BRITAIN has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds encouraging foreign countries to settle territorial disputes at the UN’s top court, despite rubbishing the authority of its judges this week, the Morning Star has found.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled against Britain’s claim to the Chagos Islands yesterday, and said the Indian Ocean atoll belonged to Mauritius.

The ICJ’s president, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, described Britain’s occupation of Chagos as “an unlawful act.”

The Chagos Islanders were forcibly removed from the territory in the 1960s to make way for a major British-US military base on Diego Garcia.

The Foreign Office immediately poured scorn on the ICJ’s landmark verdict, saying: “This is an advisory opinion, not a judgment.”

However, the department has heavily promoted the ICJ to Central American countries Belize and Guatemala, as the best way to settle their border feud.

Last September, Britain’s High Commissioner to Belize handed over almost half a million pounds to bankroll a “Public Awareness and Preparedness Campaign” about the ICJ.

Belize is holding a referendum in April to decide if it should ask the ICJ to settle its territorial dispute.

The campaign in favour of going to the ICJ is led by Belize’s former foreign minister Assad Shoman.

He told the Morning Star that Britain should respect the ICJ’s decision over Chagos. 

Mr Shoman said: “The British government is hiding behind the fact that the [Chagos] opinion is ‘just advisory,’ ie not binding, as if that gives it moral authority to so blatantly flout international law in relation to one of Britain’s most shameful episodes in the decolonisation process.”

British diplomats in Central America have previously said Britain is “a supporter of strong international institutions such as the ICJ.”

On the Belize-Guatemala dispute, the Foreign Office has said: “The UK supports the ICJ route as a means to find a long-term and sustainable resolution acceptable to both countries.”

Over the last decade Britain has repeatedly donated money to Belize and Guatemala to encourage them to go to the ICJ.

This even included a £292,000 give-away to cover “legal expenses incurred by both sides during the ICJ process.”

Foreign policy expert Mark Curtis has said that the British government’s reaction to the ICJ verdict on Chagos exhibits “cognitive dissonance.”