IPS-English HONDURAS-NICARAGUA: Sea Border Dispute Laid to Rest
 
Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:27:22 -0700

 
Thelma Mejía*

TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 9   (IPS)  - Presidents Manuel Zelaya of Honduras
and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua embraced at a border town late Monday
to celebrate a legal ruling by the International Court of Justice
in The Hague that put an end to a longstanding maritime border dispute
between the two countries.

At their meeting in the Nicaraguan town of Ocotal, Ortega underscored
that for the first time in the history of Central America, two heads
of state and their people welcomed a verdict handed down by The Hague
without a spirit of confrontation.

Zelaya said the ”historic” ruling had united Central America.

The new maritime border drawn by the binding ruling handed down Monday
by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ended a nearly two-decade
dispute, granting Honduras sovereignty over four Caribbean islands
and divvying up fishing grounds and offshore areas for oil and gas
exploration between the two countries.

The decision, which cannot be appealed, granted Honduras approximately
80 percent of the 34,500 square km of disputed maritime territory
in the Caribbean Sea, giving it sovereignty over the Bobel, Sabana,
Port Royal and Sur islands, while Nicaragua was given the Edimburgo
key.

Most of the rich fishing grounds in dispute fall within the maritime
territory awarded to Honduras, which according to officials here was
the main triumph obtained from the ruling.

Honduras had argued that the maritime boundary ran east along the
15th parallel, as drawn by the king of Spain in 1906; Nicaragua was
demanding that it follow the line of its coast to the northeast as
far as the 17th parallel; and the ICJ ended up deciding on a border
to the north of the 15th parallel.

Mario Fortín, a Honduran expert on border questions, told IPS that
the ruling ”stuck quite closely to the Honduran position; Nicaragua
did not even reach parallel 16, much less parallel 17 as it was demanding.”

In Ocotal, Zelaya reiterated his ”commitment to working with Nicaragua
for Central American integration, because this ruling will not separate
us but instead will unite us, so that we can work together for the
development and wellbeing of our people.”

For his part, Ortega said that ”we are here because we are men of
our word, presidents of our word. We said we would respect the ruling
and we will do so.” 

”This is the path to take -- the path of brotherhood, not the path
of hatred, confrontation and war,” he added.

In Honduras, the public cheered the sentence, while in Nicaragua,
one of the first reactions came from Deputy Francisco Campbell, who
said ”this verdict is historic, because it has resolved a dispute
between two sister countries.”

Campbell, one of the vice presidents of the Central American Parliament,
said the boundary set by the United Nations' highest court ”is good
for Nicaragua, for Honduras, and for all of the countries of Central
America; it is a great victory for regional integration.”

Honduran Foreign Minister Milton Jiménez Puerto told IPS that ”we
have come out of this well; our control over the islands and the fishing
grounds, and over the migration flows in that area, was ratified.”

”The only thing left to do is to immediately implement and enforce
the ruling, leave behind the differences that we had with Nicaragua
as a result of this issue, and undertake together a process of integration
and peace without ghosts from the past or threats that alter the good
relations between our two countries,” he said.

In 1986, Nicaragua protested over Honduras' decision to define its
sea border with Colombia, arguing that it affected Nicaraguan waters
in the Caribbean.

Nevertheless, in November 1999, the Honduran parliament ratified
the treaty signed with Colombia.

As a result, Nicaragua decided to take the case to the ICJ, on Dec. 7, 1999.

The lack of a clearly defined maritime border triggered a number
of incidents between the two countries that prompted the Organisation
of American States (OAS) to send a mediator in early 2000 to calm
things down and head off a potential armed skirmish.

Nicaragua slapped a 35 percent tariff on imports from Honduras, which
hurt the economy of this country and the economic integration process
between Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Although the tariff was lifted after negotiations between the two
countries, it has not yet been eliminated by the Nicaraguan legislature.

Determining other maritime borders is a priority for the foreign
ministries of both nations. Honduras has pending boundary issues with
Cuba, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Belize and Guatemala, while
Nicaragua has outstanding questions with Colombia, Jamaica and Costa
Rica.

* With additional reporting by José Adán Silva in Managua. 


*****
+ International Court of Justice ruling - in PDF (http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/120/14075.pdf)


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