ICJ says not aware of Dar, Lilongwe dispute over L.Nyasa

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The Hague. The International Court of Justice says it was not aware of a dispute between Tanzania and Malawi over the Lake Nyasa border.

Spokesperson of the legal body under the UN Andrey Poskakukhin said here on Wednesday that no party to the conflict has communicated with the Court over the issue.

 “We are not aware of such conflict. Malawi has not filed a case over the border dispute with Tanzania,” he said in a briefing to visiting journalists from the developing countries.

 Since 2012, Malawi had claimed that its border with Tanzania runs on the eastern shores of the shared lake and not in the middle of the lake as Tanzania has repeatedly insisted.

 Ever since, retired presidents of Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa have been shuttling between capital cities within the region in a bid to resolve the dispute.

 However, recently some Malawi government officials were quoted saying they would appeal to some international legal bodies for  arbitration. The official confirmed, however, that Somalia has instituted proceedings against Kenya with regard to a dispute concerning maritime delimitation in the Indian Ocean.

 Under the suit, Somalia is claiming parts of Kenya within the ocean. Recently there were reports the Horn of Africa claims extended to parts of Tanzania near Pemba Island.

 Mr Poskakukhin said the Hague-based Court has been involved in settling a number of border disputes between nations but that the exercise has been difficult given its sensitivity. “For Kosovo, for instance, questions have been raised over the legality of its independence,” he said of the former autonomous state within the collapsed republics under the former Yugoslavia.

 Kosovo had a border dispute with Serbia, also one of the republics under the former Yugoslavia. In 1999, this  led to one of the bitter wars to be fought in the Balkans.

 He added that although the ICJ was the principal judicial organ of the UN, only 70 states have accepted its jurisdiction.

 “Many of the countries have not supported the jurisdiction of the Court which is under the United Nations”, he pointed out. The UN comprises 190 member states.

 This, he said, constrasted with 120 countries which ratified the Statute of Rome which created the International Criminal Court (ICC), also based in The Hague.

 Border disputes cases handled by the Court in Africa in the past include those between Nigeria and Cameroon, Morocco and Western Sahara and Libya and some of its neighbours.

 “ Many countries, especially those in Africa, have not made the greater use of the Court in conflict resolution and arbitration”, he said, noting, however, that many cases end up being withdrawn while those pursued take between two and 10 years to wind up.