# "Collateral victims of global security, before, during and after the war in Iraq: the case of the Chagossians"

Kushboo Mangroo

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## To cite this version:

Kushboo Mangroo. "Collateral victims of global security, before, during and after the war in Iraq: the case of the Chagossians". 2023. hal-04283475

HAL Id: hal-04283475

https://hal.science/hal-04283475v1

Submitted on 15 Nov 2023

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OREMA, “Collateral victims of global security, before, during and after the war in Iraq: the case of the Chagossians” – Kushboo Mangroo (MIMMOC, Université de Poitiers), https://orema.hypotheses.org/1774, 16 May 2023.

Collateral victims of global security, before, during and after the war in Iraq: the case of the Chagossians

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The 2003 Iraq War, along with the 2001 War in Afghanistan, meant constant deployments of U.S. and allied forces in the Middle East and South Asia, altering priorities in military basing and logistics in ways that would directly impact even people with no connection to the wars. One of the most extreme cases of these collateral consequences was the right of
Chagossians to return to their native lands, the Chagos Archipelago. The largest atoll in the archipelago, Diego Garcia, is home to a U.S. military base, which was an essential staging point in the Iraq War and broader war on terror.

The Chagos Archipelago is located in the centre of the Indian Ocean, around 1,600 km south of India and a few hundred kilometres east of Madagascar. It was once home to around 2,000 Chagossians before the United Kingdom forcibly removed them to make way for a U.S. military facility as part of the Cold War expansion of U.S. base infrastructure. The U.S. identified Diego Garcia as a potential site for a base in the 1950s. As part of the 1963 Polaris Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, the U.S. provided Polaris missiles at a reduced price to the UK; in exchange, the UK promised to provide an uninhabited island for a U.S. military facility in the Indian Ocean. The 1960s were also the era of decolonisation. Mauritius asked for its independence from the UK in 1965 and finally became independent in 1968. The British government wanted to detach the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius' dependencies to form the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), designed to host the U.S. base. Mauritius first refused to detach the islands offering to discuss the matter after achieving independence. The Mauritian Premier preferred a 99-year lease rather than a detachment, but detaching the Chagos islands to the British was part of the UK-US agreement. As David Vine recounts, for the United States, the islands "had to be controlled by the US or a Western ally (UK or Australia)".

The Mauritian Premier finally agreed to cede the Archipelago to the British government. The UK agreed to revert the islands "when no longer needed for defence purposes". The Chagos Archipelago was detached by Order in Council in November 1965 under the Royal Prerogative despite the UN's recommendations not to detach the Chagos Archipelago and accusations of creating a new colony (as outlined by a 2019 International Court of Justice advisory opinion). To fulfil the condition of an "uninhabited" island, the Chagossians were forcibly removed from the Chagos Archipelago to make way for the U.S. military facility starting in 1971. They were sent to Mauritius and the Seychelles. Since the 1980s, Mauritius and the Chagossians have claimed the Chagos Archipelago, the former as part of its sovereignty, the latter their right to live in their homeland. Today, Chagossians live in exile in different parts of the world, the majority living in Mauritius, in the Seychelles and in the UK.
The U.S. military facility became Camp Justice and developed into arguably one of the most important bases in the world, due to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean and its remoteness. It served as a staging area and airfield for the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War and Operation Desert Fox in 1998. Meanwhile, the Chagossians continued to seek justice through various courtroom battles in the UK. On 3 November 2000, the Divisional Court ruled that the eviction of the Chagossians was illegal and Foreign Secretary Robin Cook accepted the judgement. This ruling overturned the 1971 Immigration Ordinance prohibiting any presence on the Chagos Archipelago. The Chagossians would now be able to access their lands pending a study to assess the feasibility of resettlement. At the turn of the millennium, it seemed that the Chagossians would be allowed to return to the islands of the Chagos Archipelago except Diego Garcia, harbouring the U.S. military base.

The early 21st century was marked by the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. B-52 bombers launching cruise missiles from Diego Garcia participated in the early stages of the 2003 invasion and the central Indian Ocean location made the base an excellent staging area throughout the wars. The UK government, closely aligned to the United States and invested in the Iraq War, changed their discourse regarding the resettlement of the islanders, stating that given the outcome of the feasibility study published in June 2004, it was “impossible for the Government to promote or even permit resettlement to take place (...).” The government also cited “developments in the international security climate”. The United States expressed concerns that the resettlement could represent a threat to the “unique security of Diego Garcia”. This decision to prevent resettlement was formally adopted by an Order in 2004, where the UK government argued that “Her Majesty in Council ‘was entitled to legislate for a colony in the interests of the United Kingdom’, and ‘required to take into account the interests of the colony’, but in the event of a conflict between those interests she was ‘entitled, on the advice of Her United Kingdom ministers, to prefer the interests of the United Kingdom’”, and by extension the United States.

On 25 February 2019, in its reply to the request for an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, the International Court of Justice concluded that “the process of decolonisation of Mauritius was not lawfully completed when that country acceded to independence and that the United Kingdom is under an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible”. This non-binding ruling became UN General Assembly resolution 12146 on 22 May 2019 by a recorded vote of 116 for and 6 against (Australia, Hungary, Israel,
the Maldives, the United Kingdom, the United States). The advisory opinion illustrated the continuity of colonialism in the case of the Chagos Archipelago. Representing a valuable asset to the United States, it also suggested that the U.S. benefited from colonisation by way of one of its closest allies, the UK. Recently, the United Kingdom has accepted to start talks on sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago with Mauritius, excluding the Chagossians for now.

With conventional war back in Ukraine and great power competition in the Indo-Pacific region dominating American defence strategy, the prospect of the Chagossians' resettlement on the Chagos Archipelago might be compromised once again if the United States expresses concerns about the threat of a local population near its remote military base. The aim of the Chagossians is to resettle the outer islands of the Chagos Archipelago without compromising the functioning of the military base as they do not oppose the U.S. military base on Diego Garcia. Opposition arises in sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago within the Chagossian communities living in the UK, in the Seychelles and in Mauritius. Different views have been mentioned such as a British sovereignty, a Mauritian sovereignty or a Chagossian sovereignty.

2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the invasion of the United States in Iraq, for the Chagossians, it marks the 55th year of their struggle to return to the Chagos Archipelago. The Chagossians were forcibly removed, paying with their lives, interests, rights and voices for American national interests, such as the ability to launch B-52 bombers to Iraq from a safe distance. The UK reversal on resettlement between 2000 and 2004 was a direct consequence of the War in Iraq and broader war on terror. The rights of an indigenous people unrelated to the conflict were overlooked in the name of global peace and security.