Court hearing on Pedra Branca to open

The Straits Times, November 5, 2007


SINGAPORE and Malaysia will go before an international court this week to argue their claims of sovereignty over an island in the Singapore Strait.

The hearing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Netherlands is to settle their dispute over Pedra Branca and two outcrops - the Middle Rocks and South Ledge.

The court has set aside three weeks, starting from tomorrow, to hear the case.

Both countries have said they will accept the ICJ's decision, which is expected to be announced next year.


The hearings at the Peace Palace in the Hague, where the 15-member court is located, follow three rounds of written pleadings that Singapore and Malaysia exchanged between March 2004 and November 2005.

These exchanges of documents were the result of a special agreement they signed on Feb 6, 2003, to submit the dispute to the ICJ.

Singapore has exercised sovereignty over the island, which is the size of a football field, since the 1840s when the British colonial government built the Horsburgh lighthouse there.

The island, about 40km east of here, is located strategically at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait.

However, in 1979, Malaysia staked its claim on the island - which it calls Pulau Batu Putih - when it published a new map of its territories. The map included Pedra Branca.

The hearing will be the final stage of the long-standing disagreement and will settle once and for all which country has sovereignty over the island.