What if... North Korea had somehow managed to buy the Cape Verde group of islands (about 400 miles off the coast of Senegal) from Portugal in 1965 for, say, £3m?
What if... the North Korean government had then expelled the population of the biggest island in Cape Verde – in order to lease the island to China for military purposes?
What if... China had then built communications, naval and air bases in Cape Verde from 1975 onwards, constructing two 12,000-foot-long runways,…
British officials might stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity because of the British government’s refusal to return the illegally-occupied Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
That was the threat made on 27 December by the prime minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, after an advisory opinion by the world court last February and the expiry of a six-month deadline set by the UN general assembly.
The Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean include…
Britain must hand the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean back to Mauritius – and that includes the largest island, Diego Garcia, where the US has built a massive military base. That is the non-binding advisory opinion of the world court, delivered on 25 February, as requested by the UN general assembly.
In the 1960s, Britain detached the Chagos archipelago from Mauritius and deported 2,000 Chagossians in order to hang onto the islands when Mauritius became independent in 1968, and…
On 11 March, British human rights protesters Peter Bouquet and Jon Castle, both former Greenpeace captains, were intercepted at sea off the island base of Diego Garcia by a British warship. They were detained for allegedly “entering waters illegally” on board their vessel, Musichana.
The two men are part of a group called the People's Navy and were demonstrating against the removal of the Chagos Islanders from their homes on Diego Garcia nearly 40 years ago to make way for a…
It is now almost 40 years since the Chagos islanders were secretly thrown off their Britishowned* islands to make way for a US military base. On 11 May, they celebrated winning the right to return.
It is the second time the High Court has had to give them this right, and their experience shows just what the British Government is capable of when it is determined to trample on people's rights.
Secrets and liesThe depopulation of the Chagos islands is a story of secrets, lies…
