ASM
South China Sea Rock Fights
The International Court of Justice delivered a judgment on 23 May that ends a twenty nine-year dispute between Malaysia and Singapore. The judgement covers Pedra Branca, Middle Rocks and South Ledge.
Pedra Branca (meaning ‘white rock’ in Portugese), as it is known in Singapore, or Pulau Batu Puteh (meaning ‘white rock island’ in Malay), as it is known in Malaysia, is a small rocky island measuring 137 metres by 60 metres – about half the size of a football field. Middle Rocks and South Ledge are rocky outcrops located close to Pedra Branca.
| Pedra Branca, a small rocky island measuring 137m by 60m was, until last month's International Court of Justice ruling, the subject of a territorial dispute between Malaysia and Singapore since 1980. |
The judgment accorded Pedra Branca to Singapore, Middle Rocks to Malaysia, and South Ledge to the nation claiming territoriality over the waters in which the rocks – only visible at low-tide – are located.
The tiny, granite island of Pedra Branca, named for the white bird’s droppings accumulated on the rocks, is a valuable strategic outpost. It is located in the Malacca Strait, where the Singapore Strait meets the South China Sea. Forty per cent of world trade passes through this sea-lane.
Pedra Branca has been the focus of territorial conflict since February 1980, when Singapore protested against a 1979 map, published by Malaysia, which showed Pedra Branca as part of Malaysian territory. Singapore claimed Middle Rocks and South Ledge in February 1993. Following more than a decade of failed bilateral consultations, the two countries submitted their dispute to the ICJ in July 2003.
Malaysia’s case rested on a claim of original title, arguing that all three territories were part of the Johor Sultanate before it was ceded, along with the island of Singapore, to Britain in 1824.
Singapore claimed that Britain had taken control of these territories, which were terra nullius (no man’s land) when it constructed the Horsburgh lighthouse on the island in 1851. It claimed title by means of the ‘peaceful and continuous exercise of state authority’ over the territories since that time.
The 16 judges of the ICJ voted 12 to four in Singapore’s favour. The ICJ concluded that sovereignty over Pedra Branca had passed to Singapore due to peaceful and continuous display of sovereign acts on the part of Singapore since 1953 and acquiescence on the part of Malaysia. It also ruled that sovereignty over Middle Rocks had not passed to Singapore in this fashion, and therefore remained with Malaysia.
The ruling on South Ledge was rather less definitive. To South Ledge, it applied the specific legal principle that land that is visible only at low tide is owned by the state with jurisdiction over the territorial waters in which it is located. However, South Ledge now falls in the overlapping territorial waters of mainland Malaysia, Pedra Branca and Middle Rocks. Malaysia and Singapore have already appointed a joint technical to negotiate the delimitation of these waters.
The Pedra Branca case was one of two formal territorial disputes along the maritime Malaysia-Singapore Border. (The second dispute concerns the western entrance to the Straits of Johor.). It was by no however, the most controversial in the South China Sea region.
A long-simmering dispute also concerning rocks in the South China Sea centres on the Spratly Islands, over which no less than five states – China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei – lay full or partial claim. The group of more than 100 small islets, coral reefs, and sea mounts – widely considered one of the region’s most dangerous flashpoints until the turn of the century – occupy a total area of less than five square kilometres.
Ownership claims to the Spratly Islands are important for bolstering claims to the surrounding sea and its resources. The South China Sea is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. It is suspected to house significant oil and natural gas resources. It is also one of the world's most productive commercial fishing sites.
The Spratly’s have witnessed several military skirmishes, the most serious between China and Vietnam in 1988. Chinese and Vietnamese navies clashed at Johnson Reef, sinking several Vietnamese boats and killing over 70 sailors.
The conflict over the islands has eased somewhat since the turn of the millenium. In 2002, China and the ASEAN member states signed the ‘Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea’. Under this agreement, the signatories committed to exercising self-restraint in the conduct of activities that could compromise peace and stability in the disputed territories.
Since 2003, China, the Philippines and Vietnam have explored the possibility of joint exploitation of the area’s resources. In March 2005, the national oil companies of these three countries signed an accord to conduct marine seismic experiments in the Spratly Islands for economic purposes.
There is some speculation that Malaysia may renew its efforts to assert jurisdiction over parts of the island chain in response to the Pedra Branca ruling. According to one Malaysian report, the ruling has given rise to fears that Malaysia could lose about 100 islands, reefs, rocks and other marine features in the region unless it acts quickly.
‘If nothing is done, then we will have more Pedra Branca cases,’ Rakish Suppiah, a research fellow at the Marine Institute of Malaysia, told Malaysian daily, New Straits Times.
Among the examples cited were Pulau Unarang, a valuable fishing area over which Suppiah said there had been recent standoffs between the Malaysian navy and Indonesian armed forces.
Pulau Perak was also named as an important group of rocks to which Malaysia should lay immediate claim. The formation is said to be a strategic place that pirates use as a refuge.
