The Falklands: another way forward

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/03/falklands-sovereignty-treaty

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Every fresh scrap between Britain and Argentina about the Falkland Islands can be filed under the rubric "here we go again". There is a depressing predictability about the outcome – nothing will change. Argentina's president launched an attack on British colonialism, claiming the islands were "forcibly stripped" from Argentina 180 years ago (the incident in 1833 boiled down to a standoff between two ships, one bigger than the other, and as the Argentinian schooner was manned by a large number of British mercenaries, it decided to back off. Nor is it true that the entire Argentinian population was expelled). David Cameron fired back that there can be no negotiations on the sovereignty unless and until such time as the islanders so wish. With a referendum due to be held in March, it is pretty clear that the islanders will support the continuation of their status as an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. The referendum was not proposed with any other object in mind.

Fault can be found with the attitude of both governments. In Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina has a populist president who is doing what all populists do: seeking an issue to divert public attention from her government's real problems, which are more to do with inflation and bondholders than anything a British brig-sloop did 180 years ago. While Mr Cameron properly stresses the right of Falklanders to self-determination, he knows full well that the conflicting claims of sovereignty are a matter between states, not peoples. The reluctance of both sides to take this dispute to an international court is not a sign of legal conviction. It is more a sign of nerves. Any objective reader of the history of these islands would more likely conclude that this history is mixed, to say the least, and that the rival sovereignty claims are finely balanced.

Britain's blanket refusal to discuss the sovereignty of the Falklands can be contrasted with its attitude to another group of islanders, over whose trampled rights it continues to shed few tears. Some 1,786 Chagos Islanders were evicted from their homes by Britain between 1967 and 1973 to allow the US to build a military base on Diego Garcia. Does not the very same UN principle of self-determination, cited so forcibly by Mr Cameron in relation to the Falkland Islanders, apply to them too? A referendum held among their survivors and dependents would almost certainly produce a result that would embarrass the British government. They want their homes back and yet they have been prevented at every turn by Britain from returning to them. The latest setback the Chagossians faced was a ruling by the European court of human rights, which held that because their claims had been settled "definitively" in the British courts, they had effectively renounced further claims that their expulsion from their homes had been unlawful. Their honourable fight for justice goes on.

Not far away in the Indian Ocean lies another small island. This is uninhabited, except for scientists, is surrounded by rich fisheries and is the subject of a longstanding dispute. The French claim to Tromelin dates to 1810, but for most of the time since it has been a dependency of the former British colony of Mauritius. Mauritius claims the island was part of the colony at the time of independence. France, which runs a meteorological station and a landing strip on the island, disputes this. Both sides sidestepped the sovereignty issue by signing a co-management treaty in 2010. This makes eminent sense: France and Mauritius will jointly develop the riches around the island without prejudicing either side's claims to it.

If, as we are constantly being told, the Falklands dispute is the precursor to a much larger one about South Georgia and the Antarctic peninsula, we must transform a zero-sum ritual dance about sovereignty into an agreement to jointly exploit the resource riches around these islands, while also fully protecting the important marine environment. This will not be easy, but at least it presents a co-operative and sensible way forward.