The Future of Chagos

 

Against the backdrop of the 55^th national independence day of his beloved homeland, in his Friday Sermon of 10 March 2023 ~17 Shabaan 1444 AH, Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam International Hazrat Khalifatullah Munir A. Azim (aba) of Mauritius spoke about a profound question of collective injustice and gross violation of human rights: the colonial Great Game over the Chagos Archipelago, and the arbitrary expulsion as well as the continuing forced prevention of the Chagossian people from returning to their homeland.

 

In a recent research report entitled 'That’s When the Nightmare Started’ UK and U.S. Forced Displacement of the Chagossians and Ongoing Colonial Crimes’ published by the Human Rights Watch called attention to the colonial crimes in Chagos islands and the need for reparative justice to the victims. In their Cold War rivalry with the USSR for global supremacy and military dominance in the Indian Ocean region, the United States and the United Kingdom secretly colluded to establish a naval base in the Diego Garcia and deployed inhuman machinations to dispossess an indigenous community of access to their historic land and means of livelihood through forcible expulsions. The searing injustice meted out to a hapless people by the superpowers of the day, and the continuing struggle of the people to justice and fairness is gaining increasing international attention now. 

With the ground beneath its feet shifting, the United Kingdom is constrained to be losing out on international legitimacy in its treatment of the larger Chagos question, including the patently illegal detachment of sovereign territory from Mauritius before granting national independence in 1968. Indeed, from outright denial of any legal responsibility in the past, to be seen to be sitting at negotiating table with Mauritius now, the United Kingdom is politically affected by the eroding global support to its conduct on the question of Chagos. As the wheels of international politics turn once again, it is feared that the ruling elite in Mauritius might be tempted to cut a deal with the foreign powers for profit without due regard for the legitimate expectations and basic rights of the Chagossian people.  In this discourse, Hazrat Khalifatullah (aba) warns against the impulses for unjust deal-making, urging national authorities to respect the entitlements of the displaced Islanders in the spirit of solidarity and national unity.  

The Future of Chagos and Agalega

The sovereignty of, and territorial rights over, the Chagos Archipelago is a matter of contention between Mauritius and the United Kingdom for more than half a century now. Before granting national independence to Mauritius in 1968, the retreating colonial power played shady games to retain its strategic interests in the Indian Ocean region. As it happened, two years before the granting of Independence, the colonial power decided to retain a land foothold in the region for the longer term and hence excised the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius. During the pre-independence political negotiations between Mauritius national leaders and the British government, the continued British-control over the Islands was legitimated through questionable deals- thanks to the obvious unequal bargaining power between the parties- the Conquerors leveraging their heft of power and their political subjects on the negotiating table desperately seeking freedom from colonial yoke. Through offering best relations beyond independence, paying 'peanuts' as immediate compensation and a vague promise of returning the Islands to Mauritius at an unspecified future date when the facility at the Islands would no longer be needed for 'defence purposes', Britain sought to retain its control over the Chagos Archipelago for the indefinite future. 

Responding to global shifts in power and the emerging equation with the US in the post-second World War/ Cold War  scenario, the UK later through a bilateral agreement, leased the strategic Islands to the United States for establishing its grand military base in the heart of the Indian Ocean- the Diego Garcia Naval Base. Almost in parallel, within a decade (1967-1973), Britain ensured that Chagossian villagers were systematically and stealthily ousted from their homes and lands permanently, without any opportunity of returning to their homeland forever! British national security and strategic interests trumped over the rights of poor and vulnerable islanders. Even as the Big Powers- the United States and the United Kingdom- consolidated their strategic interests and military control of the region, the hapless Chagossian people were left to languish in the wilderness of their own catastrophe- in mainland Mauritius, Seychelles,  the UK and elsewhere. No wonder, the British colonial excesses in the region continue to scar the national spirit of the formerly subjugated people, the Chagossians in particular.

A Divine Message as Prophecy

Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam has just published a special Article/Booklet explaining the remarkable fulfillment of a Divine Message recieved by the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Saheb (atba) of Mauritius. In a special Speech made to the Study Circle of the devout followers, the Khalifatullah (atba) had presciently indicated the dismal future of the then existing government as a consequence of its egregious deeds and also the essential outcome of the international litigation the then Government preferred over the long-standing dispute with the UK over the sovereignty question of the Chagos Archipelago. 

The special Booklet entitled "Prophecy on the Chagos Arbitration" is available at the official website of the Jamaat, to access it, click here.  To read the special Article in the Sahih Al Islam Blog, click here. 

Reproduced below is the Preface to the Article from the blessed and profound pen of the Khalifatullah of our times, Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Saheb (atba) of Mauritius: 

A Divine Message is that light which God Almighty (Allah) uses to brighten man’s once darkened life. If light is hope for darkness, then Divine Revelation is hope for man’s salvation once he surrenders himself completely to Allah. This submission in turns is fertile land for him to accede to Allah, to become close to Him. And once the signs and manifestations of Allah become clear to him, he gets to feel blessed in every way, especially in the times of a Messenger of Allah, who comes to fuel for him that hope, and to enable him to open his inner eye and see the realisation of the signs of Allah.

The present article entitled “Prophecy on the Chagos Arbitration” examines the realisation of the words of Allah revealed to this humble self, the Khalifatullah of the age. These words which in turn are vehicled to the people through the tongue of the Messenger of Allah- thus called prophecy -are food for thought for humanity.

Prophecy on the Chagos Arbitration

In a Special Speech delivered on 17 May 2012, the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius spoke succinctly on a range of world and national issues, and religious and political developments.

The Speech was made in the backdrop of Divine Revelations and it included many comments that were prescient and prophetic, waiting to be unveiled in the fullness of time. Almost three years down the timeline from that Speech, it is astonishing to reflect on the extraordinary Light of Truth the short document represents in many ways. For instance, the fall of the then political regime at the hands of the people and the unravelling of its corrupt deeds were clearly foretold in a revelatory language familiar to the readers of the  Qur'an where (future) events are described in phrases denoting something that has already taken place: 

"Only Allah can “dethroned” them (the present Government) and bring them to their destruction, towards their great humiliation and in such a way that the people (citizens of Mauritius) turn against them. Thereafter we shall come to know how many frauds and corruption were done during their mandate".  

In a previous article in this series, we have already noted how the judicial system in Mauritius is indeed seeking to catch up with the former Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam and his coterie of men and women for their unlawful activities and criminal offences. For reading the same, click here. In this article, we shall seek to unravel yet another issue discussed on the occasion of the Special Speech- the then raging national debate over the effectiveness of the government's strategies to regain possession over the Chagos Islands, over which Mauritius has, for long, raised historic title and legal claims; though in reality and in fact, these islands remain the British-administered island territories in the Indian Ocean.