Lake Nyasa dispute may head to ICJ

[BabuK]

Mkumbwa Ally, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation


Government is ready to pursue legal action should mediation over the Lake Nyasa border dispute currently under a panel of former heads of state of Southern African Development Community prove unfruitful.

Mkumbwa Ally, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, told The Guardian that among legal avenues to be pursued is the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The development follows Malawi’s President Joyce Banda’s declaration to the former SADC heads of state that should they fail to reach a resolution on the dispute by 30 September this year, she would take the matter to the ICJ.

“The government is waiting for feedback from the mediation team, in the meantime we are preparing ourselves for any action in case the process fails, but it’s our hope that the matter will be resolved peacefully in our home lands,” Ali said.

Responding to allegations of violence on the lake between Tanzanian and Malawian fishermen with reports claiming that Tanzanians are attacking the latter group, the spokesperson said the reports are unconfirmed but nonetheless, he called for extreme prudence between the fishermen noting that they should not agitate an already volatile situation.

“We have not received any such reports, however both Tanzanians and our neighbours who live around the lake have been living peacefully over years so we urge them to be patient and not antagonise each other,” he said.

Tanzania claims entitlement to half the lake, basing its argument on common international law, which stipulates that when two countries are separated by a body of water, the border is at the middle of that body.

Malawi claims that it owns the entire lake basing on 1890 Heligoland Agreement between Britain and Germany which stipulated that the border between the countries lay along the Tanzanian side of the lake.

Currently the mediation process is in the hands of former presidents Joachim Chissano of Mozambique and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa who have already held discussions with Malawi and are expected in the country for the same discussions.



SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

 

[Swat]

They should not disturb our heads. Where on this planet Earth that you can find the border between two countries separated by waterbody is lying along a shoreline!?. Nyerere once told Banda that the agreement between Germany and England that time was absurd!

 

[kibol]

They should not disturb our heads. Where on this planet Earth that you can find the border between two countries separated by waterbody is lying along a shoreline!?. Nyerere once told Banda that the agreement between Germany and England that time was absurd!

they have to know that, we as Tanzanians we have no claims over the water beyond the median line otherwise if negotiation fails in the matter that we can both benefits from that lake then no way out more than securing our holy teritory with our blood.