‘Sorrow of the War’: Chagos Islands are engaged in family separation on Mauritius | Policy

Slam poet Geraldine Baptista does not pull the shots when she talks about her “Granpa”, one of 1,500 people who ran out of peaceful existence at Chagos Islands to make a place for the Military Base of the United States, most of the “kouma deliver” (which means “Like Animals” in her native Kreola) to a hell of fate more than 1,000 miles (1,610 km) through the Indian Ocean on Mauritius.

Having out of her songs in the suburbs of Port Louis, the 26-year-old connects the memories of her grandfather on fishing in crystalline waters Peros Banhos Atol and feasts fire light on “Srazra Pwason” (fish curry) and “Kalou” Moonshine, Contrast of happy times with the horrors of her violent expense In the early 1970s and decades of impoverished exile that followed – many did not survive.

“Pena Okenn Antidot; POU Geri with Blesir; Ki Ankor Peuhire,” she says – no cure for those wounds, still crying for more than half a century.

This line currently hits particularly strongly, while Mauritius is preparing for the assumption sovereignty via the Chagos 60-Slander archipelago after victory United Kingdom In a significant case of decolonization at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) six years ago. The nation is on the verge of a knife because the final Kim from the US, who wants a cast iron guarantees to the safety of one of his most respected bases on the atol Diego Garcia.

Mauritius has been intending to regain Chagos for decades, because the UK has been strongly armed with the sale of a common -managed colonial territory for £ 3m in exchange for his independence in 1968. ICJ’s victory is further sweetened by the promises of billions of pounds of pounds that the UK will allegedly pay rent and hire for Diego Garcia in accordance with the 99-year-old lease arrangement.

In an effort to heal past wounds, Mauritius will manage the Custodian Fund for Chagossians, allowing them to move to the two islands of Chagos – Solomon and Peros Banhos. But the islanders, some with roots on the territory that extend until the 18th century, were locked from interstate conversations. And, as the Baptists describe, local families have torn down the ranks about whether they need to accept Mauritic sovereignty over their homeland.

“It’s like you are in a warrior of the war between the two sides that kill each other,” Baptista says. “We are already a small community. That makes me so sad. “

Constantly on the side

Karen Walter, deputy editor-in-chief of Mauritius newspaper L’Ax Express, followed the reverse of bilateral negotiations in recent years, noting that the views of about 10,000 Chagossians have now been scattered all over the UK, Mauritius and Seychelles “have not” counted “.

Chagossians’ polo was obvious during last year’s electoralheld 10 days after the UK and Mauritius announced that they had reached a political transfer agreement. Former Pravnauth Prime Minister went to the campaign, trumpeting “billions of rupees” in annual rent for Diego Garcia and the possibilities for the construction of a hotel on the archipelago – but many noticed that he did not mention Chagossians.

Jugneuth has been replaced ever since Navin ramgooolamwho condemned the draft of his predecessor draft with the UK as a “sale”. Last Tuesday, Ramgoolam told the Mauritic parliament that his new team was negotiating a “inflation resistant”, which contained an undiscovered “front” payment. What is crucial for Mauritius, it seems that new terms give veto authority due to future extensions of a 99-year lease arrangement for Diego Garcia.

Ramgoolam said he was “convinced” that everything would be finalized “in the coming weeks.” Although he has still weighed with US President Donald Trump, while the Jastreb’s right-wingers threw out a transatlantic panic about Mauritius that opens the door to Chinese spies (even if “Little India”, as Mauritius sometimes calls itself because of its great population of Indian origin, is closer to New Delhi than he has ever been in Beijing), the job is still hanging in balance.

Ramgoolam launched a legal urge for sovereignty after Wikileaks published a US diplomatic cable in 2010, exposing the British scheme to establish a seafood protected zone in Chagos, intended for green flushing of an indigenous islander-or “man on Fridays” Officer – returning home. Since then, the two causes of Maurian sovereignty over Chagos and Chagossian have been twin the struggle for justice.

The eventual country’s ICJ victory may have been scheduled for the British decolonization of Mauritius, but Chagossians gave a knockout emotional blow. Peros Banhos, the native Liseby Elyse, testified through the video, saying a inquilized court that she was charged on the eviction ship, while four months pregnant and lost her child on arriving in Mauritius, swinging international opinion in favor of Mauritius.

Mauritic lawyer Robin Mardeomoooo, who has long represented the community, says that Mauritius his victory at ICJ owes Chagossians. After “surfing the waves” of Chagossian fighting, Mauritius now has a “golden opportunity” to do things in the right way and should insist on having a place at the table, he says.

Apart from anything else, Chagossians is best to place the legs in the UK and the US in the fire, especially when it comes to proper compensation for injustices committed by both countries and the cost of the planned Mamuta Program, which includes the construction of infrastructure, institutions and housing on the islands have printed for half a century. Mauritius has no means, Mardemootoo says.

“If the Mauritius is not smart about it, he will inherit a bunch of island without a way to rehabilitate them. And this will withdraw and return and persecute them,” he says.

The weather is gone

Olivier Bancoult, the leader of the Chagos (CRG) refugee group, requested the help of Mardemootoo to his long struggle to win the right to return to the English courts. He secured a significant victory at the 2000 High Court in London, but the verdict was canceled with a new legislature four years later in the middle of a panic over the attack on September 11 in the United States.

After reaching a legal blind entrance in the UK, the birth of 60-year-old Peros Banhos decided to support Mauritic sovereignty. Although his group is excluded from the conversation, he says he received regular briefings from previous and current prime ministers, with discussions, including Chagossian participation in regional management.

“They will offer relocation. How could I oppose it, even if it’s not 100 percent satisfactory?” He says, speaking from the headquarters of his group in Pointe Aux Sables.

He believes that time has run out for Chagossians first-generation Chagossians to achieve justice-nithole is now 52, ​​while the oldest pushes 100.

“They just hope to make their dream come true,” he says.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Claudette Lefade, leader of Chagos Asylum People (CAP), wants Trump to sink the contract. She is fighting for Chagossian self-determination under the British flag and if the former colonial power has repeatedly failed the community.

Lefade, also born in Peros Banhos, sees a guardian fund that should manage Mauritius in accordance with a contract as a British move to avoid paying appropriate compensation. The UK already has a pattern on that front because it failed to fulfill the promise to distribute £ 40m ($ 49.7 million) Chagossians around the world.

But doubt that Chagossians will be worse under the Mauritic rule, capturing the allegedly poor management of the previous funds sent by the UK in 1972 and 1982, resulting in targe, slight payments. Considering the lack of transparency over the handover, they are also afraid that groups that are not close to the Government can be found in the cold when it comes to relocation schemes and fund funds.

Exodus

The recent L’Errans report covered the grinding of poverty experienced by Chagossians in the Baie-Du-Tutbeau coastal village, where some still live in a “Lakaz tol”-Waval Iron Homes. “Poverty is great, some manage to put an end to the end, but some don’t,” Walter says.

On the street, people talk about “exodus”, while combat chagossians rush to take the UK in citizenship offer for all born Chagossians and their descendants-in the 2022 years. Lefade says two groups will leave the next. month.

The overall numbers on departure are not available, but authorities in the city of Crawley, the UK, which houses 3500 Chagossian community, reported on a “significant rise” in new arrivals last year.

Baptiste constantly gets messages from colleagues Chagossians looking for help in apps. England can be considered a “bouro” – a torture – because of the mass deportation of their people, which the groups for real described as “crime against humanity,” but testified to “young people and even families with children”, going to the attempt to better their much .

Although she does not plan to leave Mauritius, she gets it. Her own “Granpapa”, 70-year-old Roselin Permal, would be “six feet below” if he didn’t go to Crawley some 15 years ago to get surgery in his heart, she says. Currently, her younger sister wants to join him.

Jamel Colin, a 46-year-old artist Mime, is currently applying for British citizenship for himself and his 12-year-old daughter, seeing the UK as a better bounce stone to self-determination from Mauritius.

He hopes that in the UK, the rent of Diego Garcia will allow Chagossians to consolidate in their ancestral territory, where they can then apply for sovereignty as an indigenous people.

“I was born in exile, but I know where I come from and who I am,” he says.

However, Bancoult CRG warns that the search for justice will become more difficult because the first generation of the native islanders has become extinct. “It’s stronger when Chagossian natives talk about what was wrong to them and what [governments] You need to correct it, “he says.

He believes that the younger Chagossians seeking in the UK for a decision in the UK. “The Government of the UK will say, ‘You are not without citizenship. You were born on Mauritius. You were born in the UK. ‘

“He will say,” We don’t have to deal with you. “