He expressed a commitment to uncovering the truth about this historical period, which continues to trouble Tanzanians, writes the AP.

Steinmeier acknowledged that numerous bones and skulls were taken from East Africa during the colonial era and later ended up in German museums and anthropological collections. These remains were largely forgotten amid the upheaval of two world wars and the end of the colonial era.

One of these skulls may belong to Chief Songea Mbano, who met his fate at the hands of the Germans in 1906.

This visit to Tanzania is particularly significant as the country was once part of German East Africa, which encompassed the present-day nations of Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi. This colonial entity existed from 1885 until its dissolution after Germany’s defeat in World War I under the Treaty of Versailles. The period witnessed the Maji Maji rebellion from 1905 to 1907, during which an estimated 300,000 people lost their lives resisting colonial rule.

President Steinmeier praised Chief Songea Mbano’s bravery in leading the rebellion. He paid his respects by laying a rose at the leader’s grave and a wreath at a mass grave containing the remains of 66 other Maji Maji uprising fighters.

Addressing the descendants of those affected by German colonialism, President Steinmeier said, “I bow to the victims of German colonial rule. And as German president, I would like to apologize for what Germans did to your ancestors here.”

Steinmeier also pledged to work with the Tanzanians to locate Chief Songea’s skull, recognizing that this endeavor might not be without difficulties given the challenges of identifying human remains, even with scientific expertise.

In 2017, Tanzania’s then-government considered the possibility of pursuing legal action against Germany to seek compensation for those who were allegedly subjected to starvation, torture, and death by German forces during the colonial era.

Notably, in 2021, Germany reached an agreement with Namibia, another country once under German colonial rule. This agreement recognized the colonial-era massacres as genocide and pledged funding to support affected communities, although it fell short of providing formal reparations.

However, this agreement still awaits formal approval, and some groups representing the Herero and Nama people have expressed dissatisfaction with its terms.

The post Germany’s President Apologizes for Colonial-Era Killings in Tanzania first appeared on The Postcolonial.

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, several countries within the EU are receiving devastating economic punches.

Although located in the Arctic circle closer to north America than Europe, but linked through their position within the Danish Kingdom, 15% of Greenland’s total export is affected due to sanctions on Russia, the country’s Múte B. Egede, Greenland Prime Minister told Arctic Today back in June.

And that motivatesGreenland to be active in finding new markets to reduce the economic loss.

‘We’re trying to find new markets, so the negative effects can be as small as it can be,’ said Egede.

The country’s will to enhance new business relations and economic prosper appeals to the European Union, which will open a representative office in the capital of Nuuk this fall, Greenlandic broadcaster NRK reported on Monday.

‘Greenland is already an important partner for the EU today, but there is a potential to do more. We are excited to approach a closer and more practical corporation with Greenland,’ said Per Haugaard, the EU commission’s representative chief in Denmark.

Minerals on sight

A definite date for when the new office will open in Nuuk is unknown as the EU commission continues to search for available space in the capital.

A total of four people will operate the office once it is open. This includes an office chief and three policy staff members. One or two will be local Greenland-speaking people.

With a physical EU presence in Nuuk, new projects involving Greenland’s infrastructure and business sector will run more smoothly with funding from the EU, Haugaard said.

‘There will be daily contact. Our office can share information with residents of Nuuk and the rest of Greenland about what the EU is doing, and what possibilities they have if they want to receive supports for different activities. Greenland’s business sector can apply funding for projects,’ he said.

Of natural recourses, Greenland hosts many minerals and metals that the international market needs to produce technology. Mining opportunities are therefore of big interest.

‘This is where the EU has its expertise and can collaborate in specific projects to see, how we can extract minerals in the future in the most sustainable way,’ said Haugaard.

Greenland did not follow Denmark and parted ways with the old EU in 1985, but today, the country still has economic collaborations with the Union – mainly in the education- and fishing sectors.

In 2023, Greenland receives 218 million DKK from the EU. That will amount increase by 251 million DKK from 2024. The funding represents a large amount of Greenland’s total economy.

Independence with economic growth

For Greenland, targeting economic growth means more than a prosperous society. As a result of being part of the Danish Kingdom, Denmark pays Greenland a yearly financial grant that covers governmental administrative costs.

Once Greenland can cover the grant themselves, the road to independence will be much smoother. With greater international attention in recent years, Greenland is positioning itself as an emerging business partner for superpowers around the world.

Due to geographic proximity, the USA is among the top contenders for landing deals with Greenland, which could make the world’s largest island fully independent from Denmark which administrates foreign affairs and safety politics on behalf of Greenland today.

‘The United States is Greenland’s most important strategic partner,’ said Egede in June and added, ‘We should work hard to be mutually preferred partners in the Arctic.’

‘Trade between Greenland and North America is one of our central priorities,’ he said.

The US opened its first consulate in Nuuk back in 2020. Last year, Greenland agreed on a deal that secures them 61 million DKK with the US, to ensure “greater opportunities for a better economic partnership” between the two countries.

The post EU to establish in Nuuk as Greenland eyes new markets first appeared on The Postcolonial.

Denmark and Greenland have decided to investigate their historical bonds since WWII. The investigation will focus on political decisions, events, and other cases that impacted Greenland and its citizens’ development. Relationships between Denmark and Greenland will also be investigated, a press release from the Danish Prime Minister’s office states.

“The Danish-Greenlandic relationship is strong and is built on mutual respect. But we have recently got knowledge on cases marking that our common history still has chapters, that we have not covered,” Mette Frederiksen Prime Minister of Denmark says.

In March, Denmark issued a formal apology to Greenlandic children, who went through a social experiment by being relocated to Denmark resulting in the children losing relations with their cultural background and connections to their families in an attempt to create a Danish ‘elite’ in Greenland in the 1950s.

And in May, Danish broadcaster DR published an investigation revealing that Denmark strategically lowered Greenland’s population growth by placing IUD birth control on thousands of girls in women between 1966 and 1970.

“For the past couple of years, we have witnessed one sad story after another. Stories with big personal consequences for the involved. The entire Greenlandic population is behind the demand to initiate this investigation,” says Múte B. Egede, Chairman of Greenland’s government locally known as Naalakkersuisut, KNR writes.

Colonial status under focus

Results concluded by the commission will not only map the relationship between Denmark and Greenland. It will also reveal whether Denmark has lived up to its responsibilities concerning UN requirements for decolonization. Greenland officially ended its status as a Danish colony in 1953.

The investigation is relevant according to Astrid Nonbo Andersen who researches memorial- and historical politics at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

“There has been a number of cases: Enforcing relocation of people in Thule, the judicial fatherless, the children experiment, atomic weapons in Greenland,” she tells KNR and continues, “all of it happens in a period where Greenland transitions from a colony to a Danish County and modernization.”

Denmark’s Ministry of Education and Research will together with Greenland’s Department of Education, Culture, Sport and Church establish a commission to investigate the history between the two countries and will be managed by independent researchers. The commission will conclude its research by October 2022.

The post Denmark and Greenland to investigate shared historical relations first appeared on The Postcolonial.

Children of Greenlandic parents are placed in children’s homes five to seven times more often than those of Danish parents in Denmark, shows a research paper produced by the Danish National and analysis Centre for Welfare VIVE published on Tuesday.

Danish researcher and author of the paper, Karen Margrethe Dahl, said that some of the placements could have been prevented if the relationship between caseworkers and parents of Greenlandic children in Denmark had been better. The caseworkers are employed by the Danish municipalities and evaluate whether children should be placed in care at a children’s home or a host family.

‘The parents are reluctant to cooperate with caseworkers when they feel misunderstood and have preconceptions of being discriminated against. That contributes to a bad process, which in the end will affect children,’ Dahl said in a press release.

Cultural misunderstandings happen when Greenlandic parents and Danish caseworkers have different perceptions of what a good upbringing or family life is. This can also show at meetings where parents seem passive in the eyes of a caseworker, while the parents’ own understanding is that being withdrawn and humble is a sign of respect.

‘Parents can feel misunderstood and criticised for something in their parenthood, that they perceive as normal in Greenland,’ Dahl explains to Greenlandic Broadcaster KNR.

While the cultural differences do not play a decisive role when a caseworker concludes whether a child needs to move to a children’s home, misunderstandings occurring during cases can make it difficult for parents to take a positive stance during meeting times with their children, once they are placed out of their parent’s care, the report stated.

Flawed psychology test

An issue that was highlighted in the report is the psychological tests that parents must go through during a case where a child might be placed in a children’s home. These tests have been criticised for not taking Greenlandic culture into account, possibly giving flawed results, Danish broadcaster DR reported last week.

Greenlandic parents in Denmark are judged based on psychological tests that are developed for Western cultures. Critics have said that the analysis of facial expressions and figures is not designed to include Greenlandic culture.

‘Every psychological test we use is made for Western populations because many of them are developed in the US and England and are adapted to the Danish context. When we use tests crossing through culture and language – for example, Greenlanders, there’s a risk to misjudge them,’ says Rune Nielsen, senior researcher at Denmark’s biggest hospital, Rigshospitalet, where he investigates cultural flaws in psychological testing.

‘It can indicate a deviating personality if you say something that may doesn’t fit into a normal Danish context,’ Nielsen says.

Lacking knowledge of language and culture

Another focus of the report is the language barrier. In some cases, there are no translators present when Greenlandic parents and caseworkers meet. Sometimes caseworkers are having a difficult time estimating whether parents need a translator, and practical issues of finding a translator also pose a challenge.

‘Sometimes, we see that parents don’t see the need for a translator because they speak sufficient Danish. But that may not be enough for the language used during meetings that have such a decisive element,’ Dahl says.

But it is not only the Danish municipalities having difficulties understanding language and culture among indigenous communities within their realm when providing public support.

Last week, the Postcolonial wrote about the critical lack of Sami language and cultural competencies among social workers in 13 Sápmi Norwegian municipalities, which also has consequences for the people indigenous Norway is governing.

The post Danish authorities lack an understanding of cultural differences when placing Greenlandic children in care  first appeared on The Postcolonial.

Locals living in the Sami self-governed area in northern Norway have difficulties communicating with municipality workers in their native tongue. And the lack of workers who speak Sami language or have Sami cultural knowledge is critical, according to a newly realised report by research institute NORCE.

Norway’s municipality- and district department ordered the report in 2021 to get a scope on Sami language and culture competences among municipality and state workers in the Sami self-governed area in northern Norway.

Norway’s secretary of state, Nancy Porsanger Anti says that Norway will react on the issue.

‘The report we have received from NORCE is a solid foundation for the continuing work of strengthening the Sami language,’ she says.

Need of ‘triple-competences’

There are 13 Sápmi municipalities out of a total of 356 Norwegian municipalities. The 13 Sápmi municipalities have a language law securing the locals rights to communicate with regional and national authorities in their native tongue.

But the study shows that it’s very difficult for at least seven municipalities to meet the locals with these rights. These local bodies lack police staff, teachers, nurses and doctors with what the report calls ‘triple-competences.’

A worker with triple-competencies is described as a person with a professional set of skills combined with knowledge of Sami languages and culture. While there a plenty of workers with proper professional skills, teaching them Sami languages and cultural knowledge have proved relatively fruitless despite the municipalities offering courses for free.

However, municipalities are reporting that it’s easier to create workers with triple-competences by providing people who already speak a Sami language with professional skills. Some municipalities are offering stipends and permission with salary for hired staff to take specialized educations on the side.

Sami language blooming in judicial system

It’s not all gloom and doom. The report highlights positive results in the judicial system covering these municipalities.

University of Tromsø established Sami-rights in their program, which over time have increased competences among common lawyers, Sami lawyers and lawyers with abilities to use Sami language in law practice.

The post Sápmi Norwegian municipalities in dire need of Sami language competences first appeared on The Postcolonial.

An EU funded project has released a new language learning app IndyLan, encouraging English, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish speakers to learn endangered languages.

IndyLan offers users a platform to learn Northern Saami, Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Basque and Galician – all of which are endangered to different degrees. Funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme, the app was developed by five partners from the UK, Spain, Finland and Norway.

The Saami Council is one of the partners, representing the Sámi people. About 20000-25000 people speak Northern Saami in Finland, Norway and Sweden. In Finland only, it is spoken by about 2000 people. 

‘We believe that the app will be a good complement to those who want to learn the Saami language. The app is suitable for both those who do not know anything, and those who already know a little, but want to practice more,‘ said Áile Jávo, the Secretary-General at the Saami Council.

IndyLan contains around 4000 words (both terms and expressions) in around 100 different categories and includes modules for Words, Phrases, Dialogue, Grammar, Culture and tests.

Striving for language survival

The project was started in 2019, which was the Year of the Indigenous Languages. This year marks the start of the United Nations’ decade of Indigenous languages, so it is particularly fitting that the app will be launched just this year.

‘We need everyone who wants to learn Saami, whether it is at a level where they can use the language actively in everyday life or if it is just to say “Good day” in that language. Therefore, all aids that can contribute to it are important,’ Jávo said.

IndyLan’s aim is to offer a complementary solution for culture and language courses and to work as a tool for self-study: ‘Our vision is that the IndyLan app contributes to the revitalization and learning of endangered languages ​​so that these languages ​​remain alive and relevant in today’s society and economies,’ the developers said on their website.

EU initiatives to save endangered languages

The steady decline and in some cases critical loss of minority and endangered languages ​​has led to a sharpened effort to promote and revitalise them. As a result, the EU has committed itself to safeguarding the existence and future of what it calls the Endangered Languages. The European Pact for Regional or Minority Languages places particular emphasis on education and language training as key priorities, given the lack of education in minority language communities.

In Finland, the Saami language has official status but both present-day and historical challenges the Sami have experienced are under assessment. Under the Finnish Constitution, the Saami have the right to maintain and develop their language and culture. In their native region, the Saami have linguistic and cultural self-government, which allows them to access services in their native language.

The post New language app to support learning endangered languages first appeared on The Postcolonial.

Buckingham Palace is facing new concerns about racist attitudes after an investigation from the Guardian revealed that ‘coloured immigrants or foreigners’ were banned from office roles in the royal household until at least the late 1960s. Papers from the English National Archives show how Buckingham Palace negotiated clauses that exempted the Queen from national laws implemented to fight discrimination based on race or sex.

In the 1960s the UK Government ministers wanted to introduce laws making it illegal to turn down job applicants based on their race or ethnicity. Yet the Queen was exempt from those laws for more than 40 years. When politicians accepted a series of laws to combat discrimination, official documents show that government officials and Queen Elizabeth’s advisers worked together on the wording of the new laws to exempt Buckingham Palace in the 1970s when the initiatives took action. 

In 1968 the Queen’s chief financial manager stated that it wasn’t normal practice to appoint coloured immigrants or foreigners to clerical roles at Buckingham Palace, but that they were permitted to work as domestic servants. It is not clear exactly when this practice ended. Buckingham Palace refused to answer any questions from the Guardian concerning the ban and when it was revoked.

The royal family is heavily linked to the history of the British empire, so it doesn’t come as a surprise for many when Buckingham Palace is confronted with having colonial attitudes.

Structural racism in the monarchy

The recent findings of Buckingham Palace’s systematic discrimination towards people of colour adds to a list of controversial allegations towards the royal family.

In March, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, made international headlines after saying that her son’s skin colour was a concern within the royal household when he was born. In an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey Meghan, who identifies as being mixed-race, along with her husband Harry, Duke of Sussex, declined to comment who raised the concern.

In an article for the Conversation Benjamin Jones, researcher in colonial history at Central Queensland University, writes that the case ‘is a tragic story at an individual level but it also points to a history of structural racism within the monarchy. Harry noted that the press attacks on his wife had “colonial undertones”, which the royal family refused to address. These are part of a longer history of colonialism and racism in which the Windsors are entangled.’

An ancestor to the present Queen, Elizabeth l, participated in the establishment of the British slave trade. An example of Elizabeth l’s involvement was her connection with Sir John Hawkins who was one of the founders of the trade in the 16^th century and who captured 300 Africans. Elizabeth was impressed by this and later contributed her ship Jesus of Lubeck to Sir Hawkin’s next voyage in 1564.

According to Jones ‘a colonial mindset has persisted’ since the British empire dissolved in 1960s.

‘This has been regularly demonstrated by the casual racism of Prince Philip. Visiting Australia in 2002, he asked an Aboriginal Australian if they were “still throwing spears”,’ Jones writes.

One could almost make an assumption that white privilege is ingrained within the royal household, if taking on account Meghan Duchess of Sussex’s allegations concerning her son’s skin colour into account.

A bottom-up paradigm shift

The past year has been quite turbulent for many past colonial powers, that are confronted to acknowledge their participation in one of the darkest periods of human history. Vandalism of Western statues, mass demonstrations against racism and nations proceeding to return stolen artifacts to past colonies are just few things that have happened, and accelerated decolonialisation efforts in the past twelve months.

But this process doesn’t necessarily match in pace at the royal Buckingham Palace. The royal household has been silent concerning their history of racism in Britain and how the family has benefitted from colonialism.

In contrast, the British citizens are taking action. This week, students at Oxford University’s colleges voted to remove a portrait of the queen from their common room, BBC reported. Members of the Magdalen College Middle Common Room said that their agenda was to make the common room more welcoming and recognised that ‘for some students, depictions of the monarch and the British monarchy represent recent colonial history.’

President of Magdalen College Barrister Dinah Rose clarified that students were behind the initiative, not the college, but supports the students right to ‘free speech and political debate.’

‘Being a student is about more than studying. It’s about exploring and debating ideas. It’s sometimes about provoking the older generation. Looks like that isn’t so hard to do these days,’ she says.

It seems that the younger generations are the main actors advocating for decolonisation efforts. If the societal elites don’t, who should?

‘If the royal family is not able to make similar attempts to [those of its people to] confront the racism in its past and present, it risks falling ever further out of touch with the people it is supposed to represent,’ Jones wrote.

The post Royal colonial attitudes first appeared on The Postcolonial.

Nigerians will have an opportunity to finally spectate high-valued artefacts produced in their country hundreds of years ago, as Germany has agreed to return bronze statues seized from the Kingdom of Benin.

‘We want to contribute to understanding and reconciliation with the descendants of those whose cultural treasures were stolen during colonisation,’ German Culture Minister Monika Gruetters told the BBC last week.

First of the returns are expected to take place in 2022. The over 500 artefacts from the Kingdom of Benin, which ruled in present-day Edo State in southern Nigeria, are currently displayed in Berlin’s Ethnologisches Museum. British troops looted thousands of these Benin Bronzes in 1897, and they ended up in museums and private collections across Europe through auctions.

Former colonies’ demands often not taken seriously

It’s hardly news that African countries demand their artefacts returned after decades of colonialism. Lots of these items have great cultural value and tell stories about African prosperity in an era before Europeans conquered through the continent. But the demands from former colonial nations were often not taken seriously by Western curators, who argue that Africa lacks recourses to protect the historical artefacts.

The notion has now changed. Since 2017 a small forum called the Benin Dialogue Group containing the current oba, the Edo state governor, the Nigerian government and as a result museums in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK have worked on a plan to return some of the Bronzes to Nigeria.

According to Barnaby Phillips, a former BBC Nigeria correspondent and author to the book Loot; Britain and the Benin Bronzes, says retrieving the artefacts will be a huge milestone.

‘A museum in Benin City, full of magnificent Benin Bronzes returned from Europe, would be one of the most significant moments in African cultural history since independence,’ Phillips told the BBC.

‘Nothing new about this sudden focus on repatriation‘

Europe has gained a lot of experience in the processes of returning artefacts and art pieces throughout modern history. Nations throughout the continent have demanded cultural pieces returned after some of the major wars. For example, France had to return thousands of stolen artefacts from across Europe after the Napoleonic Wars and Germany went through a similar process after WWII, when Nazis stole several cultural pieces from museums, collectors and Jewish communities.

‘So, there’s nothing new about this sudden focus on repatriation again,’ Vinnie Nørskov lecturer at the institute for Culture and Society at Aarhus University told Danish outlet Globalnyt.

Last year the French national assembly voted for returning cultural artefacts to Benin and Senegal. And in the Netherlands directors from Rijksmuseum (National Museum) and Tropenmuseum openly support initiatives that could return 100,000 artefacts to the country’s former colonies.

‘In 2018 French president Emmanuel Macron announced that it should be possible to repatriate African cultural piece back to Africa. Likewise, the Black Lives Matter movement set a focus on confronting the past including the colonial era,’ Nørskov said.

Now, the events in Germany spark hope for more of the Postcolonial states on retrieving their stolen pieces back because of these two recent agenda setting initiatives in the repatriation debate.

The process is only in the beginning and some states are taking a slower approach. For example, the British Museum currently houses more then 900 Benin artefacts and has yet to make agreements on returning them.

‘[The British Museum] is committed to facilitating a permanent display of Benin material [in Edo]. The selection of objects will be determined through discussion with our Nigerian colleagues,’ the British Museum told the BBC.

The post Priceless artefacts first appeared on The Postcolonial.

On March 12, the European Parliament called on member states to repatriate children currently stuck in indefinite detention with their European mothers in the prison camps of Northeastern Syria.  

The women entered Syria to join ISIS and either brought their children with them or conceived them while in Syria. For that reason the European Parliament’s call largely fell on deaf ears since the children from a legal standpoint cannot be repatriated without their mothers. This seals the children’s fate as most European governments have refused to bring their mothers home.

‘We will not help parents that have turned their backs on Denmark,’ Mette Frederiksen, the Danish Prime Minister, has repeatedly stated.

Her sentiment is shared by other Europeans and their governments, as throughout the EU the detained mothers are labeled as terrorists and traitors.

However, beside a moral-political position of not wanting to repatriate European citizens that joined ISIS, the anti-repatriation camp is increasingly coming under fire as human rights groups and intelligence services, who are voicing concerns that the costs of doing nothing will increasingly outweigh the cost of repatriation.

Threats to Europe

‘We cannot bring back terrorists,’ said Rasmus Stoklund, spokesperson for the Danish government, referring to the Danish women who travelled to Syria and joined ISIS.

He further argued that while their children might not constitute a threat to Danish national security, the women eventually will.

It is therefore not only immoral to repatriate them, it is also dangerous, he said.

However, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) has warned against the dangers posed by leaving the children and their mothers in the camps in Syria.

According to the intelligence service, leaving them can lead to radicalization of the children and further radicalization of the mothers. In time, this can end with ISIS using the children to conduct terror attacks in their European country of origin.

Therefore, the assessment from PET is the opposite of Rasmus Stoklund’s view: The children are the threat, and the threat draws closer with every passing day the children are left to stay in the camps.

However, this warning was dismissed by Danish Minister for Justice Nick Hækkerup, who stated that the intelligence service had merely provided an evaluation, and that it did not fit with the policy of the Danish government.

Another way

Pressured by the threats posed, the Finnish government has chosen a different approach. The Finnish foreign ministry has arranged for about half of the Finnish women and their children to be repatriated while plans are in the making for the remaining ones to be repatriated as well.

The emissary from the Finnish foreign ministry who has been charged with handling the repatriation recognizes the threat that the repatriated might pose to Finnish society once they are back in Finland.

‘I am not saying that there is no risk involved [with repatriation]. It is just that the threat posed by bringing them home is less than doing nothing,’ says Jussi Tanner, Finnish diplomat who will negotiate the homecoming of children located in the Syrian camps.

A European Guantanamo

The British human rights organisation Rights and Security International released an updated report in February about the intolerable conditions that the detainees in the Syrian camps are exposed to. In the report the organisation accuses European countries of having created a Guantanamo of their own by allowing their citizens to remain there.

Children shot by guards. Mothers and their children locked away in solitary confinement for months. Children burned alive in tents.

These are some of the horrific incidents that have occurred in the al-Hol and Roj camps where most of the European mothers and their children are located.

On top of this, the detained are facing malnutrition, kidnappings, dehydration, child labour, lack of medical care and psychological distress, all of these adding to make life for the detained a living hell and creating the perfect conditions for radicalisation.

The American detention camp in Guantanamo was established after the terror attacks on 9/11 and the conditions there have been criticised for breaching the human rights of the detainees due to the indefinite detention without trial and the torture that they have been subjected to.

The post Pressure mounts on Europe’s Guantanamo first appeared on The Postcolonial.

A UN court has ruled the Chagos Islands unlawfully occupied by the United Kingdom, BBC reported in late January 2021.

The Chagos Islands, formerly named the British Indian Ocean Territory, is an area consisting of around seven atolls and 1000 islands located in the Indian Ocean between Africa and Indonesia. The island of Diego Garcia is the only spot with present habitants and houses an American military base.

The maritime law tribunal of the United Nations has criticized London for failing to hand the territory back to Mauritius.

It confirms an earlier ruling by the International Court of Justice in 2019 and a vote in the UN General Assembly reaching the same conclusion.

‘The UK has no doubt as to our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814. Mauritius has never held sovereignty over the BIOT and the UK does not recognise its claim,’ Christopher Pincher spokesperson for the British foreign Office responded to the ruling.

The Chagos Islands are located in a strategic area that gives the US an opportunity to counter the potential expansion of Chinese military power in the Indian Ocean. During the 1960s the US landed a secret deal with the UK to implement and American military airbase in Diego Garcia.

‘The UK has no doubt as to our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814. Mauritius has never held sovereignty over the BIOT and the UK does not recognise its claim’

Christopher Pincher

Spokesperson for the British foreign Office

The UK removed thousands of Chagossians from their homes in Diego Garcia and sent them to Mauritius between 1968 and 1974, writes the BBC. Once included in same colonial administration with Mauritius under British rule, the Chagos Islands were separated and bought exclusively to the UK in 1965 in a deal that secured Mauritius’ independence in 1968.

International dispute

Amidst growing pressure from the international society, the UK does not seem willing to hand control over the Chagos Archipelago anytime soon, despite repeatedly promising to let Mauritius take charge once the territory is no longer needed for defence purposes.

‘They are hypocrites. Shame on them when they talk about human rights and respect’

Pravind Jugnauth

Prime Minister of Mauritius

But keeping the defence would not be a problem for Mauritius, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said in January.

‘The end of UK administration has no implications for the US military base at Diego Garcia, which Mauritius is committed to maintaining.’

The verdict is without questioning. Mr. Jugnauth urges the UK to submit under the UN ruling.

‘The judgement… is clear and unequivocal. Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago,’ he told the BBC.

Already back in 2019 when the UN court first ruled the UK to end its control over the Chagos Islands, Mr. Jugnauth shot fire, when he called out the UK and US for lecturing countries to ‘respect human rights’ without doing much effort in Mauritius’ case.

‘They are hypocrites. Shame on them when they talk about human rights and respect,’ he said in front of a crowd consisting of Chagossians and their descendants in the Mauritian capital, Port Louis.

In February 2019 The International Court of Justice advised that the Chagos Islands should be handed to Mauritius to complete the country’s decolonisation.

The British government has already admitted their fault in the treatment towards Chagossians who were forcibly evicted from Diego Garcia in the 1960s.

The post Archipelago ownership first appeared on The Postcolonial.