Tanzania ‘warmongering’ with Malawi in border row
Tanzania has warned that it will
be prepared to go to war with Malawi on the ownership of Lake Malawi, also
referred to as Lake Nyasa by some countries, thought to have oil deposits.
The two countries have scheduled
August 20,this year, in Mzuzu — the northern city of Malawi -for showdown talks
on the matter.
Despite Malawi government saying
it wants the matter to be handled diplomatically, some overzealous Tanzanian
officials have been war-mongering .
Tanzania’s chairman of the
parliamentary committee for Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs, Edward
Lowassa, is quoted by The Citizen, declaring:
“We expect this conflict will be solved diplomatically using the committee of
foreign affairs ministers from both countries and using the mediator whenever
needed. Malawi is our neighbour and therefore we would not like to go into war
with it.”
“However, if it reaches the war
stage then we are ready to sacrifice our people’s blood
and our military forces are committed in equipment and psychologically. Our
army is among modern and stable defence forces in the world,” declared Lowassa.
There are reports that Tanzania
has already sent troops to the border but that has not been independently
verified.
Malawi’s Foreign Affairs and
International Cooperation Minister Ephraim Chiume has since assured that
“ this should not be a cause for anxiety or alarm.”
Nonetheless, Tanzania minister for
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Bernard Membe, has ordered
Malawi to consider an immediate stop to all gas and oil prospecting activities
on the portion of the lake that falls on the Tanzania side.
He told parliament that the
Tanzanian government was committed to ensuring that its people are protected
“at any cost”.
The conflict
time line
According to Chiume, the border between the two
countries was defined in the Heligoland Treaty signed by the former colonial
powers Germany and Britain on 1st July 1890.
“The Heligoland Treaty defined the
border between the two countries as being the edge of the waters on eastern
shore of Lake Malawi.
“Furthermore, the Heads of State
and Government of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) made a resolution in
1963 that member states should recognise and accept the borders that were inherited
at the time of independence. The African Union (AU) made similar resolutions in
2002 and 2007,” said Chiume.
But Tanzania’s Membe said the
conflict started in the early 1960s, when the first Malawian president, Dr
Hastings Kamuzu Banda, claimed that Lake Nyasa and the whole of Mbeya in
Tanzania were part of Malawi using the 1890-Heligoland treaty.
“But, talks about the matter
stopped somewhere as Dr Kamuzu Banda had a relationship with South Africa and
Tanzania was in support of South African freedom fighters,” Membe said.
He said serious talks on the
matter were revived in 2005, between President Jakaya Kikwete and the late Dr
Bingu wa Mutharika, whereby a ministerial committee was appointed by both
countries to solve the dispute over the border and the lake’s name.
“The committee met in 2010 and
2012, whereby a number of issues were discussed including some of the aircraft
claimed to belong to the oil and gas researching companies from Malawi flying
in the Tanzania airspace,” he said.
He told Parliament that Tanzania
was interested to end the conflict through round-table discussions and to find
a long-term solution.
Tanzania wants 50 per cent share
of the lake, but Malawi claims to own the whole of it.
Malawi has awarded Surestream
Petroleum of UK a licence to prospect for oil on the lake.
Source: Nyasa
Times (Malawi)
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