Partition of India which provided the strong governments sought by the separate factions but failed to ensure a relatively peaceful transfer of power in many places. Mauritius has repeatedly stated that the British claim that the Chagos Archipelago is one of its territories thwarted its claim to what would be widely considered part of the Mauritian colony and also breached UN resolutions. The UK has stated that the Chagos will be assigned to Mauritius once the islands are no longer required for defence purposes.[4]
The island nation of Mauritius claims the Chagos Archipelago (which is coterminous with the BIOT), including Diego Garcia. Maldives states that the UK's claim to a 200 nautical mile
On 16 November 2016, the UK Foreign Office maintained their ban on repatriation of the islands.[35] In response to this decision, the Prime Minister of Mauritius expressed his country's plan to advance the sovereignty dispute to the International Court of Justice.[41] The British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson sought Indian assistance for resolving the dispute involving the UK, the US and Mauritius. India has maintained considerable influence in Mauritius through deep cultural and economic ties. India has maintained that the matter of whether or not to proceed with the UN General Assembly move is a decision for the Mauritian government to make.[42]
On 22 June 2017, the
- “at the time of its detachment from Mauritius” the “Chagos Archipelago was clearly an integral part of that non-self-governing territory";[43]
- the United Kingdom's purported detachment of the Chagos Archipelago “was not based on the free and genuine expression of the will of the people concerned";[43]
- at the time of the purported detachment, “obligations arising under international law and reflected in the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly during the process of decolonization of Mauritius require[d] the United Kingdom, as the administering Power, to respect the territorial integrity of that country, including the Chagos Archipelago";[43]
- the “detachment” was therefore “unlawful” such that “the process of decolonization of Mauritius was not lawfully completed when Mauritius acceded to independence in 1968"[43]
- “the United Kingdom's continued administration of the Chagos Archipelago constitutes a wrongful act entailing the international responsibility of that State”;[43]
- this “unlawful act” is “of a continuing character” and “the United Kingdom is under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible";[43] and
- “all Member States [of the United Nations] are under an obligation to co-operate with the United Nations in order to complete the decolonization of Mauritius.”[43]
On 23 June 2017, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted in favour of referring the territorial dispute between Mauritius and the United Kingdom to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in order to clarify the legal status of the Chagos Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The motion was approved by a majority vote with 94 voting for and 15 against.[44][45]
On 22 May 2019, the United Nations General Assembly debated and adopted a resolution that affirmed that the Chagos archipelago “forms an integral part of the territory of Mauritius.” The resolution demanded that the UK "withdraw its colonial administration ... unconditionally within a period of no more than six months." 116 states voted in favour of the resolution, 55 abstained and only 5 countries supported the
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted in favor of setting a six-month deadline for the United Kingdom to withdraw from the Chagos Archipelago, which would then be reunified with Mauritius. The motion was approved by a majority vote with 116 voting for and 6 against. Fifty-six states, including France and Germany, abstained.[48][49]
On 28 January 2021, the United Nation's International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) confirmed the International Court of Justice ruling and ordered Britain to hand over the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius.[50] The ITLOS Special Chamber affirmed that: “it is inconceivable that the United Kingdom, whose administration over the Chagos Archipelago constitutes a wrongful act of a continuing character and thus must be brought to an end as rapidly as possible, and yet who has failed to do so, can have any legal interests in permanently disposing of maritime zones around the Chagos Archipelago by delimitation”.[51]
On 14 February 2022, a delegation from Mauritius, including the Mauritian ambassador to the UN, raised the Mauritian flag on the Chagossian atoll of Peros Banhos. The move was done in the context of a scientific survey of Blenheim Reef but was regarded as a formal challenge to British sovereignty over Chagos.[52]
On 3 November 2022, the British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly announced that the UK and Mauritius had decided to begin negotiations on sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, taking into account the recent international legal proceedings. Both states had agreed to ensure the continued operation of the joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia.[53][54]
Whereas these talks included the resettlement of expelled Chagossians, Cleverly's successor as British foreign secretary, David Cameron, has since ruled out a return of the islanders.[55]
Development
Structures on the islands are located in the joint defence and Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, although the Plantation house and other structures left behind by the Ilois are still standing, however left abandoned and decaying. Other uninhabited islands, especially in the Salomon Atoll, are common stopping points for long-distance yachtsmen travelling from Southeast Asia to the Red Sea or the coast of Africa, although a permit is required to visit the outer islands.
People and language
The Chagossians
The islanders were known as the
The inhabitants of Chagos were speaking
which has not been properly researched from the linguistic point of view.The island names are a mixture of
The tribes that inhabited the islands were forcibly removed by the US and British governments during the late 1960s and early 1970s—effectively turning the islands into a military base. While a number of islanders had petitioned for the return of their former homes and their right to return has been recognized by the UN General Assembly, the International Court of Justice, and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the US and UK legal systems have refused to adhere to these decisions, leaving the Chagossians in exile.[56]
Other
Diego Garcia is currently the only inhabited island in the Chagos, all of which comprise the British Indian Ocean Territory, usually abbreviated as "BIOT". The UK considers it an
There are no indigenous peoples living on the island, and the UK represents the Territory internationally. A local government as normally envisioned does not exist.[57] Around 1,700 armed services personnel and 1,500 civilian contractors, mostly American, are stationed on Diego Garcia.[58]
As of 2012[update], the islands have a transitory population of about 3,000 (300 British government personnel and 2,700 United States Army, Navy and Air Force personnel).
The Catholics are pastorally served by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Port-Louis, which includes the BIOT.
Ecology
The Chagos, together with the Maldives and
The deep oceanic waters around the Chagos Islands, out to the 200 nautical mile limit, include an exceptional diversity of undersea geological features (such as 6000 m deep trenches, oceanic ridges, and sea mounts). These areas almost certainly harbour many undiscovered and specially adapted species. Although the deepwater habitats surrounding the islands have not been explored or mapped in any detail, work elsewhere in the world has shown that high physical diversity of the sea floor is closely linked to a high diversity of species.
The
Coral
The reefs host at least 371 species of coral including the
Fish
The reefs are also home to at least 784 species of fish that stay near to the shores of the islands including the endemic Chagos clownfish (Amphiprion chagosensis) and many of the larger wrasse and grouper that have already been lost from over-fishing in other reefs in the region.[64]
As well as the healthy communities of reef fish there are significant populations of pelagic fish such as
Birds
Seventeen species of breeding
Mammals
Environments in the Chagos Archipelago provide rich biodiversity and support varieties of
Turtles
The remote islands make perfect undisturbed sites for nests of green (
Crustaceans
The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is the world's largest terrestrial arthropod,[71] reaching more than a metre in leg span and 3.5-4 kilos in weight. As a juvenile it behaves like a hermit crab and uses empty coconut shells as protection, but as an adult this giant crab climbs trees and can crack through a coconut with its massive claws. Despite its wide global distribution it is rare in most of the areas in which it is found. The coconut crabs on Chagos constitute one of the most undisturbed populations in the world.[72][73] An important part of their biology is the long distances their young can travel as larvae. This means the Chagos coconut crabs are a vital source for replenishing other over-exploited populations in the Indian Ocean region.[citation needed]
Insects
113 species of insect have been recorded from the Chagos Islands.[citation needed]
Plants
The Chagos Islands were colonised by plants once there was sufficient soil to support them—probably less than 4,000 years. Seeds and spores arrived on the emerging islands by wind and sea and from passing
Today the status of the Chagos Islands’ native
Conservation efforts
Past
Successive UK governments, both
Present
On 1 April 2010 Britain announced the creation of the Chagos Marine Protected Area, the world's largest continuous marine protected reserve, with an area of 545,000 km2 (210,000 sq mi).[76][77][78]
This followed an effort led by The Chagos Environment Network,[79] a collaboration of nine leading conservation and scientific organisations seeking to protect the rich biodiversity of the Chagos Archipelago and its surrounding waters. The Chagos Environment Network cites several reasons for supporting a protected area.
The UK government opened a three-month public consultation, which ended after 5 March 2010, on conservation management of the Chagos Islands and its surrounding waters.[80]
On 1 April 2010 the British government Cabinet established the Chagos Archipelago as the world's largest marine reserve. At 640,000 km2 it is larger than France or the US state of California. It doubled the total area of environmental no-take zones worldwide.[30] The protection of the marine reserve will be guaranteed for the next five years thanks to the financial support of the Bertarelli Foundation.[81] The setting up of the Marine Reserve would appear to be an attempt to prevent any repatriation by the inhabitants evicted in the 1960s and 1970s. Leaked US cables have shown the FCO suggesting to its US counterparts that setting up a protected no-take zone would make it "difficult, if not impossible" for the islanders to return. The reserve was then created in 2010.[82]
Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling
On 18 March 2015 the Permanent Court of Arbitration unanimously held that the marine protected area (MPA) that the UK had declared around the Chagos Archipelago in April 2010 violated international law. Anerood Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Mauritius, pointed out that it was the first time that the UK's conduct with regard to the Chagos Archipelago had been considered and condemned by any international court or tribunal. He qualified the ruling as an important milestone in the relentless struggle, at the political, diplomatic and other levels, of successive Governments over the years for the effective exercise by Mauritius of its sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago. The tribunal considered in detail the undertakings given by the United Kingdom to the Mauritian Ministers at the Lancaster House talks in September 1965. The UK had argued that those undertakings were not binding and had no status in international law. The Tribunal firmly rejected that argument, holding that the undertakings became a binding international agreement upon the independence of Mauritius and had bound the UK ever since. It found that the UK's commitments towards Mauritius in relation to fishing rights and oil and mineral rights in the Chagos Archipelago were legally binding. The Tribunal also found that the United Kingdom's undertaking to return the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius when no longer needed for defence purposes was legally binding. This establishes that, in international law, Mauritius has real, firm and binding rights over the Chagos Archipelago and that the United Kingdom must respect those rights. The Tribunal went on to hold that the United Kingdom had not respected Mauritius’ binding legal rights over the Chagos Archipelago. It considered the events from February 2009 to April 2010, during which time the MPA proposal came into being and was then imposed on Mauritius.[31][32]
WikiLeaks cablegate disclosure
According to United States diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, the UK and US wanted to safeguard the strategic value of the Chagos Islands.
WikiLeaks published a cable from the US embassy in London to Washington stating:
HMG would like to establish a marine park or reserve providing comprehensive environmental protection to the reefs and waters of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), a senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) official informed Polcouns on May 12. The official insisted that the establishment of a marine park—the world's largest—would in no way impinge on USG use of the BIOT, including Diego Garcia, for military purposes. He agreed that the UK and U.S. should carefully negotiate the details of the marine reserve to assure that U.S. interests were safeguarded and the strategic value of BIOT was upheld. He said that the BIOT's former inhabitants would find it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue their claim for resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagos Archipelago were a marine reserve.[83]
See also
- List of islands in Chagos Archipelago
- Chagos Archipelago sovereignty dispute
- Expulsion of the Chagossians
- Great Chagos Bank
- Chagos Marine Protected Area
- Depopulation of Diego Garcia
- List of island countries and territories in the Indian Ocean
- British Indian Ocean Territory
- Indian Ocean
- Scattered Islands
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{{cite web}}
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Further reading
- ISBN 978-1-4746-1812-0
- Wenban-Smith, N. and Carter, M. (2016) Chagos: A History, Exploration, Exploitation, Expulsion, Chagos Conservation Trust: London. ISBN 978-0-9954596-0-1
- Pilger, John (2006). Freedom Next Time. Bantam Press. ISBN 0-593-05552-7. Chapter 1: Stealing a Nation, pp. 19–60
- Padma Rao, Der Edikt der Königin, in: Der Spiegel, 5 December 2005, pp. 152–4.
- ISBN 84-7254-801-5
- David Vine, Island of Shame: The Secret History of the US Military Base on Diego Garcia. Princeton University Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-691-13869-5
Novels
- ISBN 9782879294544
- Caroline Laurent, Rivage de la colère, Les Escales, 2020, ISBN 9782266311915