Several leaders of Alliance Lepep, including the P.M. have raised the prospect of a Chagos windfall of 'milliards de roupies’. Xavier Duval sounded a little more responsible by saying that electoral promises would be funded by Chagos money, but also adding that the country would need to work harder to pay for more Govt spending, implying that Chagos money will not be sufficient to fund electoral spending promises.
The P.M.’s words:
(b) en termes de banne projets qui nous pou faire au cours de plusieurs lannees
(c) et aussi nous bizin rende hommage a banne chagossiens, - pou ena en trust fund avec des sommes tres importants
Comments
(A) The P.M’s fictitious claim of ‘gros largent’ is intended to mislead the population about the critical economic and financial situation, as if the country has suddenly discovered oil. In the discussions with the UK on Chagos, the P.M. aimed to get ‘gros largent’ as annual rent, more than 1 billion dollars (over Rs50 bn), but was cornered and trapped by the British to accept only peanuts relatively (probably around 200mn British pounds or slightly over Rs10 bn). It is a new Government which will negotiate the terms of the Treaty after the forthcoming elections, making sure that Mauritius gets the best political and financial deal.
The P.M. should be challenged to disclose the amount of this pretended ‘gros largent’. The Chagos political agreement refers to a financial support package, comprising an indexed annual payment and grant project funding by the UK to Mauritius, but avoids direct mention of a lease or rental payment for Diego Garcia. No financial amounts are mentioned in the agreement.
(B) The projects to be funded by UK will likely be determined jointly in a partnership with the U.K. to focus on infrastructure for "environmental protection, maritime security, combating illegal fishing, irregular migration and drug and people trafficking within the Chagos Archipelago, with the shared objective of securing and protecting one of the world’s most important marine environments, including the establishment of a Mauritian Marine Protected Area".
The U K Foreign Secretary asserted in Parliament that the UK has "full Mauritian backing for robust security arrangements……including preventing foreign armed forces from accessing or establishing themselves on the outer islands". This grant project funding under the agreement is not meant for domestic budget spending, but principally for a broad range of Chagos infrastructure.
(C) As regards compensation to address the "wrongs of the past", and demonstrate the commitment "to support the welfare of Chagossians" and the implementation of a programme of resettlement on the islands of the Chagos Archipelago, other than Diego Garcia, the U.K will establish a new Trust Fund capitalised by the UK., and separately provide additional Government support to Chagossians in the U.K.
U.K. will channel financial resources – ‘sommes tres importants’ according to the P.M., directly to the Chagossians, and not through the Mauritian budget. The hopes of Mauritius getting a hefty financial compensation for past U.K. occupation of Diego Garcia, or for addressing past wrongs inflicted on mauritians of Chagossian origin, have been dashed.
