As a world power, the United States claims a global network of military bases. Since the Second World War, Washington has systematically built and expanded strategic bridges and supply stations in many places. Few bases have complicated histories such as the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which is part of the Chagos Archipelago. Negotiations on the future of the islands have now begun, as Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth confirmed at the start of the new year.
In Diego Garcia, Western imperial claims are coupled with a pending decolonization brink. Great Britain is to blame for this toxic mix. In the 1960s, London continued to claim the so-called Chagos Islands including Diego Garcia for itself, while Mauritius, which was connected to the Chagos Islands as a colonial territory, was granted independence.
The reason: Washington was looking for a suitable base in the Indian Ocean. The military strategist’s eye fell on the remote atoll of Diego Garcia – and London rushed to help. Deal sealed, the US leased the area to their armed forces. Locals on the islands then ship on old barge bellies carrying bird droppings for fertilizer. They were taken to the Seychelles and Mauritius.
The numbers of those disenfranchised seemed to the imperialists manageable enough to attract attention – which did nothing to diminish the individual suffering of the roughly 1,000 people affected. Poverty and misery define the lives of many uprooted people. And no one else seems to care much.
“It feels like history is repeating itself”
To this day, those affected and their surviving families feel a deep disbelief. Some felt that – then as now – they had no right to determine their own future. Rosy Leveque of the lobby group Chagos Islanders has complained in the British press that her family was taken away like goods even then – and that negotiations are now proceeding without them being swayed. “It feels like history is repeating itself”, he told her Daily Express.
The fact that the British government now wants to enter into “constructive negotiations” with Mauritius about the future of Chagos, as it was said in London, could still have far-reaching consequences. On the one hand, for the families of former residents who want to return to their homeland. But also for the US’s vested interest plan to keep Diego Garcia as a base. As security experts stress, it is the only relevant US outpost in the Indian Ocean. From a strategic point of view, he is considered difficult to replace.
In November 2022, the United Kingdom has signaled its initial willingness to negotiate. Former resident Diego Garcia previously caused a stir with a Mauritius-sponsored expedition to their former homeland, complete with a – albeit very brief – landing. At that time they were not allowed to stay overnight.
For a long time, forced transfers were taboo in London, but times have changed. In early 2019, an opinion by the International Court of Justice found that the UK’s claim on Chagos violated international law. This indirectly increases the pressure on tenants, US. Both London and Washington have frequently emphasized that they support a “rules-based world order” when political manipulation and pending decolonization don’t fit the picture.
India is getting nervous
Meanwhile, in Indian security circles, there are fears that Mauritius could open up the Chagos Islands to Beijing in the future, for example to write off some of China’s debt with such a deal. The specter of Chinese expansion in southern India also seems to be haunting some British Tory MPs. Political scientist Peter Harris of Colorado State University in the US has yet to see reliable evidence for this assumption, especially since Mauritius offered to fix Diego Garcia’s lease to the US for the next 99 years.
Some refer to the atoll as the “unsinkable aircraft carrier” of the United States. The planes that bombed Afghanistan after 9/11 and then served in the Gulf War take off from here. The Atoll is also an important supply station for America’s submarine fleet.
The US has officially stated that it regards the Chagos dispute as a bilateral matter between Mauritius and London. But of course everyone knows that the United States has the most weight in these negotiations, even though it is not formally on the negotiating table.
