Deputy Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs Sila Balawa
"Fiji’s ownership of the reef has been re-asserted time and again - through the United Nations Law of the Sea and the Minerva reef is located within Fiji’s exclusive economic zone. Fiji says its claim to the reef – is based on UN laws and history. "
"Fiji’s ownership of the reef has been re-asserted time and again - through the United Nations Law of the Sea and the Minerva reef is located within Fiji’s exclusive economic zone. Fiji says its claim to the reef – is based on UN laws and history. "
The excerpt of the Pacific Scoop article:
Tonga Accuses Fiji of Vandalism of Innocent Minerva Reef Beacon.However, the issue of Minerva reef and its ownership was a subject simmering beneath the diplomatic niceties for awhile, until Kautoke's ill-advised remarks considering the current bilateral tensions, forced the issue towards the front and center.
May 25th 2011
Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alex Perrottet of Pacific Media Watch
Tonga’s Chief Secretary Busby Kautoke has hit back at Fijian allegations of a breach of sovereignty, accusing the Fiji Navy of “vandalism” of a navigation beacon on the disputed Minerva Reef.
Kautoke today responded to initial comments from Fiji’s military-backed regime leader Voreqe Bainimarama that the presence of the Tongan patrol boat Savea in Fijian waters was a breach of Fiji’s sovereignty.
Bainimarama has called fugitive colonel Ratu Tevita Mara’s “fishing incident” a calculated plan and an “illegal extraction”.
In response, Kautoke maintained that the rescue earlier this month was a “humanitarian act” and accused Fiji of vandalising a Tongan navigational beacon in the Minerva Reef.
“At this lonely outpost, a perfectly innocent navigational beacon, erected on the wishes of our Late King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV for the benefit and safety of mariners, was officially vandalised,” he said.
“Such an act, for example, cannot be elevated to the status of a legal argument and there is strong evidence to suggest that the full might of Fijian sea power, on the instructions of the military regime, was deployed to attack a defenceless and inanimate object.”
The Minerva Reef, also known as the islands of Telekitonga and Telekitokelau, is about 490km south-west of Tonga.
The Chief Secretary said Bainimarama’s comments would have been best left to official communications between the countries. “Sovereignty should be considered separately as the subject of bilateral engagement between the Fiji regime and Tongan diplomats,” he said.
Alex Perrottet is contributing editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch.
Kautoke maintained that the rescue earlier this month was a “humanitarian act” and accused Fiji of vandalising a Tongan navigational beacon in the Minerva Reef.
“At this lonely outpost, a perfectly innocent navigational beacon, erected on the wishes of our Late King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV for the benefit and safety of mariners, was officially vandalised".
The dispute over the Minerva reefs has resurfaced in the wake of the fugitive saga involving Tevita Uluilakeba Mara and the Tongan Government, which had been reported to have violated Fiji's sovereign territory, as well as illegally removing a person from the country.
It would be ideal to separate the alleged humanitarian act from the breach of sovereignty, as advocated by Tonga’s Chief Secretary Busby Kautoke. Unfortunately, the latter acts are the most worrying. These documented violations of International Law should not be swept under the proverbial rug by any honest broker and most probably will be addressed in due course, by the relevant authorities in Fiji.
Fiji Foreign Affairs official responded to the allegations, as reported by a Radio Fiji article.
The excerpt of Radio Fiji article:
Fiji to protect territorial integrity of Minerva reef
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Fiji had told the Tongan government last year it reserved the right to take any appropriate necessary action to protect the integrity of its territory by removing structures built by Tonga at the Minerva reef.
FBC News has sighted a letter sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Tongan government dated 23rd September 2010, notifying them that they were building the structures on Fiji’s territory.Fiji’s Deputy Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs Sila Balawa says Fiji received a report late last year that Tonga was constructing two structures on the reef, namely a lighthouse.
Fiji authorities confirm the two structures were removed last year – however Fiji and Tonga are continuing discussions on the issue – led by their ambassadors at the United Nations.Balawa says Fiji’s ownership of the reef has been re-asserted time and again - through the United Nations Law of the Sea and the Minerva reef is located within Fiji’s exclusive economic zone.Fiji says its claim to the reef – is based on UN laws and history.
Tonga has criticised the removal of their structures by what it describes as the “full might of Fijian sea power.” Balawa told FBC News in February that Tonga is one of Fiji’s closest friends and they hope to resolve the issue through peaceful dialogue.
Fiji's Maritime claims have been documented in a 1984 report "Limits In The Seas- Fiji's Maritime Claims" compiled by the US State Department.
The above mentioned report also highlights the contentious issue of Minerva reef ownership and does reinforce Fiji's claim to the atoll located in the southern Lau group, stating that the atoll lies within Fiji's economic exclusive zone (EEZ).
Excerpt of Page 6 & 7 of the report:
Maritime Boundaries
In claiming its economic zone, Fiji is able to extend fully to 200 nautical miles only to the south and to the northwest. Similar or potential claims to extended maritime jurisdiction by its neighbors will create six maritime boundary situations for Fiji. Boundaries will be required with Tonga to the east and southeast, Tuvalu to the north, the Solomon Islands west of Rotuma, Vanuatu to the west, and France to the northeast (Wallis and Futuna) and southwest (New Caledonia).
In 1983 Fiji and France signed an agreement delimiting the boundary between the economic zones claimed by the two states. The line between Fiji and New Caledonia is an apparent equidistant line, about 300 nautical miles in length, using as controlling basepoints Ceva-i-Ra for Fiji and Hunter Island for France. A sovereignty claim to Hunter Island has been made by Vanuatu and it is unclear what impact this dispute may have on the Fiji-France agreement. The other four boundaries remain to be negotiated.
Tonga's claim to the Minerva Reefs, situated south of Fiji's archipelago, may complicate Tongan-Fijian maritime boundary negotiations. Although Fiji acknowledges Tonga's claim to these reefs (as noted on its Chart 81/3), Fiji's economic zone limits enclose the reefs. North and South Minerva Reef are about 18 nautical miles apart and more than 165 nautical miles from the nearest Tongan island. The Tongan Government has built an artificial island and installed navigation beacons on each.
If indeed the reefs themselves are only low-tide elevations, they would not have a territorial sea (LOS Convention, Article 13(2)). Tonga's rights, under the LOS Convention, to construct, operate, and use an artificial island, such as North or South Minerva Reef, within its economic zone, may be complicated by the fact that these reefs, under Fiji's claims, are situated in the Fiji EEZ.4 The area of the exclusive economic zone was measured from Fiji Marine Spaces Chart 81/3.
Fiji's claim that the Minerva's reef lies within its EEZ is based on the distance from the baseline of Ono island.
According to the Page 2 of the Fiji Maritime Limits report:
Fiji's legislation establishes two different types of baselines. Archipelagic baselines join most of the country's islands to form the Fiji Archipelago; seaward of those baselines is the territorial sea and high seas, landward of them are archipelagic waters and internal waters.
The other type of baseline delimits the internal waters from archipelagic waters (if situated inside archipelagic baselines) or from the territorial sea (as in the Rotuma Island area).The image (posted below) from Google earth reinforces that claim of Minerva being within 200 nautical miles of Ono island, Lau. In actual fact, Minerva lies 178 odd nautical miles south of Ono.
From the preceding facts, it is would be difficult to place any credence on Tonga's claim to the disputed atoll.
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