Dausi clarifies on Lake Malawi boundary treaties, says govt in custody of all documents
Malawi government spokesman Nicholous Dausi has rejected newspaper report that ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has lost documents pertaining to the ongoing Lake Malawi dispute between Malawi and Tanzania.
Flagship newspaper The Daily Times reported that the ministry’s Principal Secretary, Isaac Munlo, told Parliament about the missing documents and attributed it to a chaotic filing system of documents and lack of systems of data keeping.
“We haven’t found the records for the [Lake Malawi] dispute. I insisted we should find them but my staff only found photocopies,” Munlo is reported to have told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (Pac) in quotes reported by the paper.
Munlo said the ministry has since engaged the Department of Antiquities to help it modernise the filing system of documents, including those from the Accounts Department.
But Dausi issued a statement on Saturday made available to Nyasa Times that Malawi Govermebt has in “safe custody” all relevant documentation and records pertaining to all its boundaries, including the Lake Malawi Boundary Treaties as submitted to the Mediation Team.
Dausi, who is also Minister of Information, ICT Communication, further explained that during Munlo’s appearance to Parliament, the MPs wanted to know what the Ministry is doing to ensure that no documents get lost again as it happened with the 2012/2013 financial year documents.
He said inresponse, the Ministry informed Parliament that it is improving its archiving system as a matter of neccessity because the Ministry keeps important documents.
“The Minsitrty cited documents on Lake Malawi only as one example of the important documents it keeps,” said Dausi.
According to the statement, The Daily Times understood this explaination to mean that documents on Lake Malawi dispute have been lost and they proceeded to make that a front page story on 1st September, 2017.
“Therefore, their article on lost documents on Lake Malawi was imagined outside the substance of the meeting between the Public Accounts Committee and the Ministry of Foreigns Affairs and International Cooperation,” reads the statement by Dausi.
Malawi and Tanzania have been on a protracted wrangle over part of the lake which Tanzania claims belongs to it. A mediation team of former presidents was instituted to resolve the issue. So far, there appears to be little progress on the matter.
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After World War One any treaty which Germany made cease to exist or was nullified as a punishment including the treaty on lake Malawi. So let’s swallow our pride by accepting new laws on international boundaries including lakes and seas. Lake Malawi belongs to both Malawi and Tanzania .let us face reality here
Tenzi, treaties which Germany made with who? Who made that ruling? Who complained? what was the complaint? Who represented Malawi?
Take this, irrespective of the size, nobody in the world can dictate what Malawians should be doing?
Malawi never lost any case in any court for ruling on treaties it made with anybody in the world and has never been party to any ruling on treaties hence never affected, rather still remains a sovereign state!!
That means Tanzania even doesnt exist because it is a product of such teraty you say was nulliffied.
That’s not true, Tenzi Mzungu. You are a desk bureaucrat carrying out Dar–es–Salaam orders. Do not confuse Malawians on this forum.
1. Your Mwalimu Julius Nyerere categorically explained that not a drop of the water of Lake Malawi belongs to Tanzania under the terms of the Heligoland Treaty. Nyerere came to his sense when he recognized the frontier between Malawi and his country as essential to accept it, drew legal consequences from its existence and went on to respect it.
2. Boundary treaties of former German colonies in Africa had nothing to do with Germany’s loss of her territories in Africa and Europe. In fact German lost 13% of her territory. After the end of the World War I, German never signed any treaty with any country purporting to indicate that the shoreline boundary outlined in the Heligoland Treaty shifted to the middle of Lake Malawi then known as Lake Nyasa belonging to Nyasaland now Malawi. If it is indeed true it shifted by any treaty, then tell us, which treaty contains the lie just alluded to on the post here.
3. A lawyer from the University of Kent engaged as one of the five legal experts to assist Joaquim Chissano, Festus Mogae and Thabo Mbeki, never mentioned the existence of such a treaty in his paper he presented to these three mediators. The said lawyer, among others, correctly reasoned that “maps are not titles to territory. At best they only represent what is contained in the title”. The title in this case is the Heligoland Treaty, signed on July 1, 1890 between Great Britain and German.
4. The Heligoland Treaty, that had existed for 26 years before the commencement of the World War I on July 28, 1914, is still an important document, and is the last word in the current jigsaw puzzle. The British House of Commons passed it into law on August 4, 1890. The House of Lords also upheld the decision of the lower house. Tenzi Mzungu, check for that piece of legislation in the British Law Reports Statutes of 1890. It is there, and has never been repealed!
5. The only treaty that Germany signed after the end of the World War I was the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. It was a treaty imposed by the victors and the victors had nothing to do with the shoreline boundary delineated in the Heligoland Treaty.
6.The said laws on international boundaries apply in circumstances where there are no treaties or agreements. This what is contained in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). But the UNCLOS is deficient in all of its aspects as an instrument to alter or change the demarcation outlined in any boundary treaty such as the Heligoland Treaty. Among other points, the UNCLOS was not meant to change such borders as it focuses on equitable use of water bodies in the continental shelf, exclusive economical zone, territorial sea, and that land locked countries have the right of access to and from the sea and enjoy freedom of transit through the territory of the transit state. It has also a provision which explicitly states that the middle divider only applies where there is no existing agreement or boarder. Therefore, Tenzi Mzungu, do not post lies here for readers to get confused.
Great piece of advice to Tenzi and Tanzania! Even God says “Do not remove ancient boundaries/landmarks.” Do not be selfish Tanzania! Do not be like Ahab and Jezebel, who despite having more resources at their lawful disposal, still went ahead to lustfully claim for a land/vineyard that belonged to the poor man Naboth! Do not fall like Ahab and Jezebel. Remember David also, how he fell and had the future of his entire family dangerously attacked and disaffected due to his adultery wife Uriah’s wife Bathsheba!
Is Dausi someone that can be trusted about speaking the truth???? Im not sure.
Dont sale Malawi or make agreenen which benefit Muntharikas. Lake Malawi is Malawi. Nothing more. TZ is greedy and no shame.
If you are sure of your boundaries, why are you negotiating or what is the impetus for negotiations?
Have nations stopped abiding by treaties that dictate respect for sovereign standing of other nations, boundaries and all?
This is like negotiating on whether someone is your wife or not. Either you know it or you did something underhanded. When would a man negotiate on whether the wife is his or not? Maybe if the wife had married two men or the man lives a lie. So to speak, someone is double crossing Malawians.
Malawians need to ask what has given Tanzania such boldness. It is not the prospect of oil in Lake Malawi.
I suspect one of the presidents got something from Tanzania in exchange for the Lake.