LAKE NYASA DISPUTE: Dar - CNN should put record right over Lake Nyasa border dispute

Dar: CNN should put record right over Lake Nyasa border dispute

BY CORRESPONDENT

1st December 2012

CNN

As Malawi and Tanzania governments seek an amicable solution over the Lake Nyasa boarder dispute, a renowned international television channel has found itself getting into trouble by repeatedly announcing that the boarder is located on the shores of Tanzania waters.

Cable News Network (CNN)), an American international channel has for three consecutive days -- been running a programme on the border dispute between two countries, with a standpoint  that the boarder is located on the shores of Tanzanian side.
Now the Tanzania government, through its Information department ( Maelezo), has called upon the highly respected international channel to put the record clear by correcting  itself.

Assah Mwambene, director of the Information Services department, yesterday held a press conference in Dar es Salaam at which he called upon the most respected television channel to stop misinforming the world about the ongoing boarder dispute.

“The Tanzania government has called upon CNN international to correct the misleading information concerning the Lake Nyasa boarder dispute between Tanzania and Malawi,” he said.

Mwambene said the government had since written the international channel seeking correction of the information broadcast. However, he could not say exactly when the letter was written.

Mwambene says CNN International broadcast had run programme to that effect for two days -- from November 24, 2012 to November 26, 2012.

He argues that Tanzania covers 947,300 square kilometers, (947,300 sq km), which  includes half of the lake north of the border of Tanzania and Mozambique and that the border is in the middle of the lake -- as it is in the border of Malawi and Mozambique.

“We are very disappointed with the report and we are surprised to see a respected international media outlet such as CNN International giving out false information at that level,” Mwambene said.

The border dispute between Tanzania and Malawi over Lake Nyasa has taken a new twice whereby the two conflicting sides have decided to take the matter for mediation to retired eminent persons of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Benard Membe told journalists earlier this month in Dar es Salaam that the decision was reached after the two countries ‘agreed to disagree’ over the matter.

Elaborating, he said that Malawi still maintains that the Lake north of Mozambique belongs to Malawi in keeping with a 1890 treaty signed between the Germans for Tanganyika and the British for Nyasaland.

But Tanzanian maintains that the common border passes straight through the middle of Lake Nyasa -- splitting the northern part of the water body roughly in the middle.

He said it was because of these fundamental differences that both sides had seen the need to find a third mediator – and that a letter to that effect would soon be sent to the SADC mediation committee chaired by former Mozambican President Joachim Chisano in early December.

The letter will, among other things, request Dr Chisano to enlist the support of professional lawyers from across the African continent – which will work for three months and give out its decision in late March, 2013.

Membe says that in case of possible stalemate at this level, the matter will then be taken to the highest levels of international arbitration such as the International Court of Justice.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN