Malawi says ready with response on lake dispute

Malawi says it is ready to submit a response to a report mediators in the border dispute with Tanzania over Lake Malawi presented in September after consulting the two countries.

The 38-member Africa Forum for Former Heads of State and Government, which is mediating in the 50-year-old dispute, on September 14 2013 gave the two countries 21 days to analyse and respond to a report it produced following consultations with the two governments.

Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Quent Kalichero said Malawi is committed to meeting its obligations on the issue to ensure speedy resolution of the dispute.

“We have made our financial contribution towards the work of the mediation team, and we have finalised our responses and position to the questions that the Forum gave to Malawi and Tanzania governments.

“We are awaiting communication on the date from the Forum when we can jointly, with our brothers from Tanzania, submit our responses to the Forum,” said Kalichero.

However, she could not provide the country’s response to the mediators’ report.

Kalichero also said Malawi is waiting for the mediators to set a date for representatives of the two countries to resume talks over the issue.

“It is our hope that the mediation process will be finalised in the shortest time possible,” she said.

The mediation process is led by chairperson of the Forum, former president of Mozambique Joachim Chisano. Other members are Thabo Mbeki, former president of South Africa, and Festus Mogae, former president of Botswana.

Malawi, which  claims ownership of the whole north-eastern part of the lake, builds its case on the 1890 Heligoland Treaty between Britain and Germany which maps the boundary between the two countries along the Tanzanian shore.

On the other hand, Tanzania is staking a claim to the northern half of the lake based on the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea which says in cases where countries are separated by a water body, the boundary lies in the middle of the water source.

President Joyce Banda is on record to have said that should the Forum fail to resolve the dispute, Malawi will pursue the issue in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).