In March 2023, Member of the German Bundestag Sevim Dagdelen travelled to Mauritius for political discussions on the current negotiations between the Governments of the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom on the return of the Chagos Islands. The Archipelago continues to be occupied illegally by the UK and the US, the latter of which operates a military base on its largest island Diego Garcia. During her visit, MP Sevim Dagdelen met with representatives of the Government of the Republic of Mauritius, including the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Members of the National Assembly as well as representatives of the Mauritian peace movement and the Chagossians, who were deported from the islands in 1966 and 1973 in violation of human rights and international law. In her speech at a symposium at the University of Mauritius she addresses the theme “Neo-colonialism in the 21st century and the need for decolonisation”:
Discussions in Germany on colonialism tend to centre on the decolonisation of history, on addressing Germany’s bloody colonial past, particularly in Namibia and Tanzania. It should be noted in this context that the Federal Government has so far been unwilling to pay compensation for the horrific crimes of colonialism. What is absent from the public debate is the fact that the era of colonialism is not over in two senses – that this epoch of ruthless exploitation and disempowerment, this epoch of eliminatory racism, is still ongoing. The continuation of the epoch of colonialism can be seen very tangibly in Mauritius, with the ongoing occupation of the Chagos Archipelago even after the independence of Mauritius in 1968. It should be recalled that the British, in line with the demands of the USA, separated the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, yet maintained colonial occupation of the territory. The reason for this demand by the US Administration was the plan to build a large US military base of geostrategic importance in the middle of the Indian Ocean – which was subsequently to become a centre for crimes against humanity, since it later provided infrastructure both for the illegal wars waged by the USA and for the torture flights.
The 1960s were the years of decolonisation. The right of self-determination of peoples, which is anchored in the UN Charter as a structural principle of international relations, was able to be asserted for increasing numbers of former colonies. Decolonisation came as a reaction to the steadfast resistance of the oppressed populations against their oppressors.
With regard to the Chagos Archipelago, the USA and UK were therefore loath to take any risks. In addition to ensuring territorial separation from Mauritius, the entire island population was deported, to avoid any subsequent demands for decolonisation. Thus, the measures to create legal safeguards for the US base in the Chagos Archipelago went hand in hand with crimes against humanity, with an act of despicable eliminatory racism. The inhabitants of the islands were treated like mere objects – and, together with their descendants, they are still today paying the price for this unscrupulous deportation of the population. Everything possible must be done to ensure that this disgraceful chapter in colonial history is closed and the Chagos Archipelago returned to Mauritius so that the inhabitants and their descendants can return.
I am ashamed that the Federal Government, contrary to the large majority of states, decided to abstain during the vote in the UN General Assembly on the implementation of the International Court of Justice Opinion on the return of the Chagos Archipelago. This demonstrates strikingly for me the double standards in place with regard to NATO countries or direct allies of the USA. Or, to put it another way, the principle of “one crow not pecking out the eye of another” applies.
And, against the background of the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, we must concede that even international institutions like the International Court of Justice apply double standards and that practically no action is taken against the USA, NATO countries and their allies. This can be seen with regard to the Chagos Archipelago, too, where the blatant crime of deportation had absolutely no criminal consequences, in line with the perfidious logic of impunity for the NATO military alliance, although the perpetrators readily admit having committed this crime against humanity. The problem is that this application of double standards not only destroys the credibility of those concerned, but also takes an axe to the very foundations of cooperative peaceful international relations. Double standards and the application of differing moral principles undermine the international legal order and help perpetuate the era of colonialism.
And this brings me to the second phenomenon concerning the ongoing colonialism of our time. We are dealing with the phenomenon of neo-colonialism, as set out by the former President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah described neo-colonialism as a systemic problem of post-colonial states in their relations with former European colonial empires. He pointed out that, although the former colonies are in theory independent and have all the outward trappings of sovereignty, they have not achieved true sovereignty.
And we are witnessing continued efforts even in the 21st century to organise neo-colonial exploitation of the African continent in particular, whether through ruthless exploitation of natural resources by Western corporations or the power of financial organisations which decide the fate of African countries to their detriment.
In the recent past, we have also seen a further phenomenon of neo-colonialism, with the USA – but also allies like Germany – resorting to moral posturing, threats and pressure to persuade countries of the Global South to align with their position in the proxy war in Ukraine between the West and Russia and, for example, flatly demanding that India join the economic war against Russia even in contradiction of India’s own economic interests.
In my view, the clearer it becomes that the economic war against Russia is predominately affecting these countries’ own populations, the greater the efforts to force the states of the Global South, in neo-colonial style, to take measures to the detriment of their own populations, thus degrading them to states with reduced sovereignty. My impression is, however, that resistance is growing in the case of India, and also Brazil, to this kind of neo-colonialism. The path to a multipolar world is irreversible even though it will have to be followed in opposition to the governments of the NATO states – or in the case of the Indian Ocean the AUKUS military pact, to which the military base in the Chagos Archipelago is essential for its policy of confrontation and encirclement vis-à-vis China.
Photos: Top – Sevim Dagdelen with representatives of leftist party LALIT, Centre- Sevim Dagdelen with Olivier Bancoult, President of the Chagos Refugees Group.
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