Chagos Islands

Great Britain is determined to never see the sun set on the remnants of the old British empire. However, the United Nations General Assembly recently delivered a stinging rebuke to Britain over its continued occupation of the Chagos Islands, which it cleaved from its colony of Mauritius in 1965 in order for the United States to build a major military base on the island of Diego Garcia. The General Assembly voted 116 to 6, with 56 abstentions, against Britain’s continued control of the Chagos Islands.

On May 20 the United Kingdom appointed its first human rights ambassador to the United Nations and two days later the General Assembly of the United Nations overwhelmingly condemned the UK for its continuing colonial treatment of the Chagos Islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

IMAGE: Britain’s Ambassador to the UN, Karen Pierce, left in the lurch by near unanimous resolution.

Our weekly documentary film curated by the editorial team at 21WIRE.
This film was written and directed by filmmaker John Pilger, and it chronicles the initial legal battle by the expelled residents of the Chagos Islands Archipelago, chiefly from the island of Diego Garcia, who forcibly removed by the British government between 1967 and 1973 to Mauritius, 1,000 miles away, so that their home could be transformed into an American and British air and military base. This is one of the most extraordinary stories of our time. Watch:

Let this be a lesson to its detractors, doubters and stuff shirts of the secrecy establishment: the documents sourced from WikiLeaks can have tangible, having significant value for ideas and causes. They can advance matters of the curious; they can confirm instances of the outrageous and they can add to those fabulous claims that might change history.  While Julian Assange[Read More...]

By Craig Murray | February 26, 2019 In parliament, Alan Duncan for the government has just rejected yesterday’s stunning result at the International Court of Justice, where British occupation of the Chagos Islands was found unlawful by a majority of 13 to 1, with all the judges from EU countries amongst those finding against the […]

Sputnik – February 25, 2019 In a landmark ruling, the International Court of Justice had ruled “the UK has an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos archipelago as rapidly as possible, and all member states must cooperate with the United Nations to complete the decolonization of Mauritius”. The authoritative — albeit […]

RT | September 3, 2018 The UK claim over an archipelago in the Indian Ocean is being challenged by Mauritius in the International Court of Justice. The largest island hosts a US airbase, the construction of which saw mass deportations of the islanders. Despite the UK’s attempts to go through official channels in the UN […]

By Mark Curtis – February 12, 2007 An edited extract from Web of Deceit: Britain’s Real Role in the World During the decolonisation process in the 1960s Britain created a new colony – the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). This included the Chagos island group which was detached from Mauritius, and other islands detached from […]

By Craig Murray | November 17, 2016 “We do not agree the right of self-determination applies to the Chagossians”, says Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan, who later clarifies that they are not “a people”. If you can stand it, you can watch the urgent question in the Commons today which forced the government to defend […]