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The Guardian

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly backed a motion condemning Britain’s occupation of the remote Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.
The vote, which left the UK diplomatically isolated, set a six-month deadline for the UK to withdraw from the archipelago and for it to be reunified with neighbouring Mauritius.
The motion, drafted by Senegal on behalf of African states, was backed by 116 countries.
Only five – the US, Hungary, Israel, Australia and the Maldives – voted with the UK and 56 abstained.

The UK’s closest European allies, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Poland and Romania, chose to abstain.
Others, among them Austria, Greece, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, voted for the UK to relinquish sovereignty, as did Russia and China.
British control of Chagos Islands is ‘keeping world safe’, claims UK minister
British diplomats said the resolution would have little practical impact.
The UK retained possession of the Chagos Archipelago after Mauritius gained independence in 1968.
The island, known by the Foreign Office as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), includes the site of a US military base on Diego Garcia, used by bombers on long-range missions and, in the past, for rendition flights carrying terrorism suspects.
Both the UK and US lobbied intensely at the UN to avoid support for Britain dropping to single figures among the UN’s 193 member states.
The Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, was also present for the debate.
The general assembly vote followed an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in February declaring the UK should hand over control to Mauritius, which claims sovereignty over the islands.
After the vote, Karen Pierce, the UK’s permanent representative at the UN, said the large number of abstentions reflected many countries’ unease about the precedent set by the motion.
During the debate in New York, Pierce called on other nations to “reflect” on the “unwelcome precedent” of voting for Senegal’s motion, which she said would subject bilateral boundary disputes between countries to enforced resolution at international courts.
“The resolution goes beyond the advisory opinion [at the International Court of Justice in The Hague],” she said.
“It says there will be a six-month deadline for the UK” and could have a wide range of potential implications for the defence of the islands.
The ICJ advisory opinion did not take into account an earlier 2015 ruling by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, under which Mauritius had accepted the detachment of the Chagos Islands, Pierce said.

Pierce said the US government had made clear that the status of the territory was essential to the value of the joint function of the Diego Garcia base.
During the debate the Maldives representative said her country would not support the motion because of the “serious implications for the security of the Indian Ocean region”.
However, the Cypriot representative said his country supported the motion, pointing out that removal of “parcels of land” in the process of decolonisation usually involved an element of coercion.
The Foreign Office is eager to maintain good relations with Mauritius, a fellow Commonwealth member, despite the dispute.
The UK views BIOT’s defence and security role as vital: the islands are close to some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.


Diego Garcia is a pivotal location for monitoring and tackling drugs trafficking, piracy and crime in the Indian Ocean and has been used as a base for supporting humanitarian responses, such as after the 2004 tsunami.
The UK government publicly acknowledged in 2008 that Diego Garcia had twice been used, in 2002, for US rendition flights. It has received assurances that the base will not be used for rendition in the future.
Ahead of the result, the UK government was resigned to many countries voting against it on the totemic issue of decolonisation. Diplomats do not believe that Brexit – distancing the UK from its normal European allies – affected the outcome.
In 2017, 15 countries including Britain and the US voted to oppose a request for the ICJ ruling.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


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United Nations

Humiliation for Britain as UN demands it ends rule of Chagos Islands in six months

Fuel tanks on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago and the site of a US military base. Photo: Reuters

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator demanding her return to the Chagos Islands in the Diego Garcia archipelago shouts during a protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London October 22, 2008. REUTERS/Andrew Winning/File Photo/File Photo

A US Air Force B-1B bomber takes off from the Diego Garcia base on a strike mission against Afghanistan 07 October 2001, during Operation Enduring Freedom. AFP PHOTO/USAF

UK should leave Chagos Islands colony in Indian Ocean as soon as possible, top UN court says

File photo of Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago and site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased from Britain since 1966. Photo: Reuters

LON98:BRITAIN-ISLANDERS:LONDON,18JUL00 - UNDATED FILE PHOTO - File photo of Turtle Cove on Diego Garcia, largest island in the Chagos archipelago and site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased from Britain in 1966. Exiled inhabitants of Diego Garcia began a challenge July 17 to a British government decision to kick them off the remote island 30 years ago to make way for the U.S. base. Thousands of islanders from the 65-island Chagos archipelago, many of them born in exile in Mauritius, want Britain to return them to their homeland.clh/HO/U.S. Navy REUTERS

British control of Chagos Islands is ‘keeping the world safe’, claims UK foreign office minister

United States B-1 and B-52 heavy bombers based on the British island of Diego Garcia, seen in this undated file photo, were among planes that attacked Afghanistan on October 8, 2001. Diego Garcia, largest island in the Chagos archipelago and site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean, has been leased from Britain since 1966. REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Handout/Files

File photo of Turtle Cove on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago and site of a major US military base. Photo: Reuters

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World

Europe

UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly that the Indian Ocean island chain be given back to Mauritius
Britain disputes that the islands, which it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory, were ever a colony


UN General Assembly strongly condemns British occupation of Indian Ocean territory.


Britain

British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos islands)

Humiliation for Britain as UN demands it ends rule of Chagos Islands in six months

UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly that the Indian Ocean island chain be given back to Mauritius Britain disputes that the islands, which it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory, were ever a colony

UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly that the Indian Ocean island chain be given back to Mauritius

Britain disputes that the islands, which it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory, were ever a colony