The cause is a little-known group of 55 islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean known as the Chagos Archipelago. For 150 years they were part of the British colony of Mauritius. Then, in 1965, at the instigation of President Lyndon Johnson, Britain decided to separate the islands from Mauritius and, at just the time that the world was agreeing the era of colonialism was over, created a new colony, called the British Indian Ocean Territory. One of the islands, Diego Garcia, was leased to the United States for a military base.Mauritius got its independence in 1968, but without Chagos. The entire …
