6/20/2023 0 Comments Get a .io domain![]() ![]() ![]() A long-running legal dispute began, culminating in a nonbinding opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), produced in February 2019 at the request of the United Nations General Assembly. However, by the end of the 1970s the Mauritian government was arguing that it had “had no choice” about the slicing-off of the Chagos Islands, and it began campaigning for ownership of the archipelago. In August 1973, they deported everyone from the Chagos to the Seychelles.” Two people died…We survived two years without any external help. “Only one boat came in the middle of 1972, which brought a lot of sickness, diarrhea, vomiting. “They left us for two years,” Prosper says. Prosper, at the time an infant, was one of those who were first taken from Diego Garcia to the Chagos Islands’ smaller Peros Banhos atoll, in 1971. Some, such as Nourrice, were taken directly to the Seychelles. The islands became BIOT, and their inhabitants were dumped, impoverished, on Mauritius and the Seychelles. military-bought the Chagos Islands from Mauritius for 3 million pounds (around $79 million in today’s money). But a few years before Mauritius gained its sovereignty in 1968, the British-who were already secretly in talks with the U.S. The Chagossian people are largely descended from the African slaves who were brought across in the early 19 th century from Mozambique and Madagascar, to work the plantations.īy the mid-20th century, the British Empire was crumbling, and its African colonies were preparing for independence. took control in 1814, following the defeat of Napoleon, and ended up tacking the islands onto another British colony, Mauritius, which lies over 1,300 miles to their southwest. The Chagos Islands were originally settled by the French in the 18 th century as a site for coconut plantations. “The original owners of the land need something for it,” says Prosper, who is currently unemployed due to a work-related injury. military for damages of up to $100,000 per islander, which their lawyer described as “only a small fraction of the back rent” for the Americans’ Diego Garcia facility, a crucial bomber base (and rendition vector) in the War on Terror. ![]() A couple of weeks ago, Nourrice and Prosper also sued the U.S. io address, rub.io, during his 2016 presidential bid.)īut if they get their wish, the Chagossians hope it will be the first step on the road to reclaiming what they see as their asset. ![]() This would be a huge blow to the many thousands of companies that use it, which include the likes of seat-reservation outfit Seats.io and the Plan.io project-management tool. io, the extension could end up being retired. Some tech consultants and legal experts suggest that, if the U.K. “The and its BIOT administration has not only stolen the entire Chagos Archipelago and everything on, under, and above it but also engages in virtual and digital exploitation and even tolerates massive criminality in order to generate revenue.” “The Chagossians receive no income from any of these colonial activities nor have any meaningful input in their management,” the claim reads. The country code top-level domain (ccTLD) actually stands for “Indian Ocean,” and it specifically refers to the British Indian Ocean Territory, or BIOT. Nearly half a century later, the Chagossians-with health care workers Nourrice and Solomon Prosper acting as their representatives-are trying to reclaim their home, along with what is arguably its most lucrative resource: the “.io” web-address extension, widely used by technology startups owing to its “ input/output” connotations. was clearing the Chagos Islands of inhabitants, dismissed at the time by British diplomat Denis Greenhill as a “few Tarzans or Man Fridays.” Now, to satisfy the terms of the deal, the U.K. The British had already started leasing Diego Garcia-at 10 square miles, the largest of the 1,000-plus islands-to the United States military in the mid-1960s. Located about halfway between East Africa and Indonesia, the tropical archipelago is strategically useful. The year was 1973, and the boat’s occupants were the last of around 1,800 people to be removed from the Chagos Islands under a five-year forced-deportation campaign perpetrated by the United Kingdom, which has claimed ownership of the islands for two centuries-and which refuses to give it up, despite a demand from the United Nations to decolonize the territory. ![]()
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