Journal of Indian Ocean Studies, Vol.21, No.2.

August 2013

Disputed Islands of the Indian Ocean: a potential danger to Regional peace

By: Mohammed Khalid*

Earth is home to thousands of islands and it is very difficult to know their actual number in the world. More than 600 million people live on islands and one in every ten people on the Earth is an islander. These islands have isolated individual ecosystems and provide ideal venues for scientific studies of the Earth's environment. They have typically small populations and small economies making them vulnerable to outside pressures. Due to their geographical isolation, many of these islands have been able could keep their cultures relatively intact --until recently. Indian Ocean has its share of islands all different in shape, size, culture and race. In the case of some of these, there are conflicting ownership claims. This ocean is also home to some picturesque island countries including the Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka. Then there are island territories under the sovereign authority of certain big power generally former colonialists. Then there are island territories separated from the mainland like the Andaman and Nicobar in the Bay of Bengal; the Lakshadweep group in the Arabian Sea both belonging to India. British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) comprises the Chagos Archipelago and Diego Garcia, in the middle of Indian Ocean, controlled by the United Kingdom and partially under the control of United States. Bassas da India in Mozambique Channel, Europa Island near Madagascar, Glorioso Islands, Mayotte, Reunion

and Tromelin Island lying in the western Indian Ocean, under

*Associate Professor in Political Science, Department of Evening Studies Panjab University, Chandigarh

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the sovereign control of France.1 Similarly, the Lakshadweep Archipelago in the Arabian Sea belongs to India and Socotra in the Gulf of Aden is controlled by Yemen. Islands of Eastern Indian Ocean include: Ashmore and Cartier Islands, Christmas Island, Cockatoo Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Dirk Hartog Island, Garden Island, Houtman Abrolhos, Kangaroo Island, King Island, Koolan Island, Rottnest Island all belong to Australia. Islands of Langkawi and Penang belong to Malaysia. Mentawai Islands, Nias Island, Simeulue Island and Weh Island belong to Indonesia. Phi Phi and Phuket Islands belong to Thailand and Mergui Archipelago to Myanmar. Pamban Island belongs to India. A list of islands in the Indian Ocean is given in table below. TABLE -1
Islands of Eastern Indian Ocean Islands of Western Indian Ocean Andaman Islands (India) Agalega Islands (Mauritius) Ashmore and Cartier Islands (Australia) Bajuni Islands (Somalia) Christmas Island (Australia) Banc du Geyser (France) Cockatoo Island (Australia) Bassas da India (France) Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia) Bazaruto Archipelago (Mozambique) Dirk Hartog Island (Australia) Cargados Carajos (Mauritius) Garden Island (Australia) Chagos Archipelago (UK) Houtman Abrolhos (Australia) Comoros Jaffna Islands (Sri Lanka) Europa Island (France) Kangaroo Island (Australia) Glorioso Islands (France) King Island (Australia) Juan de Nova Island (France) Koolan Island (Australia) Lakshadweep Archipelago (India) Langkawi Islands (Malaysia) Lamu Archipelago (Kenya) Mannar Island (Sri Lanka) Madagascar Mentawai Islands (Indonesia) Mafia Island (Tanzania) Mergui Archipelago (Myanmar) Maldives Nias Island (Indonesia) Mauritius Nicobar Islands (India) Mayotte (France) Pamban Island (India) Pemba (Tanzania) Penang (Malaysia) Quirimbas Archipelago (Mozambique) Phi Phi Islands (Thailand) Runion (France) Phuket (Thailand) Rodrigues (Mauritius) Rottnest Island (Australia) Seychelles Simeulue Island (Indonesia) Socotra Island (Yemen) Sri Lanka Tromelin Island (France) Weh Island (Bangladesh) Zanzibar (Tanzania) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_islands_in_the_Indian_Ocean

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Apart from these islands, there are a large number of submerged reefs, or islets in the Indian Ocean. Most of these islands were taken over and remained under the control of colonial powers for about three centuries. These islands were developed as it suited to their economic or strategic needs. There were colonies of France, the Netherlands, and the Portuguese on these islands, but during the 19th century most of Indian Ocean islands came under the British rule. The British gradually receded from the Indian Ocean lands after the end of Second World War and finally exit the area in 1967. There are islands still under the control of the erstwhile European colonial powers and many of them are a subject of dispute with the neighbouring countries. The disputes have been for sovereignty or for establishing control on surrounding waters and control of resource embedded continental shelf around these islands.2 Disputes for the islands of the Indian Ocean have caused tensions between the littoral states leading to local tensions and sometimes armed conflicts. This has also caused great impediment in the way of cooperation among the neighbouring littoral states. In the northeastern part of the Mozambique Channel, Banc du Geyser a mostly submerged reef is a bone of contention among Madagascar, Comoros and France. All the three countries claim this 8X5 km reef which surfaces only during low tides. French contend that the reef is part of their Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean. Presuming the possibility of oil fields on the reef, Madagascar announced its annexation in 1976 while the Comoros claim the Banc du Geyser as part of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Europa Island, a 28 sq km low-lying tropical island in the Mozambique Channel, lies between Madagascar and southern

Mozambique. Claimed by Madagascar, the island has been in possession of France since 1897. The island has a French

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established weather station and a garrison. Though uninhabited, it is part of the Scattered Islands of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands administrative region. Glorioso Islands, a group of French islands covering about five sq km area and 48,350 sq km of EEZ in the northern Mozambique Channel, are located about 160 km northwest of Madagascar. France has developed anchorage facilities there and on its largest island --theGrande Gloriosoit has a constructed a 1,300-metre long airstrip. Named and settled in 1880 by a French sea farer, Hippolyte Caltaux, who established a coconut plantation there, the archipelago became a French possession in 1892. The islands are today nature reserves with a meteorological station garrisoned by French troops. Madagascar continues to claim its sovereignty over this islands.3

Mayotte Island is part of Comoro archipelago and was ceded to France along with the other Comoro Islands in 1843. In the referendum held in 1974 which gave Comoros independence, the people of Mayotte voted in 1976 to remain part of France and forgo their freedom. The Comoros claimed the island and took the matter to the UN Security Council. A draft Security Council resolution in 1976 recognizing Comorian sovereignty over Mayotte was supported by 11 of the 15 members of the Council but vetoed by France while US, UK and Italy abstained.4 The UN General Assembly also adopted a series of resolutions on the issue and reaffirmed the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Comoros over the island of Mayotte. Still the sovereignty over Mayotte remains disputed between the two contending countries.5 About 350 km east of Madagascar the low, flat, Tromelin Island is presently administered as a French overseas territory. Sovereignty over this island is disputed with claims by both Mauritius and the Seychelles. Tromelin was a dependency of the British colony of

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Mauritius from the 19th century until the 1954. Mauritius claims that the island is part of its territory as sovereignty was not transferred to France in 1954 and the island was part of the colony of Mauritius at the time of independence. After a long negotiation in 2010 France and Mauritius reached a co-management treaty on the island of Tromelin. The agreement concerns about the exploitation of the territorial waters and the Exclusive Economic Zone and setting up of a common policy to ensure a sustainable management of the fishing sector around Tromelin.6 Lying between Madagascar and Mozambique in the narrowest part of the Mozambique Channel, Saint-Christophe Island also known as Juan de Nova is a 4.4 sq km island. The island has been in French possession since 1897. It is one of the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean and a district of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. The island has abundant deposits of guano. France has built an air strip, a garrison of French troops from Reunion and a weather station. The island is disputed as Madagascar also stakes its claims on it. The archipelago of Socotra with 132 km in length and 49.7 km in breadth lies about 240 km east of the Horn of Africa and 380 km south of the Arabian Peninsula. The Archipelago is a cause of dispute between Yemen and Somalia. Since 2004 the Archipelago is attached to the Hadramaut Governorate of Yemen. On the basis of geographical proximity, Somalia also claims these islands, and has approached the United Nations to determine the status of the archipelago. Socotra islands have great geopolitical and strategic importance. Yemen claims and justifies its possession of the archipelago on the basis of history and its cultural influence on it. This dispute has the potential to further intensify the violent conflict going on in Somalia and its coasts due to piracy.7 At the entrance of red Sea, Doumeira Islands, in the northeast of Djibouti are claimed by Djibouti
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and Eritrea. Both had twice previously clashed over the border area. In April 1996 they were near to an armed conflict after a Djibouti official accused Eritrea of shelling Ras Doumeira.8 Another island which has been a source of fierce dispute is Hanish Islands. Located on the southern side of the Red Sea near Bab-el-Mandeb, the ownership of Hanish archipelago has been disputed between Yemen and Eritrea especially over the island of Greater Hanish in the Red Sea. Since the British occupation of Aden the islands had been regarded as part of Yemen. Hanish Island is strategically very significant as Red Sea is just 50 km wide at this point. Both the countries fought over these islands for three days from 15 to 17 December 1995. In 1998 the Permanent Court of Arbitration determined that most of the archipelago belonged to Yemen. Fasht Ad Dibal and Qit'at Jaradeh are low-tide elevations claimed by both Bahrain and Qatar. Bahrain contends that low-tide elevations by their very nature are territory, and therefore can be appropriated in accordance with the criteria which pertain to the acquisition of territory. Further that, Bahrain says that it has a superior claim on the two elevations and sufficient evidence to claim sovereign authority over all the low-tide elevations situated in the sea between Bahrain's main islands and the coast of the Qatar peninsula. Qatar however maintains that Fasht ad Dibal as a low-tide elevation cannot be appropriated.9 Located between Kuwaiti and Saudi territorial waters, Island of Umm al Maradim is under sovereign control of Kuwait. It is 1.5 km long and 540 meters wide, and surrounded by deep waters in which large ships can safely anchor. Saudi Arabia also claims this island disputing Kuwaiti occupation of Umm al Maradim. Greater and Lesser Tunbs, are two small islands in the eastern Persian Gulf, close to the Strait of Hormuz. At about 12 km distance

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from each other and 20 kilometers south of the Iranian island of Qeshm, the Islands are administered by Iran as part of its province of Hormozgan. However they are also claimed by UAE as a territory of the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah. Scantily inhabited the Greater Tunb has a surface of 10.3 sq km. Iran has set up there a garrison and naval station, a fish storage facility. Lesser Tunb has a surface area of about 2 sq km and is uninhabited. Iran occasionally uses it for military purposes. Historically, the Lesser Tunb does not find any significant reference in the annals of history. The Great Tunb was part of Iranian consciousness during the medieval times. Both the islands were part of the kingdom of Hormuz from 1330 or so until Hormuz became subjected to the Portuguese in 1507. Both remained a part of the Hormuzi-Portuguese administration until 1622. During the 20th century several attempts for a negotiated settlement failed. As the British readied to withdraw from east of Suez, on 30 November 1971, Iran forcibly seized control of the Tunb Islands and Abu Musa. Since then the issue of control on these islands has remained a source of friction between the Arabs and Iran. Calling these islands as "occupied" territories, UAE has repeatedly claimed them. Many attempts for bilateral talks to settle the issue between the UAE and Iran have failed. Iran contends that the islands always belonged to it and that they are an integral part of Iranian territory. On the other hand the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah argues that the islands were under the control of Qasimi Sheikhs, and UAE as the successor state inherits them. Similarly, the island of Abu Musa is a source of dispute between Iran and UAE. This island was in Iranian control till early 20th century. Abu Musa along with the other British controlled islands in the Persian Gulf, including the present day UAE came under the British control during the colonial period. In the late 1960s, Britain transferred administration of the island to Sharjah, one of the seven Sheikdoms constituting the UAE. In November 30, 1971 (two days before the official establishment of UAE), Iran and Sharjah signed

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a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreeing to divide the island's energy resources. Towards the entrance of the Persian Gulf, the Khuriya Muriya Islands -a group of five islands in the Arabian Sea-- lie 40 km off the southeastern coast of the Sultanate of Oman. The islands form part of the province of Shalim and the Hallaniyat Islands in the Governorate of Dhofar. Strategically important, these islands were ceded to Britain in 1868 and were attached to the Aden Settlement. They remained under the British possession until 1967. On November 30, 1967, Lord Caradon, the British Ambassador to the United Nations, announced that in accordance with the wishes of the local inhabitants, the islands would be returned to Oman. This move was resented by the President of the People's Republic of South Yemen that the islands should be transferred to them. Since then, the islands are a bone of contention between the two neighbouring countries.10 Island of New Moore known as South Talpatti Island in Bangladesh was a 2 sq km uninhabited offshore partially submerged landform off the coast of the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in the Bay of Bengal. Island was uninhabited and there were no permanent settlements on it. Both India and Bangladesh claimed sovereignty on this island till it disappeared after cyclone Aila hit that area in 2009. In the eastern Indian Ocean, the Islands of Sipadan and Ligitan, just off the east coast of Borneo, have been claimed by Indonesia and Malaysia. As the two countries took up to delimit the common border of their continental shelf in 1969, they could not agree on the sovereignty of the two islands. Indonesian claim on the islands rests by virtue of the fact that they were located south of 4 10" North which it said formed the maritime border between it and Malaysia by virtue of a straight line extension of the land border which ended on the east coast Sebatik Island. Malaysia however, claimed a stretch of territorial waters and the continental shelf south of the latitude which

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included the two islands. The claim was confirmed through its map which it published in 1979. Indonesia protested the delimitation on the map. The dispute was referred to the International Court of Justice and on 17 December 2002, it decided that sovereignty of Sipadan and Ligitan belonged to Malaysia on the basis of effectivits. It however did not decide on the question of territorial waters and maritime borders. This has left the dispute over territorial waters and continental shelf to remain unresolved. Another source of dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia is the Ambalat block of the Celebes Sea seabed, believed to be rich in mineral resources. For long a subject of major international debate, the Chagos Archipelago, a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual tropical islands in the Indian Ocean. Chagos Archipelago is situated about 500 km south to the Maldives archipelago. Diego Garcia is largest and currently the only inhabited island in the archipelago which is commonly known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). It was an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, administered under a Commissioner appointed by the Queen and based in London. This administration is represented in the Territory by the Officer commanding British Forces on Diego Garcia. Officially part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, the Chagos were home to the Chagossians for more than a century and a half until the United Kingdom evicted them in the early 1970s in order to allow the United States to build a military base on Diego Garcia. The dispute on the sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago emanates from Mauritius which claims the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia. Mauritius has also opposed the 1 April 2010 UK Governments declaration that the BIOT is a Marine Protected Area prohibiting fishing and extractive activity. Mauririus also demands compensation and repatriation of the several of the archipelago's atolls, exiled since 1973. It has also initiated litigation on the issue through a group of former residents in the European Court of Human Rights.11

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Indian Ocean as such does not have a large number of islands like for instance the islands of South Pacific Ocean. However it has some island territories neighbouring nearby land masses. During the long geological history of evolution of earth these islands surfaced to become geographical features of the Ocean. These islands remained barren, uninhabited and untouched for thousands of years till they were settled by people from neighbouring territories or were claimed by advancing European colonial powers for strategic or economic reasons. As the colonial powers retreated from the region after the Second World War, they retained their claim on many of these islands for future contingencies. Ownership of many such islands remained in dispute and continues to reverberate intermittently. Territorial disputes emanating from the ownership of islands in and around the Indian Ocean have not flared up to be fully fledged conflicts between the contesting neighbouring littorals or with the outside former colonial powers. Nevertheless these disputes have the potential to disturb peace and tranquility in different pockets of the Indian Ocean. This problem is more pronounced where conflict prevention takes a back seat and settling dispute by the use of force becomes preferred avenue. The French controlled islands in the Mozambique Channel and disputed islands at the entrance of the Red Sea are such spots of potential conflict. These danger zones need to be made secure by amicable settlement of the sovereignty issue of these islands. End notes:
1. For French islands in the Indian Ocean see, Khalid, Mohammed, French Islands in the Indian Ocean: A geostrategic presence and Antarctic dimension, Journal of Indian Ocean Studies, Vol.20,No.3, December 2012, pp.406-417 Islands in the Indian Ocean have large continental shelf and exclusive zones (EEZ) that naturally belongs to the country who owns these islands. Continental shelf of these islands is full of marine and natural resources. See, The World Fact Book, CIA, available at, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/fs.html

2.

3.

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4. 5.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-Feb 7, 1976. Resolution No. A/RES/37/65, dated 3 Dec. 1982. Also, Resolution 3161 dated 14 December 1973, No. 3291 dated 13 December 1976, 32/7 dated I November 1977, 34/69 dated 6 December 1979, 35/43 dated 28 November 1980, 36/105 dated 10 December 1981, UN affirmed the unity and territorial integrity of Comoros. 6. Alexandra Richards, Mauritius: Rodrigues, Reunion, Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, 2012, p. 192. 7. Elie, Serge D, "Soqotra: South Arabia's Strategic Gateway and Symbolic Playground", British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 33, No. 2, November 2006, pp.,131 160. Also see, Yemen Post, October 27, 2010; urdick, Alan, The Wonder Land of Socotra, Yemen", The New York Times, 25 March 2007. 8. "Djibouti-Eritrea conflict threatens region", Middle East Times, 21September, 2008. 9. Delimitation and Territorial Question between Qatar and Bahrain, Judgment of International Court of Justice , Judgment of 16 March 2001, cited in World Court Digest. 10. Diba, Bahman Aghai: Iran and the International Law of the Sea and Rivers, CreateSpace Publishers, 2011. 11. David Vine: Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia, Princeton University Press, 2009. Also see, Diego Garcia "Camp Justice" 720'S 7225'E, at GlobalSecurity.org.

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