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UNGA requests ICJ advisory opinion on Chagos Archipelago, Mauritius separation

NEW YORK, June 23 (KUNA) -- UN General Assembly adopted a text requesting that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) render an advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius before that Indian Ocean island nation's independence in the 1960s.
Document A/71/L.73 received 94 votes in favour, 15 against, and 65 abstentions.
The resolution recalled its 1965 resolution in which it asked the UK not to dismember the territory of Mauritius ahead of its independence in 1968. It asked the Court whether the decolonization of Mauritius had been carried out in a lawful manner, given the Archipelago's subsequent separation.
Furthermore, the UNGA asked the Court to advise on the consequences arising from the United Kingdom's continuing administration of the Chagos Archipelago under international law, including the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
It pointed, in particular, to Mauritius' inability to resettle its nationals, including those of Chagossian origin, on the islands.
During the meeting of the UNGA, the UK Ambassador Matthew Rycroft regretted that this issue has come to the General Assembly, opposing the draft resolution. "It saddens us that a dispute between two UN members, two Commonwealth partners, should have reached this Chamber in this way," he said.
Rycroft stressed that a more constructive path is still available and called for the withdrawal of this draft resolution to keep that path open.
Despite the terms of the draft resolution, the UK diplomat said this is not a matter of "decolonization." "We do not doubt the right of the General Assembly to ask the ICJ for an advisory opinion on any legal question. But the fact that the General Assembly has not concerned itself with this matter for decades shows that today's debate has been called for other reasons," he added.
Mauritius became independent in 1968, through mutual agreement between the Council of Ministers of Mauritius and the UK Government. In separate talks with the Council of Ministers, Mauritius had earlier accepted the detachment of the Chagos Archipelago: an agreement that Mauritius continued to respect until the 1980s. (end) mao.gta