Does this mean that people can return to those islands?
Certainly seems unlikely they would close the military base unless they were forced to so do by some military or substantial economic action.
This type of thing is what makes me worried about the long term sustainability of US security. The paradigm is not really rule of law when it comes right down to it, it's might makes right. This is an inherently insecure paradigm.
Whether there can actually ever be a different paradigm seems difficult though.
Full disclaimer: I am Mauritian and work in the UK. I am happy about the regognition in the UN and the ICJ’s decision even that it is quite late and a lot of Chagosians already suffered a lot. I would say the Mauritian Gov is interested in the fishing rights provided by the islands which is critical for us. I would like to see .io domain be given back to a Chagosian association and let them use the income from it. It could be used to develop transport to the island and resume coconut farming, fishing, tourism...
I would like to see more pressure being applied to UK, because to be honest i don’t see them doing anything and just do like they always did so far, ignore ans delay any actions to be done there.
Ps: the Gigaom acticle about it is great to understand the situation.
Pss: the US has no need for a base there, their base in Bahrain and Qatar are much closer to their illegitimate war interests.
I'd imagine this is the sort of situation where Mauritius uses this embarrassing (for the UK and US) defeat to pressure the UK/US for a lucrative base hosting agreement. There's little value to Mauritius themselves in having a massive naval complex on an isolated island, their economy can't sustain the sort of military that would benefit from it. Their best use of it would likely be to reestablish sovereignty and then "rent" it to "great powers" like the US/UK, Russia, China, India, etc.
Mauritius has made it clear to the US that they do not intend to change the status of the base in any way. It will simply be on a Mauritian island instead of a UK island.
What I don't understand is why the Chagossians can't return to the islands even if the US base remains. Looking at the islands on Google Maps it appears that the western half of Diego Garcia atoll is mostly uninhabited and could be used to resettle them, and there are other islands besides. We are talking about a thousand or so people—there's enough space for that many.
Certainly seems unlikely they would close the military base unless they were forced to so do by some military or substantial economic action.
This type of thing is what makes me worried about the long term sustainability of US security. The paradigm is not really rule of law when it comes right down to it, it's might makes right. This is an inherently insecure paradigm.
Whether there can actually ever be a different paradigm seems difficult though.