UK pushed itself to the wall on Malvinas and Diego Garcia islands

Recently, the islands called Islas Malvinas again caught attention. While Argentina is regarded to have the right to exercise sovereignty over the islands, British Foreign Minister Elizabeth Truss talked about the right to self-determination. 

Truss could not give a categorical answer because the issue involves the status of the islands called by the British as the Falkland Islands and still treated as a remaining colonial enclave of the United Kingdom. Truss was quoted, "We completely reject any question over sovereignty of the Falklands. The Falklands is part of the British family and we will defend their right to self-determination." 

The question is, what British family is she talking about?

The Malvinas was illegally occupied by the UK in 1833. On April 2, 1982, Argentina tried to retake Malvinas. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended on June 14. In total, 649 Argentines, 255 British military personnel, and three civilians died during the hostilities.

By holding on to the islands, the UK first disregarded the US Monroe Doctrine by President James Monroe in 1823 that the New World was off limits to European colonization and exploitation. Then, by refusing to turn over its sovereignty over the islands, it has violated resolutions of the United Nations demanding an end to colonialism.

UN General Assembly Resolution 2065 adopted in December 1965 recognized that Malvinas should be resolved by taking into consideration the UN General Assembly Resolution of 1514 eliminating all forms of colonialism.

One can never talk of a colonial rule-based order insisted by UK and its Western allies. Colonialism is illegal and discriminatory to people of the colonized territory. Colonizing states cannot deny the native-inhabitants their right of sovereignty and self-determination. 

The situation in the Malvinas is better off than Australia. After the UK exported its "excess population" mostly of convicted criminals there, Australia was granted independence but committed systematic genocide to the aborigines allegedly. This explains why the UK rejects all forms of negotiations much that the remaining Argentines have left Malvinas and were deprived of their fishing rights in the surrounding islands. 

To legally retain the islands, the UK held a referendum in 2013, an afterthought to reject the demands for sovereignty. No member of the UN supported the referendum. The lands including the mining of minerals were left to the British immigrants, mostly Welsch and Scots. Even if 70 percent voted to ratify the referendum, that did not resolve the issue of colonialism. 

Maybe Britain is thinking that Malvinas is some kind of freebee that it could permanently occupy the island for free, but today's truth is, that the colonialists are obligated to return the area to the natives. 

A good example is the demand by Spain to return the Strait of Gibraltar. Gibraltar is a small territory serving as gateway to the Atlantic Ocean. Another is the tiny atoll in the Indian Ocean known as Diego Garcia which the British illegally leased to the United States to be used as naval base for its operations in the Gulf, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

Diego Garcia is part of Mauritius. In the 1970s, the last plantation workers and their families were evicted to Mauritius. Development of the atolls for air and naval support evoked strong opposition from countries littoral Diego Garcia who wished to maintain a non-militarized status in the region.

In 1990s, islanders from the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia, sued for the return of the islands. In 2000, a British court ruled that the 1971 ordinance banning them from returning to Diego Garcia was unlawful. 

Moreover, in 2017, the UN General Assembly formally requested the International Court of Justice to review the decolonization of Mauritius, particularly with regard to the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius. 

The ICJ ruling in February 2019 recommended the return of the islands to Mauritius. The ruling was non-binding, although it did have influence on the international stage. 

There is no permanent population on Diego Garcia, although some 4,000 US and British military, and contract civilian personnel are stationed on the atoll. 

Britain continues to act like a roaring lion without looking that it is acting like a poodle clinging on to the apron of Uncle Sam. It likes sending its warships in contested areas as South China Sea and in the Black Sea, but if it still wishes to be respected, following UN resolutions and ICJ rulings properly on Las Malvinas and Diego Garcia will win it more honor in this post-colonial era.

The author is a Manila-based political analyst and columnist with the Manila Standard. (rpkapunan@gmail.com)

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.