In 2007, he threatened to leave the Commonwealth to protest the UK's treatment of Chagos residents. He said he could take the United Kingdom to the International Court of Justice over the fate of the islanders. The Chagos Islands, a British colony in the Indian Ocean, were leased to the United States in the 1960s to build a military base. The inhabitants were driven out and the government says they can not come back, but have obtained British citizenship. Most people live in poverty in Mauritius, or as refugees in the UK. The American base was built on the large island of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago. Mauritius claims the islands as part of its territory, and he claimed that his country was forced by the British to accept the Chagossians as a condition for independence.