WORLD COURT: BRITISH HANDLING OF CHAGOS ISLANDS 'UNLAWFUL'

Cyprus Mail - 25 February 2019 - Reuters News Agency

Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago and site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased from Britain in 1966

The World Court on Monday backed Mauritius in a colonial-era dispute over the Chagos Islands, an Indian Ocean archipelago that is home to the Diego Garcia US military base, saying Britain’s handling of the decolonisation was “unlawful”.

In a non-binding advisory opinion, the top United Nations court for disputes between states said Britain’s 1968 decolonization of Chagos Islands was not lawful and said Britain should end rule over the territory as soon as possible.

The UN General Assembly asked the court in February 2017 to weigh in on whether the process has been concluded lawfully.