Britain

Britain to return Chagos Islands to Mauritius ending years of dispute

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La Grande Bretagne restitue les îles Chagos à l’île Maurice, mettant fin à des années de dispute et une dizaine de rounds de négociations

Après plus d’un demi-siècle de litige, le Royaume-Uni dit reconnaître la souveraineté de Maurice sur l’archipel des Chagos, un accord qui permet tout de même à Londres de conserver sa base militaire commune avec les Etats-Unis sur l’île de Diego Garcia

.Agreement to hand back UK’s last African colony follows 13 rounds of negotiations and international pressure

Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos islands, has been a UK and US airbase since the 1960s and is thought to be excluded from the right to return. Photograph: Universal Images/Getty Images

The UK has agreed to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony.

The agreement will allow a right of return for Chagossians, who the UK expelled from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s, in what has been described as a crime against humanity and one of the most shameful episodes of postwar colonialism.

However, there will be an exception for the key island of Diego Garcia, which is home to a joint UK-US military base, and which will remain under UK control. Plans for the base were the reason the UK severed the Chagos Islands from the rest of Mauritius when it granted the latter independence in 1968 and forcibly displaced up to 2,000 people.

There was a mixed reaction to the announcement from Chagossians, not all of whom are happy that sovereignty has been handed to Mauritius.

But Olivier Bancoult, chair of the Chagos Refugee Group, who was four years old when his family was deported to Mauritius, welcomed it, describing it as “a big day”.

“This has been a long struggle lasting more than 40 years and many of our people have passed away,” said Bancoult, who had mounted a series of legal challenges over the sovereignty of the islands in the UK courts since 2000. “But today is a sign of recognition of the injustice done against Chagossians who were forced to leave their homes.”

He said it was not yet clear how many Chagossians would like to return to the islands, many of which are uninhabitable. While acknowledging that those born on the largest island – Diego Garcia – would not be able to return, he expressed hope that Chagossians could be prioritised for jobs there.

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Mauritius Presses Claim for Indian Ocean Islands Under ‘Unlawful’ UK Administration

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The ICJ founded in 2019 that Mauritius is the rightful owner of the Chagos Islands, which are currently administered by Britain and host a crucial U.S. military base.

Protesters hold banners outside The Hague, Netherland , Monday September 3, 2018 where judges listen to arguments on whether Britain illegally maintain sovereignty over the Chagos islands. (Credit; AP photos, Mike Corder)

A delegation from Mauritius is set to sail Tuesday to the Chagos Islands to press the country’s claim for the strategically important Indian Ocean archipelago, which is also claimed by Britain and is home to an American military base.

It is the first time Mauritius has embarked upon an expedition to the islands without seeking the permission of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said in a statement, adding it is a “concrete step” in “exercising its sovereignty and sovereign rights in relation to the Chagos Archipelago.”

Those rights were strengthened in 2019 by a non-binding opinion from the International Court of Justice, which said that Britain had unlawfully carved up Mauritius, an archipelago nation whose main island is some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) off the southeast coast of Africa. The Chagos islands were a part of Mauritius until Britain separated them a few years before Mauritius became independent from British colonial rule in 1968.

The United Nations General Assembly followed that opinion with a resolution two months later demanding that Britain end its “colonial administration” of the Chagos Islands, which include the U.S. military base on Diego Garcia, and return them to Mauritius. Even Pope Francis weighed in, saying that Britain should obey the U.N. resolution.

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Pandemic: new restrictions in England and Scotland

Publié le Mis à jour le

Britain re-enters sweeping lockdown

Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a strict new national lockdown that will remain until at least the middle of February, as Britain’s race to vaccinate its population risked being overtaken by a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus.

Schools and colleges in England will close their doors and shift to remote learning. Mr. Johnson appealed to Britons to stay home for all but a few necessary purposes, including essential work and buying food and medicine.

The new, highly transmissible variant of the virus has taken hold in London and southeastern England, prompting an alarming spike in case numbers, to close to 60,000 a day, and putting hospitals under acute pressure.

Scotland first: The first announcement of a full-scale lockdown came from Scotland, where the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has consistently moved further and faster to try to tame the pandemic.

The U.S. distribution of vaccines has descended into turmoil, with federal, state and local officials blaming each other for botched logistics and funding shortfalls. In New York City, roughly 110,000 people out of more than eight million have received the first of two doses necessary to help prevent serious cases of the disease.

(source: New York Times)

Covid-19: plus de 60.000 nouveaux cas détectés en 24 heures au Royaume-Uni, un record

Une rue presque déserte à Londres, ce mardi, après l’annonce hier soir d’un reconfinement total. TOLGA AKMEN / AFP

Alors que le premier ministre Boris Johnson a annoncé hier un reconfinement total du pays, le nouveau variant du virus continue de se propager à toute vitesse.

C’est du jamais vu depuis le début de l’épidémie. Le Royaume-Uni a enregistré 60.916 nouvelles contaminations au coronavirus en 24 heures, le plus haut nombre de nouveaux cas jamais détectés à ce jour. 830 personnes sont décédées, portant le nombre total de personnes mortes suite à une infection au Covid-19 à 76.305 dans le pays.

(source: le Figaro)

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U.N. Asks International Court to Weigh In on Britain-Mauritius Dispute

Publié le Mis à jour le

Ady tany Nosy Chagos (Diego Garcia): Manohana an’i Maorisy ny ONU manoloana an’i Britain.

Femme de superstar, l’avocate Amal Clooney défend l’Ile Maurice contre le Royaume Uni

Diego Garcia is the site of a British-American military base. It is one of the islands at the heart of a dispute between Britain and Mauritius, a former British colony that gained independence in 1968. Credit U.S. Navy

UNITED NATIONS — Britain suffered a diplomatic blow on Thursday as the United Nations General Assembly voted to refer London’s territorial claim to one of its last colonial outposts to an international tribunal for its opinion on the dispute.

Notably, in the wake of Britain’s decision to exit the European Union, many countries of the bloc did not side with Britain. The United States did.

At issue is whether Britain has a claim to a strategically important Indian Ocean archipelago, known as the Chagos Islands. One of the islands, Diego Garcia, is the site of a British-American military base.

Mauritius, a former British colony that gained independence in 1968, says the islands are part of its territory and wants the International Court of Justice to offer its opinion. It casts the British claim as part of an unfinished struggle to free Mauritius from colonial rule.

Britain says its claim to the Chagos Islands is enshrined in an agreement it made with Mauritians in 1965, and it contends that such a bilateral dispute has no business being adjudicated by the tribunal, which operates in The Hague.

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As for the military base, Mr. Jugnauth, currently the defense minister, took pains to say that Mauritius had no problem with it operating on Diego Garcia. “Mauritius is also very much concerned about security in the world and that is why we have repeatedly said that we do not have any problem with the military base, but that our decolonization process should be completed,” he said. “We want to assure the United Kingdom and the United States of America that the exercise of effective control by Mauritius over the Chagos Archipelago would not, in any way, pose any threat to the military base.

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Light In The West – Jesus « lost years » and Joseph of Arimathea in Britain

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Did you know that Joseph of Arimathea was the apostle to Britain & France, and that the Christian faith arrived on the shores of Britain within a few years of Jesus death & resurrection? What about the legends and histories which say that Joseph (the Great uncle of Jesus) took the young bot Jesus with him on one of his earlier trips to Britain during Jesus « lost » or « hidden » years? This video highlights some of the information and evidence about those two claims.

This is an older documentary from the CREST Foundation, and its style is a bit dated, however the information it contains makes it worth watching.

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