KL ready for tussle with Singapore over Pedra Branca

The Straits Times, November 3, 2007


KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA said yesterday it was ready to win a legal tussle with Singapore over the sovereignty of Pedra Branca, as the two sides prepare for hearings in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Netherlands.

'We are well prepared and our team has all the documents and evidence to win the dispute,' Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail, who is already in The Hague, told Bernama news agency.

'Everyone is in high spirits... especially myself,' Tan Sri Abdul Gani said.

The ICJ has set aside three weeks from Nov 6 to hear the case, which both countries agreed to bring before the court in 2003.

The hearings follow three rounds of written pleadings that Singapore and Malaysia exchanged between March 2004 and November 2005.

Singapore has exercised sovereignty over the football field-size Pedra Branca island, which lies east of Singapore, since the 1840s, when the British colonial government built the Horsburgh lighthouse there.

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

Singapore's delegation to the hearing comprises Deputy Prime Minister and Law Minister S. Jayakumar, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, Attorney-General Chao Hick Tin and Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh.

The Malaysian delegation will be headed by Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Mohamad, the Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs.

He will be Malaysia's agent for the case while Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin, the Malaysian Ambassador to the Netherlands, will act as co-agent. The Malaysian legal team will be headed by Tan Sri Abdul Gani.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BERNAMA