Batu Puteh goes to Singapore
However, the 16-member panel in a 15 to 1 decision said Malaysia has sovereignty over one of the island’s two rocky outcrops - Middle Rocks, which lies south of Pulau Batu Puteh.
On the other outcrop named South Ledge, the court handed a 15 to 1 judgment stating that it belonged to “the state in the territorial waters of which it is located”.
Singapore operates lighthouse for 130 years
Malaysia claimed original title to Pulau Batu Puteh (left), while Singapore, which knows the islet as Pedra Branca argued that sovereignty had passed to it tacitly, having operated the Horsburgh Lighthouse on the island for more than 130 years without any protest from its neighbour.
The court found that the Malaysian sultanate-turned-province of Johor had held the original title but had taken “no action at all” regarding the island for more than a century.
“The court concludes … that by 1980 sovereignty over Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh had passed to Singapore,” Al-Khasawneh said.
The dispute over Pulau Batu Puteh arose when Singapore protested in 1980 against a new Malaysian map of its maritime boundaries which claimed the islet for itself.
Years of bilateral talks failed to resolve the matter and the parties agreed to seek the intervention of the United Nations’ highest court.
Inconclusive decision over South Ledge
As for Middle Rocks (left), the court said the circumstances involving this piece of rock are different from Pulau Batu Puteh.
“It therefore finds that original title to Middle Rocks should remain with Malaysia as the successor to the Sultanate of Johor,” ruled the court.
But South Ledge (right), a small rock visible only at low tide, would now fall “within the apparently overlapping territorial waters generated by the mainland of Malaysia, Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh, and Middle Rocks,” said the judges.
“… the court has not been mandated by the parties to draw the line of delimitation with respect to the territorial waters of Malaysia and Singapore in the area in question.
“Recalling that it has not been mandated by the parties to draw the line of delimitation with respect to their territorial waters in the area, the court concludes that sovereignty over South Ledge belongs to the state in the territorial waters of which it is located,” said Al-Khasawneh.
Bilateral ties have often been stormy since Singapore was ejected from the Malaysian Federation in 1965, at which time sovereignty of the island was not stipulated.
Both countries have said today’s ruling would not affect relations.
Download the ICJ report over Pulau Batu Putih> Click here to read the full ICJ ruling [in PDF file]
credits to MalaysiaKini
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