Background: The Institute focuses on the problem of the people of the Chagos Archipelago who, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, were forcibly evicted from their land and homes and resettled in Mauritius or the Seychelle Islands. Administered as part of Mauritius until 1965, when Mauritius obtained its independence from Britain, the UK claimed ownership of the Chagos Archipelago which it renamed the British Indian Ocean Territory [BIOT]. This claim was recognized by neither the Chagossians nor by Mauritius. Nonetheless, Britain negotiated a deal with the USA, permitting the Americans to use the islands for military purposes for a 50 year period. Because of an American stipulation that "no Chagossian presence could be suffered within proximity of the US base" being constructed on Diego Garcia, the entire Chagossian population [approximately 5,000 individuals] were forcibly relocated.



Objectives: The Chagossians do not insist that the US give up their base; but they want the right to settle on all the other islands of the Archipelago.