Public Forum on Diego Garcia today, Wednesday 31 May, P Louis

31.05.2023

As you know, for the first time in 20 years, a US Under-Secretary of State was in Mauritius yesterday for talks with the Prime Minister and to inaugurate a massive new supposed Embassy due to cost over 14 billion (repeat “billion”) Rupees. This is at the very moment that the British extreme right is running an on-going Sino-phobic Press Campaign, based on the British Ministry of Defence’s supposed continued “ownership” of Diego Garcia! The British Government is still maintaining that Chagos is the “British Indian Ocean Territory”, despite the law being clear on this: It is not. Chagos is Mauritian. The ICJ was asked by the UN General Assembly to advise on this. It did. It said Chagos, including Diego, is Mauritian. All the other UN bodies stand behind the ICJ and UN General Assembly on this. Yet, Britain persists in saying it owns Diego.

This is all happening as the UK Government holds secret talks with the Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, who is on the verge of perhaps taking an irreversible, erroneous stand on this issue, by offering Diego up for sale for 99 years for military purposes outside sovereign control. The consequences of any error by the Prime Minister will be extreme. So, the question is “who is standing up to be counted?”

Our original Forum on Diego Garcia fixed for last month, as you may know, had to be postponed due to a heavy rains warning.

We have pleasure in inviting you to this Forum today, at 4.00pm at the Municipality of Port-Louis which will focus on one of the key issues of our times.