What now ?
After the euphoria around the UK-Mauritius agreement giving back sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius (see my previous article) we now see some controversy arising.
On the Mauritius side there is questioning of the agreement in which, for Diego Garcia and its military base, Mauritius will effectively hand-over sovereignty back to the UK for 99 years. Seems like a ping-pong effect. Also, with a condition that the Chagossians will not be able to resettle on Diego Garcia itself but only on Chagos outer islands.
Following this agreement there is outstanding the signing and ratification of the treaty as well as the implementation into the laws of UK and Mauritius. Mauritius parliament has been dissolved and awaiting general elections on 10 November 2024. Therefore, in Mauritius, no decisions can be made until a new government team is elected and formed. This raises another question, if the outgoing government team is not re-elected, will the new one still be in agreement or want to renegotiate the agreement ?
At Westminster there was dissent that the agreement had not been debated. While the UK Chagossian community held a protest because they felt their voice and opinions had not been solicited on this matter.
It appears that, even if the Mauritius outgoing Prime Minister is claiming that he has pulled-off a historical agreement, everything is still open. I suppose it is now wait and see, will politics kick-in or will it be alright on the day.
The timing of the news brief is also bringing up a lot of questions and is a subject of controversy as it is just before the general elections in Mauritius! The current prime minister thinks that he deserves all the credit for this historical agreement! His critics however have voiced their feelings that the British have indeed not really relinquished their sovereignty status over Diego Garcia which is the main island of the archipelago! The treaty has not been ratified and signed yet and the conservative opposition in the Uk are against it! The euphoria felt by the population has been cut short and has been replaced by the feeling that Mauritius will not have full control of all the islands after all!