How Mauritius regained Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia

On the insistence of the Americans who had secretly paid the UK $14 million for a military base in the Chagos islands, Britain decided that they should be cleansed of all of its inhabitants.

- NITIN MEHTA

CHAGUS ARCHIPELAGO LONDON

In 1965, Britain bought the Chagos archipelago from the self-governing Mauritius Council for £3 million.

There are some 60 islands, most of them uninhabited.

The largest one is Diego Garcia, which is an area of 27.19 square kilometers.

The Chagossians mainly are of mixed African and Indian ancestry-descendants of enslaved Africans and indentured Indians.

They were brought by the French to work on plantations. They have been there for over 200 years.

At the time when Mauritius got independence in 1968 the islands were not handed over and held on by the British. This was the beginning of one of the worst episodes of the British empire. Shockingly, this was in the 1970s when Britain had relinquished its hold from most of its colonies.

On the insistence of the Americans who had secretly paid the UK $14 million for a military base in the Chagos islands, Britain decided that they should be cleansed of all of its inhabitants. A 1971 immigration ordinance made it legal to deport Chagossians from the islands. This decision was taken at the highest level in the British government and approved by the then Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

However, this was an era of the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union. The UK/US military base in Diego Garcia was considered strategically important. This was of great concern to India.

At the time India was seen to be in the Soviet Camp.

The then American President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were well known for their antipathy towards India.