Descendants of the people of the Chagos Islands have claimed their views are being ignored as the prime minister of Mauritius announced the start of talks with Britain over the territory’s sovereignty.
Pravind Jugnauth, who has led the Mauritian government since 2017, used a new year’s address to reveal that talks with London were under way over the disputed Indian Ocean archipelago.
“The latest developments on the Chagos issue are very encouraging,” he said. “Negotiations between Mauritius and Britain have begun”.
Mauritius, a British colony until its independence in 1968, claims the remote islands as its own territory although it is administered by Britain, which has a joint military base with the US on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.
The talks are expected to lead to the return of former inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago who were forcibly displaced by the British government in the 1960s and 1970s.
The UK is expected, however, to seek continued rights over Diego Garcia which is a vital strategic asset for the US military.
There remains deep distrust of both Mauritius and Britain among descendants of the ousted islanders, who responded to the talks by voicing concerns at the lack of consultation with them over the potential outcomes, a point of contention that was recently raised by the NGO Human Rights Watch.
Rosy Leveque, 28, from the Chagos Islanders lobby group, said: “I feel that history is repeating itself – the same two states who treated my family like cargo are once again negotiating our community’s future without the involvement of the actual community itself.
“The Lancaster agreement of 1965 where Mauritius and the UK signed a document to exile an entire population into a life of poverty and discrimination both in Mauritius and Seychelles – the same thing is happening again.”
Three years before Mauritius gained independence from the UK, London severed the Chagos Islands from the rest of the country so it could lease the island of Diego Garcia to the US for military use.
The British government then forcibly deported 2,000 Chagossians, who subsequently waged an arduous legal battle to return, culminating in a 2019 ruling by the international court of justice that the continuing British occupation of the islands was illegal.
The foreign secretary, James Cleverley, announced in a written ministerial statement in November that the UK intended to reach a settlement with Mauritius early next year over the islands.
Later that month, in response to a question by Conservative MP Henry Smith, Cleverley told the Commons foreign affairs committee that the government would “ensure that we have conversations with the Chagossian communities”.
But Leveque said that she and other descendants did not have faith in the Mauritian government to respect the rights of the Chagossian community.
She said: “The descendants I’ve spoken to in Mauritius do not support Mauritius sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, especially when you look at what’s happening in Agaléga islands.
“Mauritius has sold the islands to India to be used as an Indian military base and the people of Agaléga are being cast aside, many of them also are of Chagossian descent.
“Chagossians should be given the same respect as the Falkland Islands – a referendum. We should be given the choice to decide if we want to be governed by either Mauritius or UK. Our right to self-determination is not being respected.”
David Victoire, whose paternal grandmother was from Diego Garcia, said he feared the Mauritian government would prioritise its economic interests.
He said: “I’m completely devastated and heartbroken by the negotiations which is actually happening between the Mauritian and British government.
“I feel that history is repeating itself, when the Chagossians were deported in the late 60s and early 70s they were not consulted at all and here we go again.”
The UK government has said it expects the bilateral talks to end in an agreement in the early months of 2023.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson pointed to a recent comment by minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who had said the government recognised the diverse views of the Chagossian communities. “Although the negotiations are between the UK and Mauritius, we will ensure that we engage with the communities as negotiations progress,” the minister had said.
The Mauritian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
