Ramgoolam and Ramphul’s Silence Makes them Complicit in Selling Diego
23.09.2026
Yesterday, US President Donald Trump at his first face-to-face meeting with new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, in front of the Press, said the following when asked about “the deal to give away the Chagos Islands from the UK to Mauritius”:
“I think it's terrible. It was a terrible deal. They [Mauritius] all of a sudden say they [Mauritius] have ownership. Somebody [Mauritius] has ownership [Mauritius] that never showed up before after decades and centuries. I think it's ridiculous.”*
This assertion, mendacious as it is, has been broadcast from the United Nations headquarters to every corner of the earth by major news outlets. Note, the USA and UK had already scared Ramgoolam away altogether from the Heads of State general assembly at the UN for this year. Ramgoolam announced he wasn’t going, with stuttering reasons including that it was too costly! That was, in itself, already an appalling capitulation to pressure. Ramgoolam sent his even weaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Ramphul, who has to sit and listen to all this being broadcast about Mauritius.
And Ramgoolam and Ramphul say nothing, even now? Letting it pass, they, by their silence today, are colluding with the Trump fiction that, in the past, the Mauritian State was supposedly silent for “decades”, even “centuries”? Until it popped up out of nowhere? This is a total falsification of decolonization history. Even before Independence, the UN General Assembly had already warned the UK not to steal Chagos for a military base on Diego Garcia. And year after year, Mauritius, as a State, ensured that the matter remained on the Agenda. Now, Donald Trump lies about Chagos, just like that, pretending ignorance? And the Mauritian State does not clarify?
Note that the UK Prime Minister Burnham was equally pathetic in his reply, making Britain expose the vassal State it has in fact become. When Trump said Burnham was reconsidering the deal, Burnham took up the “acting like a doormat” tactic, to translate from the Kreol “fer payason pu Trump”. All Burnham could scrape up to say was a limp “Yeah”, thus distancing himself from the UK’s initial refusal to grant “permission” for the USA and Israel’s to use the USA’s military base on Diego Garcia (part of Chagos) and which Britain still colonizes and militarily occupies, if illegally. The two aggressor nations, USA and Israel, wanted to use Diego Garcia, which is Mauritian, for the war crime of bombing civilian infrastructure in Iran in Part I of the War, last year. Trump makes all this clear, see the entire quote in the footnote to this article. The then British PM Starmer initially refused because his legal advisors wisely told him the US-Israeli strikes were most likely illegal under international law.
So, today, this new Labour Party Prime Minister can only say “Yeah”, which is the way a child says “yes” to an embarrassing question from his mother, in answer to Trump announcing that “I think the Prime Minister is going to be looking at it”, meaning that he thinks Burnham will eventually be forced, if Trump has his way, to cancel the deal. Meaning that he, Trump, thinks Burnham and Ramgoolam will do like Denmark and Greenland! At least the President Maduro of Venezuela had the dignity of being kidnapped from his bedroom along with his wife, both by force, in the midst of a US bloodbath in Caracas that killed over 100 people. This is yet another US war crime. The Mauritian leaders have sold Diego Garcia for “blood money”. And, as happens when a weaker power does this, Mauritius ends up without its dignity and without even the blood money! Worse still, the Mauritian Government has to remain silent when accused of popping up like a mushroom to claim islands that were part of Mauritius before Independence, with Mauritian Magistrates visiting regularly. One of the last Magistrates to go to Diego Garcia from Mauritius was Rajsoomer Lallah. Nurses did terms there from the Mauritian health care system. Postal services were Mauritian, and once again, today in 2026, BIOT postal stamps have been outlawed by the Universal Postal union, after the international law was clarified publicly.
All this to say that Diego Garcia is not Britain’s to give permission for the USA to use. Not only did the International Court of Justice say Chagos is Mauritian, but the UN General Assembly said so, too., with all but THREE OTHER COUNTRIES in the whole wide world voting with the UK-USA alliance against the UNGA Resolution.** And then, the new Mauritian Government, following in the already fatally erroneous steps of the former Jugnauth Government along the same path, made the fatal error of setting up bilateral negotiations instead of persisting within multi-lateral frameworks, based on principle, and on international law.
Trump announced his War Crimes at the General Assembly of the UN
Trump behaved badly at the actual UN Plenary session, in front of an icy reception from other world leaders, when he spoke there, too. He exposes, again and again, the rot that has set into the USA, as a nation-state in free-fall, and as an empire in collapse. He said inter alia:
“I have a big decision to make – will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before […] or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again”. (From UN site, an excerpt from the write-up based on the transcript of Trump’s disgusting speech at UN General Assembly on 22 September.)
So, like a Mafya boss, Trump makes a threat, gun in his hand on your temple, and then covers the threat up by pretending there is a deal on hand, “You do what I tell you, sign there! It’s just an offer we are making you. An offer you can’t refuse.”
Trump made this threat again in the speech, saying he had choice between two actions, whether:
“to annihilate the Islamic Republic” [or to] “drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness.”
In the same speech he admitted to a US committing war crimes, saying
“the US military obliterated their [Iran’s] nuclear program beneath mountains of rubble... ”
It is illegal to attack civilian infrastructure like the power plants of another member state, let alone threaten to “annihilate” it.
LALIT notes that, by way of contrast, the two aggressor nations, the USA and Israel, are nuclear armed states, and are not even signatories to the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to boot. Up until the US-Israeli attack on Iran, Iran was certified a non-nuclear-armed state, after regular inspections by the UN agency responsible, under the NPT.
The war crime of all war crimes is, by international law “the crime of aggression”.
Mauritius must, before it gets too late, distance itself from this falling empire. It will bring down all the States that host USA bases, and that link their finances with those of the USA.
LALIT
NOTES
* Full Text of the bit of the Press Question-and-Answer regarding the so-called “Chagos Deal” when Trump met Burnham, published here for the benefit of our readers:
“Press Q1: The Chagos deal, Mr. President. Are you going to support it?
“Donald Trump: The what?
“Press Q (continued): The deal to give away the Chagos Islands from the UK to Mauritius?
“Donald Trump: I don't support it. I think it's terrible. It was a terrible deal. They all of a sudden say they have ownership. Somebody has ownership that never showed up before after decades and centuries. I think it's ridiculous. No, we were talking about that and it's strategically very important. Very important. You know, we had to send our B2 bombers when we bombed the Iran nuclear. We had to send the B2 bombers back home to Missouri as opposed to flying for a short period of time. They had to fly for a long period of time. It's amazing how strategic it is. And I think the Prime Minister is going to be looking at it.
“Burnham: Yeah.
“Donald Trump: Very very strategic location. Amazing. Just and it's unique. I said, well, we could get something else. Actually, it's a very unique. It's a very important piece of real estate, militarily and strategically. […]”
** Maldives originally brought the total votes alongside the UK and USA to four, but they withdrew their vote against the resolution subsequently. The Maldives, since then, has made another U-turn, now putting in its own claim to Chagos. Divide-and-rule knows no bounds.
