Britain 'regrets' Chagos eviction as UN top court hears islands row

In a diplomatic blow to Britain, the UN General Assembly in June last year adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the ICJ to offer a legal opinion on the island chain's fate

In a diplomatic blow to Britain, the UN General Assembly in June last year adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the ICJ to offer a legal opinion on the island chain's fate

Britain apologised Monday for the "shameful way" it evicted residents of the disputed Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean but insisted Mauritius was wrong to bring the increasingly bitter dispute to the UN's top court.

Hearings opened Monday before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where judges are listening to arguments over the future status of the remote archipelago -- home to a strategic US military base leased from Britain on territory claimed by Mauritius.

Britain in the early 1970s evicted almost 2,000 residents to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for the key base. For years Chagossians have dreamt of returning.

London "fully accepts the manner in which Chagossians were removed from the Chagos Archipelago," British MP and Solicitor General Robert Buckland said.

"The way they were treated thereafter was shameful and wrong and (Britain) deeply regrets that fact," he told ICJ judges.

But London did not believe the world court -- which was asked by the United Nations General Assembly to give a legal opinion -- was the right body to resolve the matter.

"This is a purely bilateral dispute," between London and Port Louis, Buckland said, adding the ICJ's judges should "decline the request for an advisory opinion."

Earlier Monday, Mauritius' lawyers said the British-ruled Islands were "integral" to its territory and that the Indian Ocean island chain was handed to London "under duress".

"More than 50 years after independence... the process of decolonisation of Mauritius remains incomplete," former Mauritian president Anerood Jugnauth said.

This was "as a result of the unlawful detachment of an integral part of our territory on the eve of our independence," he told the judges.

- Diplomatic blow -

In a diplomatic blow to Britain, the UN General Assembly in June last year adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the ICJ to offer a legal opinion on the island chain's fate.

The Chagos archipelago was detached from Mauritius for inclusion in the newly created British Indian Ocean Territory in 1965 shortly before Port Louis' independence from Britain.

Residents of Diego Garcia island, in the Chagos archipelago, hear  news of legislation to deport all the Chagos population to Mauritius and the Seychelles

Residents of Diego Garcia island, in the Chagos archipelago, hear news of legislation to deport all the Chagos population to Mauritius and the Seychelles

The African Union and 22 countries -- including Germany and South Africa and several Asian and Latin American nations -- will make statements during the four-day hearing.

They all voted last year whether to ask the ICJ to rule on the matter. The US and Australia will also speak and are expected to support Britain while South Africa and the AU are likely to back Mauritius.

After the hearings, the ICJ will hand down a non-binding "advisory opinion", but the judges' ruling may take several months or even years.

An opinion in favour of Mauritius may strengthen Port Louis' hand in future negotiations or could lay the foundation for an eventual formal claim before the ICJ, which also rules in disputes between countries.

Britain used decolonisation talks as leverage and paid £3 million for the Chagos islands.

Jugnauth however said Mauritian officials were given "no room for any choice" during the 1965 talks and had to chose between letting Chagos go or failing to obtain independence.

- Key strategic base -

As the Cold War with the former Soviet Union intensified, the US established a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.

Map locating the Chagos Islands

Map locating the Chagos Islands

The base plays a 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.

London has stressed that it promised to hand back the Chagos islands "when no longer required for defence purposes."

Port Louis has conceded that it recognised "the existence of the base and accepts its continued and future functioning in accordance with international law."

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, 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.

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