British Stamps Banned from Chagos Islands

• 28 Aug 2021

Why in News

Recently, the United Nations (UN) has banned British stamps from being used on the Chagos archipelago.

Key Points

• About:
  
  • Now the UPU (Universal Postal Union) will stop registering, distributing and transmitting stamps bearing the words British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), the name given by Britain to the archipelago.
    
    • UPU is a United Nations specialized agency and the postal sector's primary forum for international cooperation.
  • Chagos archipelago is an island group in the central Indian Ocean, located about 1,600 km south of the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent.
• Background:
  
  • In the 19^th century, Chagos were governed from Mauritius, which was a British Colony.
  • Mauritius became independent in 1968, but the Chagos archipelago remained under British control. The U.K. government refers to it as BIOT.
    
    • That Sparked protests by Chagossians, who accused London of carrying out an “illegal occupation” and barring them from their homeland.
  • The UK retained possession of the Chagos archipelago, which includes the strategic US airbase of Diego Garcia, after Mauritius gained its independence by paying Mauritius more than 4 million pounds for the islands.
    
    • About 1,500 native islanders were deported from the Diego Garcia island in Chagos archipelago so that it could be leased to the US for the airbase in 1971.
  • Since 1975, Mauritius has made a concerted legal effort to secure the archipelago's return to its fold.
• Recent developments:
  
  • In 2019, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Britain should give up control of the islands.
  • Later in 2019, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution recognising that "the Chagos Archipelago forms an integral part of the territory of Mauritius" and urged UN agencies "to support the decolonisation of Mauritius".
• India’s Stand:
  
  • India has supported Mauritius' stand on the Chagos Archipelago. India in its submission to ICJ has said that the Chagos Archipelago has been and continues to be with Mauritius and demanded sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago from Britain.
  • India stayed committed to its Indian Ocean neighbor Mauritius, as well as its anti-colonial credentials.

Source: TH