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Agence France-Presse

The UN’s top court will hear arguments on Monday on the future status of the British-ruled Chagos Islands, home to a strategic joint US military base but a territory claimed by Mauritius.
Port Louis is set to open arguments before the International Court of Justice in a case brought by the United Nations over the Indian Ocean archipelago, which has been the centre of a dispute for more than five decades.
In a diplomatic blow to Britain, the UN General Assembly last June adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking The Hague-based ICJ to offer a legal opinion on the island chain’s fate.

The ICJ’s 15 judges will now listen to arguments on the “legal consequences of [Britain’s] separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius” in 1965, just before Port Louis’ independence from its colonial ruler.
The African Union and 22 countries – including the US and Germany – are to make statements during the four-day hearing.
After the hearings, the ICJ will hand down a non-binding “advisory opinion”, but the judges’ ruling may take several months or even years.
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An opinion in favour of Mauritius may strengthen Port Louis’ hand in negotiations or could lay the foundation for an eventual formal claim before the ICJ – set up in 1946 and which also rules in disputes between countries.
Mauritius, which declared independence in 1968, argues that it was illegal for London to break up its territory while still under colonial rule.
Britain detached the islands from Mauritius, then a semi-autonomous British territory, using decolonisation talks as leverage and paying £3 million (US$3.9 million) for them at the time.
As the cold war with the former Soviet Union intensified, London established a combined military base with the US on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.
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The Indian Ocean base plays a key strategic role in US military operations.
In the 1970s, it offered proximity to Asia during the fall of Saigon and the Khmer Rouge takeover in Cambodia, and as the Soviet navy extended its influence in the region.
In recent years it has served as a staging ground for US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Britain in the early 1970s forcibly removed the archipelago’s residents – some 2,000 in total – to make way for the base.

A British diplomat in a cable at the time described it as the removal of “some few Tarzans and Man Fridays” and islanders have not been allowed to return since because of security reasons.
Last year’s vote before the UN whether to refer the matter to the ICJ was also seen as a test for Britain’s ability to rally support from fellow Europeans at the world body, a year after its shock vote to leave the European Union.
The matter was passed 95-15, with 65 abstentions – most by European member states including France, Italy and Spain.
London pledged to mount a “robust defence” saying the move was bound to hurt relations with Port Louis.
Mauritius on the other hand, said it wants to “eliminate colonialism” and its independence would not be complete without getting back the Chagos Islands.
Port Louis did however say it recognised “the existence of the base and accepts its continued and future functioning in accordance with international law”.


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File photo of the US airbase on Diego Garcia. Photo: AFP

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

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

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Archipelago was annexed by Britain before Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s


Archipelago was annexed by Britain before Mauritius gained independence in the 1960s.


British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos islands)