The Shaghus Islands deal stops legal procedures at the last minute

The government has been temporarily banned from the conclusion of talks on the Shaghous Islands deal through a judicial order at the last minute by the Supreme Court judge.

At 02:25, Mr. Justice granted a “temporary relief” goat to the Shaghusian woman who brought a case against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Prime Minister Sir Kerr Starmer was expected to attend a virtual signing ceremony with representatives of the Mauritanian government on Thursday morning.

The agreement will witness that the UK hinted the Shaghus Islands to Mauritius, but allows the United Kingdom and the United States to continue to use a military base located on the archipelago of the Indian Ocean for a preliminary period of 99 years.

The UK government has not yet determined the estimated payments that the British taxpayer will make to Mauritius as part of the deal, but it is expected to coincide with billions.

In response to a court order, a government spokesman said: “We do not comment on the ongoing legal cases. This deal is the right thing to protect the British people and our national security.”

“Since it is scheduled to hear the matter shortly after today, it will not be appropriate for us to make any comments,” said the Moreius Javin Glover.

The court will hear the case again at 10:30 on Thursday.

The legal procedure was raised by two women Shaghusian, Bernadet Dujas and Braitress Pompeii, who want to return to live in the islands.

According to both the current ranking and the proposed new deal, Shagusians are prevented from returning to Diego Garcia, the largest island that includes the military base in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Earlier this year, their lawyer, Michael Pollac, said: “The government’s attempt to abandon the homeland of Shaghusi, as they failed to hold official consultations with the Shaghousi people, is a continuation of their terrible treatment by the authorities in the past.

“They continue to people who have the closest connection to the islands, but their needs and desires are ignored.”

In his matter early in the morning, the judge said: “The defendant may not have any conclusive or legally binding step to conclude his negotiations related to the transfer of the lands of the British Indian Ocean, also known as the Shaghus Archipelago, to a foreign government or link itself to the specific conditions of this transfer.”

“The defendant is to maintain the jurisdiction of the UK on the lands of the British Indian Ocean until another regime.”

The matter states that the judge granted the Zarbian order “when considering the request to obtain a temporary reduction from the court hours” and “when reading the response of the defendants.”

Chagossian community representatives meet with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Stephen Doughty, for discussions on the sovereignty of the region.

The meeting was expected to include six representatives of three different societal groups.

“The meeting will be an opportunity to discuss FCDO’s Chagossian projects and the new Shajusi Communication Group,” said an email sent to the actors earlier this week, without providing more details.

The Shaghus Archipelago was separated from Mauritius in 1965, when Mauritius was still a British colony.

Britain bought the islands for 3 million pounds, but Mauritius argued that he was illegally forced to abandon the islands in order to obtain independence from Britain.

In the late 1960s, Britain called on the United States to build a military base on Diego Garcia and remove thousands of people from their homes on the island.

Immigration, issued in 1971, was prevented from the island’s residents from returning.

The inhabitants of Shaghus themselves – some of them in Mauritius and Sachyle, but others who live in Kraouli in Sussex – do not speak with one voice on the fate of their homeland.

Some are determined to return to live in isolated islands, while others focus more on their rights and their status in the United Kingdom, while others argue that the state of the archipelago should not be resolved by strangers.

Melin Augustine, a member of the Chaghusi community in the United Kingdom, said she hoped that the deal will not be signed in its current form, saying that she felt that she was excluded from negotiations between the United Kingdom and Mauritius on the islands.

She said, “Like Bernadette and Peterrice, my father was born on Diego Garcia. This is heritage.” ((Court of temporary relief) is good. We need to decide our destiny … We need our rights. “

In recent years, the United Kingdom has been increasingly international pressure to return the islands to Mauritius, with both the United Nations Supreme Court and a general assembly with Mauritius due to sovereign demands.

In late 2022, the former conservative government began negotiations on controlling the region, but it did not reach an agreement by the time when power was lost in the general elections of 2024.

The work government has argued that the continuous questions about the UK’s right to preserve the islands are a threat to the future of the military base of the United States of America.

Defense Secretary John Healy said last week that the government should act to “deal with danger.”

However, the proposals were criticized, as opposing politicians have sparked concern about Mauritius’s relatively close relationship with China and the amount costly by the deal.

In the aftermath of the court’s intervention, the governorate’s foreign minister in the shadow said, Pitti Patel: “The surrender deal in the Labor Party is a bad thing for our defensive and security interests, and a bad for British and bad taxpayers in favor of the British Chaghusi.”

She said the legal intervention was “an insult to Kiir Starmer and (Foreign Minister) David Lami.”

“Although the inhabitants of the Shaghus Islands won a judicial issuance in the Supreme Court to prevent the abandonment of the islands, the government will seek to cancel this,” said UK reform leader Nigel Faraj.

“Why is Starmer very desperate to abandon the islands? There is no legal need, and it will cost us about 52 billion pounds, and play in the hands of China. Why?”