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.
The BBC has learnt of scores cases of missing young men in the
Wakala
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