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Background Guide &Mun Ix &MUN IX THE 1968 CHAGOSSIAN EXILE BACKGROUND GUIDE & Letters From The Directors Dear Delegates, My name is Ramona Shelton and I am so thrilled to be your director for Reclaiming an Island: The 1968 Chagossian Exile. The themes of sovereignty, and human rights as well as the international response to violations of these concepts have been interests of mine throughout my college career, and I am excited to hear what each of you brings to the table at &MUN IX! I am a sophomore from Staunton, VA, double majoring in International Relations and Economics at William and Mary. I joined the International Relations Club as a freshman after competing in model United Nations in high school. I have staffed and directed committees for all three conferences that William and Mary hosts, have competed with our collegiate model United Nations team, and am currently serving on the Secretariat for our middle school conference, as the director of conference development. Outside of model UN, I am a member of William and Mary’s club rowing team, and also enjoy hiking, skiing, reading, and cooking for my friends in my free time. As a delegate in this committee, you will be expected to take on the role of your character, however &MUN condemns any displays of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, religious discrimination, or any other form of bigotry, and this behavior will not be tolerated in committee. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected]. Thank you all for participating in &MUN XIX, I cannot wait for a wonderful weekend! Sincerely, Ramona Shelton & Letters From The Directors Dear Delegates, Welcome to &MUN IX! My name is Alexandra Byrne and I am so excited to be serving as your crisis director for Reclaiming an Island: The 1968 Chagossian Exile. I am currently a sophomore at the College, and as an International Relations and French & Francophone Studies double major, I am interested in issues of human rights and transitional justice in the Francophone world. This year is my second competing in crisis committees on the college MUN circuit. I serve as an assistant head delegate for our travel team and I have greatly enjoyed staffing and directing all three of our MUN conferences at W&M. Outside of MUN, I write for The Flat Hat, W&M’s student newspaper, and I am a research fellow in the International Justice Lab on campus, where I research transitional justice and truth commissions. In my (limited) spare time, I enjoy art, film, tea, and tennis. Focusing on a little-known crisis of autonomy that remains largely unaddressed to this day, I hope this committee will carefully and thoughtfully address the issues of forced displacement and the human right to one’s native territory. Though the Chagos territory dispute has grown to be an international issue involving major actors such as the United States and the United Kingdom, when creating this committee, we wanted to place agency in the hands of the Chagossians. Thus, you will represent a group of Chagossian activists exiled on Mauritius. You will be tasked with running a grassroots campaign to reclaim your islands. Though we recognize MUN is meant to be a fun time, please note that the issue at hand is one of great sensitivity and gravity for the generations of Chagossians that remain exiled from their native islands and have received no redress. Like native and indigenous peoples across the world, Chagossians are very much alive and retain their unique language, history, and culture. There is no denying the pain inflicted upon the Chagossian people by French, British, and American colonial endeavors. That said, we expect all delegates to handle the issue with care in room and in their crisis arcs. Like all committees at &MUN, we will tolerate no discrimination or bigotry of any kind. It is a crazy time in our world, but I hope that this committee will prompt thought-provoking and meaningful debate as we have seen in past iterations of &MUN. If you have any questions/comments/concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at [email protected]. Thank you so much for coming to &MUN and I look forward to meeting you all come conference weekend! Best, Alexandra Byrne & Background Committee Date: June 1975 The Chagos Islands is a group of seven atolls, made up of more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean. In 1715, France laid claim to the islands, and established a small colony on the island of Diego Garcia, which consisted of around fifty French citizens, and a handful of slaves from what are now Mozambique and Madagascar.[1] The French began issuing permits for companies to establish coconut oil plantations, and the Chagos Islands began to establish themselves as an economy based on the production of copra, and its by-product, coconut oil. In the 1814 Treaty of Paris, France surrendered Mauritius and its dependencies (including the Chagos Islands) to the United Kingdom. During this time, the atoll of Diego Garcia and the Chagos became prominent posts for slave ships in the Indian ocean. Trading between Sumatra, Seychelles, and the French Island of Bourbon added a population of Malay slaves into the Chagos gene pool.[2] The French government abolished slavery in 1794; however local administrators did not enforce this in the Chagos Islands. Similarly, the abolition of slavery by the British government in 1834 could have propelled a change in the slave culture of the islands, but former slaves simply became contract workers for large plantations, continuing the precedent of poor working conditions, and little to no pay for much of the population.[3] Despite less than ideal lives for many living on the island, the slave population developed rich traditions. In the 1960s, the United Kingdom and the United States began negotiations on establishing a military base in the Indian Ocean region. Since the United States did not possess any land in the region, they were dependent on reaching a deal with the United Kingdom to secure land for the project.[4] The United States sought an unpopulated territory in order to avoid the rules set forth by the United Nations Special Committee on the Situation with Regard and Implementation of Declaration on the Creation of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which prohibited the colonization of land that was already inhabited by native peoples. In order to find a loophole to these restrictions, the British Colonial Office recommended to the UK government to detach the Chagos Islands from Mauritius, an independent island to which the remote British islands of the Central Indian Ocean were administered. On November 8, 1965, the United Kingdom created the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) by an order in council.[5] [1] Durup, Julien. “The Chagos. A Short History and Its Legal Identity.” Études Océan Indien, INALCO, 1 July 2013, journals.openedition.org/oceanindien/2003. [2] Ibid. [3] Ibid. [4] Ibid. [5] Ibid. & In December 1966, the United States and the United Kingdom signed a 50 year agreement to use the Chagos for military purposes, and each island was to be without a resident civilian population. In April 1967, the BIOT bought out the Chagossian Agalega, the company that owned the majority of the plantations on the archipelago for 600,000 euros, becoming the sole property owners in the BIOT. This put them in a position to easily depopulate the entire island, as many of the individuals who resided on the island were contractually bound to the Chagossian Agelega Company. Between 1965 and 1973, there were approximately 426 families, numbering 1,151 individuals who had left the Chagos Islands for Mauritius either voluntarily or involuntarily. By April 27, 1973, the entire population of the Chagos was removed to Mauritius and the Seychelles.[6] The Chagos Islands The Chagos Archipelago is made of 60 separate islands that extend over an area of 10,000 square miles.[7] The Chagos Islands are very secluded, with no other land within 1,000 miles of it, making it a prime location for a military base. Geographically, the Chagos Islands are located seven degrees north of the equator in the North Central Region of the Indian Ocean, and have India to the north, Madagascar to the West, Indonesia to the east, and Antarctica to the south. Diego Garcia is the largest of the many atolls that comprise the Chagos Archipelago, and the land can only be reached using government authorized ships and planes.[8] [6] “Chagossians-the Original Inhabitants of Diego Garcia Face U.S. Government in the Court.” Accessed March 5, 2021. http://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/chagossians-original-inhabitants-diego-garcia-face-us-government-court. [7] Diego Garcia - University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. archive.eol.ucar.edu/projects/dynamo/documents/history.html. [8] Ibid. Map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagos_Archipelago & The Chagossian People and Culture Chagossians have diverse ancestry, including peoples from Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, India, and Malaysia. Many Chagossians descend from enslaved individuals brought to the islands by the French during the 18th century. Others arrived as fishermen, farmers, and plantation workers. Since the first successful French colony was established in the Chagos in 1793, many Chagossians worked for the coconut plantations that were set up on the islands. Chagossians and their diaspora speak Chagossian Creole—a French derived Bourbonnais Creole.[9] Chagossian society on the islands was matriarchal, and most men and women worked. Land and resources were plentiful, so the economy was relatively communal. Most Chagossians are Christian and there was a church on Diego Garcia that was well attended for Sunday Mass.[10] Chagossian culture is distinct from other Indian Ocean island cultures, with unique cuisine, traditions, and festivities.
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