LALIT holds successful Diego Garcia Round Table
16.03.2023
The theme chosen for the Round Table called by LALIT for Sunday 12 March Independence Day, was “Where are we today, after 55 years of Independence, on Chagos, including Diego Garcia?” Presided by Alain Ah Vee, and with Ragini Kistnasamy speaking for LALIT, guest speakers included former President of the Republic, Cassam Uteem, former Attorney General and Ambassador Jean Claude Bibi, former Ambassador Alain Laridon, academic Jimmy Harmon and educator, Olivier Precieux. Rajni Lallah spoke on behalf of the Muvman Liberasyon Fam. Olivier Bancoult sent a message for the Round Table, in the name of the Chagos Refugees Group, explaining that he would be in Reunion at the time and wishing us well in our deliberations. Jayen Chellum send a message of support; he has always supported the struggle over Diego Garcia. Others present included LALIT members and people from the trade union movement and Chagossian community.
Cassam Uteem
The first speaker Cassam Uteem gave a monumental speech outlining first the glaring contradiction in the new situation when the UK-USA are calling for Russia to respect international law by respecting Ukraine’s borders, when they do not respect international law over decolonizing Mauritius, including Chagos, which includes Diego Garcia. The ICJ has pronounced the Britain’s dismemberment of Mauritius, and its excising of Chagos including Diego Garcia to be illegal, and Britain’s decolonization process illegal. The ICJ also said that Britain must bring an end to this illegal colonization and do so “as rapidly as possible”. Following this advice, he said, the UN General Assembly resolution of May 2019 called for the UK to withdraw its colonial administration from Chagos “unconditionally” and within six months.
Given this, Mr. Uteem said, when the Mauritian Prime Minister has “conversations” or “negotiations” with the British Prime Minister, the first thing that is required is for the British Prime Minister to state that Britain accepts the ICJ ruling. The second thing Britain must state is that it will respect the UN General Assembly resolution. But, what the two Prime Ministers actually discussed in their “conversations” is not known. The content of these conversations must be made public. Of course there must be reparations. But, Britain must say when it will leave.
Meanwhile, he said, the Mauritian authorities, together with Chagossian representatives, must prepare both in terms of the housing and amenities on Chagos, and the democratic systems that will be put in place.
To conclude, the base must be closed down. We cannot have a military base on our land. It is a military base that has been and is being and will be used for killing people. We are not at war with any country. To make matters worse, he said, it is a nuclear base, so is in violation of the Pelindaba Treaty for a Nuclear Arms Free Africa. Mauritius must not accept a new “partly decolonized” country, just like the past 50 years of an old “partly decolonized” country. Mauritius should not accept blood money either, in the form of rent. And Mauritius has won victory at the ICJ and in the General Assembly, so we ought not to be begging. Britain has to leave “unconditionally”.
So, this means we call the UK to say that it accepts the ICJ ruling and the UN General Assembly vote. We call for all “conversations” and negotiations to be made public. We call for Chagossians to be included in decisions that affect them, in particular the kind of town planning and the kind of democratic legal framework they want. We call for reparations from the UK and USA. We call for the base on Diego Garcia to be closed down, and abandoned unconditionally.
He said that while the two main guilty parties are the USA and the UK, we must also keep in mind the political responsibility of the four party leaders – Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, Jules Koenig, Sookdeo Bissoondoyal, and Razack Mohamed – and the two British nominated representatives of the capitalist class, referred to as “the private sector”, Maurice Paturau and Jean Ah Chuen. However, we also have to remember that the leader of the Mauritius delegation was a British Governor, Sir John Rennie. Others in the delegation including Aneerood Jugnauth were not involved in all the meetings.
Jean Claude Bibi
Jean Claude Bibi argued cogently how the UN’s Decolonization Committee, also called the 24 Committee, was put in charge of the decolonization of all colonies in the world, including of course Mauritius and that this decolonization became part of international law. The Committee still exists, he said. So Britain went against this aspect of international law, its decolonization aspect, in the case of Mauritius. Worse still, Britain actually expelled, uprooted and displaced all the people living on Diego Garcia and the other Chagos islands instead of decolonizing them together with the rest of Mauritius. It was a total depopulation that the UK and USA implemented on part of the territory of Mauritius. This is a crime. And the Second principle that Britain violated was the prohibition for a colonizer to break up a colony during the process of decolonization. This action, and the blackmail involved, are illegal. The colonizer has to decolonize the colony as a whole. It is obliged by international law to respect “territorial integrity”.
Now, with the victories under international law at the level of the ICJ and the UN General Assembly, we face the reality that we are still not completely decolonized. This is the physical reality. The Mauritian state still does not control its own Mauritian territory. This is because of the importance to the powerful alliance of the UK and USA. They want to continue to command control over the maritime region on and around Diego Garcia and Chagos for both geo-political and economic reasons, and are refusing to give it up. Legal or illegal, they refuse to accept the ICJ ruling.
It is very important, Jean Claude Bibi said, for the Mauritian people, and in particular for the Chagossians, that the struggle towards complete decolonization continues. The UN Charter itself, which is the pillar of the international geopolitical and legal framework, demands this: all countries must become independent. But, when you look at the international reality, and in particular the case of Diego Garcia, it clearly does not mean that the international law is easy to apply. On the one hand there is the legal framework that rules that Britain is acting illegally, on the other hand there is the political reality, which persists in its in illegality: the UK-USA occupy Diego Garcia militarily. There is also an ideological framework. So powerful States are always putting their own interests “as States” first. Their own interests are defined also by their powerful businessmen inside their powerful States. Their aim, both the UK and the USA is to keep the military base there on Diego Garcia.
Mauritius – and even the UN – does not have the political or military means to apply the international law. This, of course, does not prevent the USA from using its interpretation of international law and its military force to invade Iraq when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The USA even went into Libya without any pretext at all and orchestrated the assassination Khadafi. In the case of Ukraine, when Russia invades Ukraine, the UK-USA cry out in favour of Ukrainian sovereignty, while, themselves, violating the sovereignty of Mauritius, and the international law on decolonization.
The ICJ judgement, even though we cannot yet enforce or apply it, has nevertheless, its full legality, and its value in the balance of political forces. It is a political resolution that will be necessary. A legal resolution is not sufficient.
Now, today, after the crimes have been committed, and exposed, and declared illegal, what the UK-USA want to do now is to invent a new “legal framework” to cover up this illegality they find themselves in. The conversations and negotiations have that as their aim – to come up with some duly signed document that they can pretend to make their illegal occupation and the military base “legal”. They want their military base there to be “legal”. They need the military base for their geopolitical aim of encircling and containing China.
So, there are two fronts that we must always fight the USA and UK on, at the same time. The UK and USA are trying to separate the two issues so as to protect the military base. They want to negotiate some type of formalistic and probably partial “decolonization” without any threat to the military base. So, they want to change who it is that the USA gets a lease from, so that the USA can perpetuate its base on Diego Garcia. So, Mauritius has won a legal battle for sovereignty, and now the UK and USA want to invent a new “legal framework” to cover up the crime they intend to perpetuate. Jean Claude said he fears that the Mauritian State, our own government, intends to provide this kind of “legal” contract that the USA wants. This follows from the Prime Ministers repeated statement that decolonization does not have any implications for the military base, but is only about sovereignty.
The time has come for us – and this is a bottom line – to tell the UK and USA to get out, Jean Claude Bibi said. And we must always keep these two aims – decolonization and base closure – united, as LALIT in fact does. There must be no confusion. This means we have to fight on two fronts. And we have to get rid of the base.
Jean Claude Bibi continued by saying that any negotiations and conversations need to make clear what the position is on Diego Garcia and the base. It must go. The bottom line or Mauritius in negotiations with the UK, is that the UK must give its dead-line and leave.
Jimmy Harmon, Alain Laridon, Rajni Lallah, Olivier Precieux
Jimmy Harmon outlined the key point in time when the pre-Independence Mauritian elected leaders gave their supposed “consent” to the detachment of Chagos including Diego Garcia, he outlined who exactly knew what at the time and how, whatever the case may be, the detachment was illegal. He also mentioned that at the time of the detachment, Seychelles islands, like Aldabra, were included.
Before that, on a personal note, he explained how while he was at college he gave a hand in Komite Morisyin lor Losean Indyin alongside Kishore Mundil and how he read some CEDREFI material on the Indian Ocean, and without these experiences, he might not be the person present today, talking on Chagos and Diego Garcia. (Full paper to be published later.)
Alain Laridon explained how when he was in the MMMSP, they had contributed small sums of money to get a poster printed in Britain on “Hands off Diego Garcia” and “ No to the militarization of the Indian Ocean” with pictures of Mauritians, including Chagossians, demonstrating with posters hand-made saying “Baz Amerikin nu pa le”. He showed us a copy of the poster.
He disagreed with those who say people in Mauritius took no note of the plight of Chagossians. He said that Dev Virahsawmy, for example, when he was MMMSP member of Parliament had asked parliamentary questions on Chagos and taken a stand against the base. In 1973, UDM leader Guy Ollivry had gone to the docks at the time of the Nordvaer arriving with the last of the Chagossians on board. And then from 1975 onwards, he said Ram Seegobin and Lindsey Collen took a stand. And the Revi Lalit de Klas constantly put the Diego Garcia issue on the agenda. Two women present today he said were amongst those beaten up and locked up by the police in a demonstration in 1981, referring to Lindsey Collen and Ragini Kistnasamy. He also paid homage to the contributions of people like Kishore Mundil, Coll Venkatasamy and former Chief Justice Rajsoomer Lallah for their profound contributions to the Diego Garcia issue.
He then spoke about the Marine Protected Area that, in 2015 the Permanent Court of Arbitration gave a judgment on, and how this opened the way for further cases under international court of Justice and the Tribunal and under UNCLOS.
Olivier Precieux presented a Powerpoint talk on the documents concerning the negotiations between the colonial power, the UK, and the pre-independence representatives. These documents have only recently been declassified.
Rajni Lallah gave a talk on the role of women in both the national struggle for Diego Garcia and the international aspect of the struggle. She spoke on the importance of linking the struggle for freedom from British colonization to the struggle for freedom from military occupation by the USA. Peace and freedom, she showed, have always been a women’s issue.
Ragini Kistnasamy
Ragini Kistnasamy gave a speech on behalf of LALIT showing the constant lies and trickery that have, over the decades, constantly accompanied the UK and USA’s occupation of Diego Garcia and the rest of Chagos. Her speech, a requisitory, will be published on our site shortly.
Alain Ah Vee presided over the event, and all those present were free to intervene, both between speeches by those invited to speak, and also for half an hour at the end.
It was decided to prepare a document that can be issued publicly as a Statement that came from the consensus reached. Four people were delegated to do the preparation of the document.
NOTE: On 21 March, this article was amended by adding the important messages sent in support of the Conference.
