Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption One of the Chagos Islands - Diego Garcia - is home to a US military base

The UK should end its control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean "as rapidly as possible", the UN's highest court has said.

Mauritius claims it was forced to give up the islands - now a British overseas territory - in 1965 in exchange for independence, which it gained in 1968.

The International Court of Justice said the islands were not lawfully separated from the former colony of Mauritius.

The UK Foreign Office said: "This is an advisory opinion, not a judgment."

It added it would look "carefully" at the detail of the opinion, which is not legally binding.

The UK has previously said it will hand the islands back to Mauritius when they are no longer required for defence purposes.

Referencing that, the Foreign Office said: "The defence facilities on the British Indian Ocean Territory help to protect people here in Britain and around the world from terrorist threats, organised crime and piracy."

Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf described the UK's administration of the Chagos Islands - located more than 2,000 miles off the east coast of Africa - as "an unlawful act of continuing character".

He added the UK was "under an obligation to bring an end to its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible".

The UN General Assembly asked the court in February 2017 to offer its opinion in on whether the process had been concluded lawfully.

It is half a century since the UK took control of the Chagos Islands from its then colony, Mauritius.

The British government evicted the entire population, before inviting the US to build a military base on Diego Garcia, one of the larger atolls.

Mauritius was in the middle of negotiating its independence from the UK at the time and has repeatedly condemned the deal.

Analysis

By BBC Hague correspondent Anna Holligan

A "blockbuster" of an opinion from the UN's highest court.

The judges' assessment was damning. At the heart of it, the right of all people to self-determination as a basic human right, which the UK violated when dismembering its former colony.

The detachment of the strategically valuable archipelago cannot have been said to be based on free and genuine expression of the will of the people concerned, when one side is under the authority of the other.

As the ruling power, the responsibility lay with the UK to respect national unity and territory integrity of Mauritius as required under international law.

Instead, it divided the territory - effectively using the process of decolonisation to create a new colony.

As part of the advisory opinion the judges poignantly pointed out that all UN member states were under obligation to cooperate to complete the decolonisation of Mauritius. This includes, of course, the US, which operates a military base on the largest atoll of Diego Garcia.

Some of those who were forced to leave their homes on the Chagos Islands in the late 1960s hoped they would be allowed to return - and not just on one of the rare visits authorised by the UK.

Speaking to the BBC last year, Samynaden Rosemond, who left when he was 36, said: "Back home was paradise."

He and his wife, Daryela, moved to the outskirts of the capital of Mauritius, Port Louis.

Chagossians often complain that they are treated as second-class citizens in Mauritius, and they often gather to cook coconut and fish curry and to sing songs about the life they left behind.

Mr Rosemond added: "The British didn't give us a chance. They just said: 'Oh, this is not yours anymore.'

"If I die here my spirit will be everywhere - it wouldn't be happy. But if I die there I will be in peace."

'Explosion of joy'

By BBC foreign correspondent Yasine Mohabuth in Port Louis, Mauritius

Several Chagossians gathered at the Chagos Refugee Group's centre to follow live the session of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

It was in an explosion of joy that the news was celebrated by both them and their descendants in Pointe aux Sables - a suburb of the Mauritian capital, Port Louis.

The leader of the Chagos Refugees Group, Olivier Bancoult, said it was a historic day.

"I dedicate this victory to the entire Chagossian community that is scattered in several countries around the world," he said.

"It is a great victory as all the time we wanted to go gather on the graves of our families that we lost there [on the Chagos Archipelago]".

Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said the UK had always emphasised respect for international laws and, as such, expected the country, with which Mauritius has excellent relations, to respect the judges' opinion.</s>Feb. 25 (UPI) -- The United Nations' highest court ruled Monday that Britain's claim of sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, in a remote portion of the Indian Ocean, is illegal.

The International Court of Justice said in its decision that initial British efforts to separate the Chagos archipelago from Mauritius in 1965 violated international law and was not based on a "free and genuine expression of the people concerned."

Mauritius claimed it was forced to give up the islands in exchange for independence from Britain, which it gained in 1968.

"Decolonization of Mauritius not conducted in a manner consistent with the right of peoples to self-determination -- United Kingdom's continued administration of the Chagos Archipelago constitutes a wrongful act entailing the international responsibility of that state," the court said.

"Continuing character of the unlawful act, United Kingdom (is) under an obligation to bring an end to its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible. Modalities for completing the decolonization of Mauritius to be determined by the General Assembly."

The British government removed the entire population of the islands before allowing the United States to build a strategically important military base on Diego Garcia, one of the chain's larger atolls.

Monday's ruling allows the issue to be referred to the United Nations general assembly for debate. Britain had argued the ICJ did not have jurisdiction to hear the case.

"This is a historic moment for Mauritius and all its people, including the Chagossians who were unconscionably removed from their homeland and prevented from returning for the last half-century," Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth said.

"Our territorial integrity will now be made complete, and when that occurs, the Chagossians and their descendants will finally be able to return home."</s>THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) – In its first advisory opinion in seven years, the International Court of Justice held Monday that the United Kingdom’s Cold War move to separate a collection of atolls from the rest of Mauritius was “unlawful.”

The case concerns the Chagos Archipelago, a group of seven atolls located in the Indian Ocean. Nearly 60 islands make up the atolls, some uninhabited. Until 1965, the Chagos Archipelago was considered a dependency of the island nation of Mauritius.

The archipelago was uninhabited prior to France’s discovery of the area. The French started a colony of approximately 50 to 60 people on the island of Diego Garcia, which later became a staging post for the slave trade. Those born on the island are known as Chagossians. The United Kingdom took possession of all of the French dependencies with the Treaty of Paris in 1814.

A century and a half later, concerns about the expansion of the Soviet Union led the U.K. to look at building a military base in the region. The United States agreed and offered a subsidy on the U.K.’s nuclear program to help facilitate the base. As for the Chagossians, Britain claimed they were not inhabitants but rather transients on the atoll with no right to remain.

In 1965, the U.K. detached the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius, forming the British Indian Ocean Territory together with other islands detached from Seychelles. The British government paid Mauritius was paid 3 million pounds and pledged to return Chagos when it was no longer needed for defense purposes.

A year later, Britain leased the archipelago to the United States for military purposes, evicting 2,000 Chagossians in the process. In 1971, the British government paid Mauritius 650,000 pounds for resettlement costs stemming from the eviction.

In 1982, the U.K. paid 4 million pounds to Mauritius for the “full and final settlement of all claims whatsoever,” without admitting liability for the displacement of Chaggosians. Many Chagossians signed this agreement with a thumbprint, as they were unable to read or write.

The road to the International Court of Justice began as United Nations General Assembly Resolution 71/292, put forth by Mauritius, which requested an advisory opinion on the territorial dispute. The resolution, signed by 30 other countries and the African Union, was adopted in June 2017 in what was widely considered to be a diplomatic blow to the U.K.

At oral arguments in September 2018, the U.N. court heard from 22 countries and the African Union. Mauritius argued Britain forced detachment of the archipelago in exchange for Mauritius’ independence.

“The choice we were faced with was no choice at all; it was independence with detachment or no independence with detachment anyway,” Anerood Jugnauth, counsel for Mauritius and its former president, told the court during oral arguments.

Thought the U.K. used part of its oral arguments to offer an apology for the “shameful” way it had treated the residents of Diego Garcia, it contended the dispute should be resolved between it and Mauritius without the U.N.’s involvement. As Matthew Rycroft, the British ambassador to the United Nations, noted during the General Assembly meeting where the resolution was voted upon, “How many other bilateral disputes left over from history could be brought before the General Assembly this way?”

But in Monday’s opinion, read to a packed courtroom, the U.N. court unanimously agreed it had jurisdiction to hear the case. Then it held the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago was unlawful.

“This detachment was not based on the free and genuine expression of the will of the people concerned,” the court held, finding that because Mauritius was a British territory at the time it could not freely agree to anything.

The court also held Britain has an obligation to bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible.

After the ruling, a visibly excited Louis Olivier Bancoult, leader of the Chagos Refugee Group, told reporters, “What has been done to us and what has been done to Mauritius is unlawful.”

Dr. Laura Jeffery, a senior lecturer in anthropology at the University of Edinburgh who studies forced displacement called the International Court of Justice’s opinion “an extremely comprehensive opinion that comes down on one side.”

The court’s opinion is not binding and is not a judgment in the dispute between Britain and Mauritius. Instead, it will be used as guidance for the U.N. General Assembly.

The European Court of Human Rights rejected a similar case in 2012, finding Mauritius’ acceptance of payment meant there was no human rights violation.

In 2016, the British government said it would not support the Chagossians’ resettlement of the island, and would instead pay 40 million pounds to improve the communities where they are currently living.

The United States currently operates a large naval and air base on Diego Garcia, the largest atoll in the archipelago. Its lease for the island runs until 2036.</s>The United Kingdom must give the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius 'as rapidly as possible', the United Nations' highest court has said.

Britain forcibly evicted people from the Chagos Archipelago, a sovereignty in the Indian Ocean disputed by the UK and Mauritius, in the 1960s and 1970s.

The island was then used by the United States as a military base.

Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in The Hague, said on Monday that the UK's detachment of the islands and their incorporation into the British Indian Ocean Territory was 'unlawful'.

The UK's ongoing administration is a 'wrongful act', according to an advisory opinion given by the court, which is not binding.

The Chagos Islands were first conceded to Britain in 1965 during Maurituis' campaign for independence - which was granted in 1968.

But Mauritius claims it was forced to give up the islands and the ICJ has advised the UK to hand back control.

The ICJ said: 'The court finds 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.'

The UK agreed a package including £3 million with Mauritius for the detachment of the archipelago in 1965.

Chagossians were forcibly removed between 1967 and 1973 to make way for a US military facility on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the group.

Mauritius, which gained independence in 1968, maintains the islands are its own and Chagossians have also brought cases in British courts for the right to return.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: 'This is an advisory opinion, not a judgment. Of course, we will look at the detail of it carefully.

'The defence facilities on the British Indian Ocean Territory help to protect people here in Britain and around the world from terrorist threats, organised crime and piracy.'

The ICJ said the opinion the UK should ends its administration was given with a majority of 13 votes to one.

Another part of its advisory opinion which said 'member states are under an obligation to co-operate with the United Nations in order to complete the decolonisation' was given with the same majority.

'After recalling the circumstances in which the colony of Mauritius agreed in principle to such a detachment, the court considers that this detachment was not based on the free and genuine expression of the will of the people concerned,' the ICJ said.

The resettlement of Mauritian nationals on the islands should be 'addressed by the General Assembly' during the completion of decolonisation, it added.

About 2,000 people were evicted from the islands, with many resettling in Britain, Mauritius and Seychelles.

The UK has said the islands will be returned to Mauritius when the need for military facilities ends.

Rosa Curling, a solicitor with law firm Leigh Day, who represents Solange Hoareau, a Chagossian woman fighting a legal battle to return, said: 'We are considering the judgment carefully with our client, but clearly the UK should stop breaching international law.

'The time has come to allow the islanders to return home.'</s>The United Nations' top court said the United Kingdom's colonization of its Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, which are claimed by Mauritius, was unlawful and on Monday advised it to immediately cease its administration of the overseas territory, which hosts a strategically important United States military base.

In a non-binding ruling, judges at the International Court of Justice in the Hague said the UK unlawfully detached the Chagos Archipelago from its former colony Mauritius in 1965 just three years before the nation gained independence.</s>The United Kingdom must end its administration of the Chagos Islands “as rapidly as possible”, the United Nations’ highest court has said.

Britain forcibly evicted people from the Chagos Archipelago, a sovereignty in the Indian Ocean disputed by the UK and Mauritius, in the 1960s and 1970s so the United States could build a military base.

Judges at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, said on Monday that the UK’s detachment of the islands and their incorporation into the British Indian Ocean Territory was “unlawful”.

The UK’s ongoing administration is a “wrongful act”, according to an advisory opinion given by the court, which is not binding.

The ICJ said: “The court finds 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.”

The UK agreed a package including £3 million with Mauritius for the detachment of the archipelago in 1965.

Chagossians were forcibly removed between 1967 and 1973 to make way for a US military facility on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the group.

Mauritius, which gained independence in 1968, maintains the islands are its own and Chagossians have also brought cases in British courts for the right to return. Louis Olivier Bancoult, leader of the Chagos Refugee Group at court in London in 2015 (PA)

The ICJ said the opinion the UK should ends its administration was given with a majority of 13 votes to one.

Another part of its advisory opinion which said “member states are under an obligation to co-operate with the United Nations in order to complete the decolonisation” was given with the same majority.

“After recalling the circumstances in which the colony of Mauritius agreed in principle to such a detachment, the court considers that this detachment was not based on the free and genuine expression of the will of the people concerned,” the ICJ said.

The resettlement of Mauritian nationals on the islands should be “addressed by the General Assembly” during the completion of decolonisation, it added.

About 2,000 people were evicted from the islands, with many resettling in Britain, Mauritius and Seychelles.

The UK has said the islands will be returned to Mauritius when the need for military facilities ends.- Press Association</s>The Latest on the status of the Chagos Islands (all times local):

The United Nations' highest court says the United Kingdom carved up Mauritius illegally when it ended its colonization of the Indian Ocean islands and must "bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible."

The International Court of Justice's advisory opinion issued Monday is non-binding, but carries weight since it came from the top U.N. court and puts pressure on London to act.

Britain evicted about 2,000 people from the Chagos islands during the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build an air base. Many of them resettled in the U.K. and have fought in British courts to return to the islands.

The United Nations' highest court is set to deliver an advisory opinion on the legality of British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, the largest of which houses a strategically important U.S. military base.

The island nation of Mauritius argues that the Chagos archipelago was part of its territory since at least the 18th century and was taken unlawfully by the United Kingdom in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence. Britain insists it has sovereignty over the archipelago, which it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory

Britain evicted about 2,000 people from the Chagos archipelago in the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build an air base on Diego Garcia. Many resettled in the U.K. and have fought in British courts to return to the islands.

Monday's opinion by the International Court of Justice is nonbinding.</s>THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The Latest on the status of the Chagos Islands (all times local):

The United Nations' highest court says the United Kingdom carved up Mauritius illegally when it ended its colonization of the Indian Ocean islands and must "bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible."

The International Court of Justice's advisory opinion issued Monday is non-binding, but carries weight since it came from the top U.N. court and puts pressure on London to act.

Britain evicted about 2,000 people from the Chagos islands during the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build an air base. Many of them resettled in the U.K. and have fought in British courts to return to the islands.

The Peace Palace, home of the International Court of Justice, in the Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Feb. 25, 2019. The United Nations' highest court will deliver a non-binding opinion on the legality of British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, in the Indian Ocean some 2000 Km (1250 miles) south of Sri Lanka, the largest of which, Diego Garcia, has housed a strategically important U.S. military base since the 1970s. (AP Photo/Mike Corder)

The United Nations' highest court is set to deliver an advisory opinion on the legality of British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, the largest of which houses a strategically important U.S. military base.

The island nation of Mauritius argues that the Chagos archipelago was part of its territory since at least the 18th century and was taken unlawfully by the United Kingdom in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence. Britain insists it has sovereignty over the archipelago, which it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory

Britain evicted about 2,000 people from the Chagos archipelago in the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build an air base on Diego Garcia. Many resettled in the U.K. and have fought in British courts to return to the islands.

Monday's opinion by the International Court of Justice is nonbinding.</s>Will Britain eventually give up control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius? Will the Chagosians one day leave exile and return home? The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday delivered a judgement that could alter the dynamics in the decades old custodianship battle.

The top court at the United Nations advised Britain to hand over the islands that host a United States base, ‘as rapidly as possible’.

When judges heard the case in September, Mauritius argued that it was illegal for Britain to have broken up its territory while it was still the colonial power.

“The choice we were faced with was no choice at all: it was independence with detachment (of the Chagos archipelago) or no independence with detachment anyway,” elder statesman Anerood Jugnauth told the 14-judge panel.

The Chagos Islanders have already taken their battle through the courts in Britain, where their supporters included the current Labour opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Britain, while apologising for the “shameful” way it evicted thousands of islanders, has insisted Mauritius was wrong to have brought the case to the ICJ.

Defending its hold on the islands, Britain said the Diego Garcia military base, which has been used to bomb Iraq and Afghanistan, protected people around the world.

ICJ said in a legal opinion that Britain had illegally split the islands from Mauritius before independence in 1968, after which the entire population of islanders was evicted.

“The United Kingdom’s continued administration of the Chagos Archipelago constitutes a wrongful act,” chief judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said.

“The United Kingdom is under an obligation to bring an end to its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible, thereby allowing Mauritius to complete the decolonisation of its territory.”

The legal opinion is only the 28th since the ICJ was set up in 1946 in the wake of World War II to provide a tribunal to resolve disputes between UN member states.

Previously such opinions include one on Israel’s West Bank barrier in 2004, which judges said was illegal, and declaring legal Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2010.

Mauritius and the exiled Chagossians reacted with delight to the opinion delivered by judges in The Hague, which is non-binding but will carry heavy symbolic and political weight.

Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth hailed a “ historic moment for Mauritius and all its people”.

“Our territorial integrity will now be made complete, and when that occurs, the Chagossians and their descendants will finally be able to return home,” he said in a statement.

Olivier Bancoult, chairman of the Mauritius-based Chagos Refugees Group, told reporters outside court that he was “so happy”.

“It is a big victory against an injustice done by the British government for many years. We people have been suffering for many years — I am so lucky today,” he said.

A US official said Washington saw the case as “purely a bilateral dispute” between Britain and Mauritius. But he questioned the authority of the court, saying that issues should be resolved through negotiations between governments.

“It is inappropriate to seek to use the court’s advisory function to settle disputes between states,” the State Department official said in Washington.

Colonial power Britain split off the islands from Mauritius, which lies around 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometres) away, three years before Port Louis gained independence in 1968. It also paid Mauritius three million pounds.

Between 1968 and 1973 around 2,000 Chagos islanders were evicted, to Britain, Mauritius and the Seychelles, to make way for a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.

The evictions were described in a British diplomatic cable at the time as the removal of “some few Tarzans and Man Fridays”.

Diego Garcia is now under lease to the United States and played a key strategic role in the Cold War before being used as a staging ground for US bombing campaigns against Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s.

The UN General Assembly in 2017 adopted a resolution presented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the ICJ to offer legal advice on the island chain’s fate and the legality of the deportations.

The ICJ opinion comes as a stunning blow to London in a case that goes to the heart of historic issues of decolonisation and current questions about Britain’s place in the world as it prepares to leave the European Union.

Mauritius’ lawyer Philippe Sands said there was “no wiggle room” in the judges’ view and that Britain would resist pressure to comply.

“I suspect the United Kingdom will say to itself, what resistance can we put up to moving forward — and particularly in the context of Brexit, as the United Kingdom finds itself a little bit isolated in the world,” he told reporters outside court.

“The defence facilities on the British Indian Ocean Territory help to protect people here in Britain and around the world from terrorist threats, organised crime and piracy,” the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement.</s>The Latest: Mauritius ruling a 'tool' for Cyprus on UK bases

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Latest on the status of the Chagos Islands (all times local):

Cyprus' attorney general says a United Nations top court ruling on Mauritius is a "legal tool" the Cypriot government could use to negotiate the status of two British military bases on the east Mediterranean island nation.

The International Court of Justice said in an advisory opinion that the U.K. illegally carved up Mauritius when it ended its colonization of the Indian Ocean islands.

Costas Clerides told private TV station Sigma the "landmark" opinion underscores that such issues must be examined under current international legal principles and not those of the past.

Britain retained two military bases on Cyprus when the country gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960. The bases are enshrined in Cyprus' constitution.

But Clerides said this may be challenged because agreements signed under conditions that prevailed during that time were "far removed" from what could be considered as an "exercise in free will."

Britain says it will look "carefully" at a United Nations' court ruling that it should relinquish control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, while stressing that the court's view is "an advisory opinion, not a judgment."

The International Court of Justice ruled Monday that Britain must "bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible."

The opinion is non-binding, but represents a victory for islanders who were evicted by Britain in the 1960s and 70s to make way for a U.S. military base on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.

In a statement after the court's ruling, Britain's Foreign Office said "the defense facilities on the British Indian Ocean Territory help to protect people here in Britain and around the world from terrorist threats, organized crime and piracy."

A lawyer representing the island nation of Mauritius says an International Court of Justice ruling saying the U.K. must give up the Chagos Archipelago as its territory will put significant pressure on the British government to act.

While the ruling from the United Nations' highest court on Monday came in the form of a non-binding advisory opinion, lawyer Philippe Sands said Britain and Mauritius, a former British colony, should work out how to move forward.

The Chagos Islands were split off from Mauritius when it gained independence in 1968 so the United States could build a military base on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.

Sands says Mauritius has good relations with the U.K. and with the United States. He says the ties between the countries "will continue to be excellent. A way will be found to move this forward."

The United Nations' highest court says the United Kingdom carved up Mauritius illegally when it ended its colonization of the Indian Ocean islands and must "bring to an end its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly as possible."

The International Court of Justice's advisory opinion issued Monday is non-binding, but carries weight since it came from the top U.N. court and puts pressure on London to act.

Britain evicted about 2,000 people from the Chagos islands during the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build an air base. Many of them resettled in the U.K. and have fought in British courts to return to the islands.

The United Nations' highest court is set to deliver an advisory opinion on the legality of British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, the largest of which houses a strategically important U.S. military base.

The island nation of Mauritius argues that the Chagos archipelago was part of its territory since at least the 18th century and was taken unlawfully by the United Kingdom in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence. Britain insists it has sovereignty over the archipelago, which it calls the British Indian Ocean Territory

Britain evicted about 2,000 people from the Chagos archipelago in the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build an air base on Diego Garcia. Many resettled in the U.K. and have fought in British courts to return to the islands.

Monday's opinion by the International Court of Justice is nonbinding.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court of the United Nations, rules that the United Kingdom should end its control of the Chagos Archipelago "as rapidly as possible". Mauritius claims the archipelago was unlawfully separated from the island nation in 1965.