The following article was published in the November 2024 issue of the International Review of Contemporary Law, the journal of the IADL, focusing on climate and social justice.
Book Review Philippe Sands, Die letzte Kolonie. Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit im Indischen Ozean (Frankfurt, S. Fischer, 2023), 318 S.
(English Original Version: The Last Colony. A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy 2022, by Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
by Walter Sauer
Since Namibia’s independence in 1990, decolonisation has not, as it had previously, featured prominently on the agenda of international politics. The issue of Western Sahara, Africa’s real “last colony“, seemed largely forgotten until recently, as has been the case of the Chagos Islands.
Philippe Sands, from University College London, who currently represents Palestine before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), traces the struggle of the Chagossians for self-determination and affiliation with Mauritius in this profound yet reader-friendly book. Sands is clearly biased – as he states in the introduction, as he was one of Mauritius’ legal representatives in its claim against the UK at the ICJ. Thus, his text not only carefully describes how the claim was politically and legally prepared and advanced during court proceedings but is also testimony to his personal involvement. Furthermore, the book sketches the biography of Liseby Elisé, a Chagossian stalwart in the struggle for self-determination, born in 1953 on the island of Île du Coin in the Chagos archipelago, then part of the British colony of Mauritius.
The archipelago was placed under London’s colonial rule in the First Peace Treaty of Paris 1814, confirmed by the Congress of Vienna the following year. On 27 April 1973, Mrs Elisé, four months pregnant, was deported to Mauritius along with the other natives of the islands. Great Britain had declared the region a restricted military area.
This decision was taken against the background of colonial intrigue during the Cold War: Since the early 1960s, Great Britain and the United States were secretly negotiating the lease of islands in the Indian Ocean to the US to allow it to establish a military base. IIn 1967, the Chagos Islands were administratively severed from Mauritius as the „British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT)“. One year later Mauritius was granted territorial independence but without the BIOT. Although the United Nations criticised the incomplete independence process sharply, the UK went ahead with the forced resettlement of the Chagos Islands population . The islands themselves were leased to the USA t for he purpose of building the Diego Garcia military base. The lease contract was to last until 2016 but could be extended until 2036.
Diego Garcia is geostrategically important due to its location between Africa and Australia and in the vicinity of the Arabian Peninsula, India, Vietnam, Myanmar and Malaysia. It thus served as a base for operations in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and for US operations in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. .
After intense lobbying, the International Court of Justice in 2019 issued a non-binding advisory opinion awarding the archipelago to Mauritius – the groundwork done by Liseby Elisé, Philippe Sands etc. had paid off. Over the following years, various international organisations took related steps. In 2021, for example, the Universal Postal Union banned British stamps from being used in British Indian Ocean Territory. In the same year, the ICJ opinion was confirmed by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Eventually international pressure had an effect. Supported only by the United States, Hungary, Israel and the Maldives,, the United Kingdom found itself isolated. Following a summit meeting between Prime Minister Liz Truss and Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, London issued a statement in November 2022 declaring that it was prepared to “reach an agreement [on the Chagos Islands] on the basis of international law”. Part of the agreement would be the continued operation of a joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia.
Sands’ book concludes on an optimistic note – but maybe prematurely. After publication, in December 2023, the tide changed again. According to media reports, the UK government was planning to discontinue talks with Mauritius and to retain British ownership of BIOT. The future of Chagos Islands – and of the Chagossians – hangs again in the air.
Walter Sauer
Historian, Professor at the Economic and Social History Department at the University of Vienna (retired): specialized in African history, migration and the role of Habsburg Monarchy in European colonialism. 2022-2023 appointed by the Austrian Ministry of Culture to serve at the expert committee to “develop a guideline for a consistent approach to objects in a colonial context and demands for repatriation”; 2023 received the Austrian Award for Development Research.
Contact: walter.sauer@univie.ac.at
All articles published in the International Review of Contemporary Law reflect only the position of their author and not the position of the journal, nor of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.