Tanzania-Malawi border talks now taken before SADC elders

The border dispute between Tanzania and Malawi has taken a new twist, prompting the contending to seek mediation before retired eminent persons of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Benard Membe told journalists yesterday in Dar es Salaam that this latest move was reached to avert a looming stalemate over the exact ownership of Lake Nyasa.

Elaborating on this decision, Membe said the two sides had now officially agreed on two fundamental issues -- that Malawi still maintains that the Lake north of Mozambique belongs to Malawi in keeping with a 1890 treaty signed between the Germans for Tanganyika and the British for Nyasaland.

Whereas Tanzania maintains that her border passes straight through the middle of the Lake – splitting the northern part of the water body roughly into two equal parts – as an internationally borderline.

He said given such fundamental differences both sides had seen the need to find a third mediator to lead the next processes of the negotiations, all with a view to finding a lasting solution to the dispute. In view of this, they will send a letter to the SADC mediation committee chaired by former Mozambican President Joachim Chissano early next month (December).

The letter will request the former Mozambican leader to include, among other experts, a team of professional lawyers from across African continent that would help sort out the legal aspects aimed at arriving at the right decisions. The committee will have three months within which it would tender its recommendations sometime in late March, 1913.

The minister added that should a decision mutually acceptable to the contending parties elude this committee, the matter will then be taken before “the highest levels of international arbitration” such as the International Court of Justice for further mediation.

Earlier, he explained that the meeting had been called specifically to discuss the various options available for resolving the boundary issue – which was one of the key recommendations by the joint committee of officials from both countries who met yesterday after a three-day meeting with Malawian delegation since Wednesday.

Membe said an appeal to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) would be made subject to the Vienna Convention on the law of treaties of 1969 which could provide the framework for a speedy resolution.

Malawian Foreign Affairs Minister Ephraim Chiume expressed optimism and thanked President Jakaya Kikwete and President Joyce Banda for the steps they had taken to ensure the matter resolved amicably.

Both Ministers have since accepted the decision