Excellent thread on the reality of the UK’s ceding of the Chagos Islands to #Mauritius from a non-Western pov
Subskeeting a bit but I searched to see what folks were saying about Diego Garcia and the Chagos Deal, and some of the results make me feel like I’m back at the bird site.
And, let's not forget that the military base on the Chagos been used to invade Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003. So, nothing will be good so long as the US military base on Diego Garcia still exists.
Meaning that Chagossians will be able to return only to the outer islands, but not to Diego Garcia, which was the main inhabited island of the Chagos before the Chagossians' expulsion.
I initially thought the UK had been pressured into fully retroceding the Chagos to Mauritius, which would have been good. But the reality is the UK is nominally ceding the islands while retaining sovereign rights on Diego Garcia so the US base there can continue running for the next 99 years.
🧵I've read the Br*tish declaration on the Chagos issue. The situation is less good than it initially appeared. Full 🇲🇺-🇬🇧 joint declaration here: www.gov.uk/government/n...
What I'm not getting about the Chagos Islands thing: no reason Britain should keep it but how is giving it to Mauritius decolonisation? Just re-colonisation by a closer country surely? Like transferring the Faroe Islands from Denmark to Britain because it's closer, and then calling it decolonisation
It's truly extraordinary the degree to which certain publications are tying themselves in knots to rail against the ceding of sovereignty over the Chagos Islands. All sorts of paper thin reasons given, because they're too cowardly to tell the truth: they don't like seeing the sun set on the Empire
A few thoughts struck me about the whole Chagos Islands issue on the way into work. 1) The argument about the Mauritians getting into bed with China, denies them agency also 2) At no point did I see the argument that either UK or US should be extra nice to Mauritius to prevent 1).
This post appears to be a reasonable summary from a writer who actually knows about the Chagos Islands and their history. IMHO both Tory politicians and Argentina should stop trying to leverage the situation for their own ends. bsky.app/profile/leig...
My new blog post: "The Chagos Islands: A problem left over by history?" rleighturner.com/chagos-islan... #Chagos #Chagosislands #BIOT
The Chagos Islands are a problem left over by history. A planned transfer of sovereignty to Mauritius is a step forward. But challenges remain