The British have indeed a deep sense of humour. But to go as far as telling us that they have to seclude the territorial waters of Chagos to protect its pristine environment, they are pushing their luck a bit too far. For more than four decades they have exploited the natural resources in the Chagos waters and unjustly enriched themselves from income derived from the issue of fishing licences. Now that the fish stock has been depleted, they have suddenly turned green. They have a devious agenda and had hoped that they would be able to mollycoddle Mauritius into submitting a joint submission for an extended continental shelf to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. A submission under Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea would not be endorsed by the Commission in the event of a dispute on the question of sovereignty. Mauritius has done the right thing by refusing a joint submission.
But the UK government is not giving up. It will declare the whole area of territorial waters protected and close its access to the rest of the world. It has in fact already started to spin a well-rehearsed ploy, by trying to sell to the world that its objective, in the guise of environmental protection, is a laudable one. The Chagos has the world’s largest coral atoll and covers a surface of a quarter of a million square miles of the world’s cleanest seas. The UK wants us to believe that it is determined to save this natural environment by creating a conservation area comparable with the Great Barrier Reef.
It is trying to lure Mauritius to the negotiating table. Whilst negotiations between two friendly states is a desirable path in an attempt to solve their differences, the negotiations should only take place on the basis of mutual respect and on the ability of the respective parties to put across fairly their differences. Yet, Mauritius has had previously the experience of negotiating with the UK government after a joint Fisheries Commission was set up. The outcome is known. Mauritius was humiliated. The proposal from the UK side was to authorise Mauritius to have access to the territorial waters of Chagos, on payment of a license fee. Our sovereign rights were simply brushed aside.
Earlier in the year a high-powered delegation from Mauritius assisted by an eminent expert, went to London to open negotiations with the UK government on the Chagos. The Mauritian side had set the agenda high and had insisted on the inclusion of the legal position of Mauritius (the word sovereignty was diplomatically avoided) and the resettlement over Chagos, as items for discussions. The acceptance for discussions was deliberate on the part of the UK government. The House of Lords had already delivered its judgment on the 22 October 2008 and held that the decision of the UK government to enact prerogative orders made by the Queen in Council which prohibited the unrestricted return of the Chagossians was lawful. It was a tremendous boost to the UK government to carry out its so-called BIOT administrative decisions over the islands, in clear violation of the rights of the former inhabitants of those islands. It had a strong hand at the negotiating table and paid scant attention to the position of Mauritius as regards its sovereign rights. The contention of the Mauritian side with regards to the commitment of Robin Cook, former Foreign Secretary, to resettle the Ilois was dismissed outright. Mauritius was reminded more than once about the compensation paid to the Ilois.
We should therefore act cautiously before going back to the negotiating table and we should only do so subject to a joint agenda which will cover the following issues: recognition of the sovereignty of Mauritius in respect of the Chagos Archipelago, freedom of access to the citizens of Mauritius and resettlement of individuals displaced in disregard of recognised standards of human rights; the restoration of the legal authority of Mauritius, including political and administrative control, management of the natural resources and protection of the environment. UK has unjustly enriched itself during years of exploitation of the natural resources of the Chagos and has cashed in from the issue of fishing licences and the benefits from the Polaris missiles given to Britain. The fourth condition would be just compensation to Mauritius for the unjust enrichment on the part of UK. The government will only command respect on the Chagos issue by adopting the hard line.
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