Malaysia cites 3 'new facts' in Pedra Branca application
ICJ releases details of bid to revise 2008 Pedra Branca judgment
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) yesterday released Malaysia's application to revise the court's 2008 judgment that awarded sovereignty of Pedra Branca to Singapore.
Malaysia cited three "new facts" to argue that "Singapore's officials at the highest levels did not consider that Singapore had acquired sovereignty over Pedra Branca from Johor" in the years following 1953.
Malaysia, in its 42-page application, said the new documents "cuts deeply against the central thesis of the court's judgment".
It contends that the court would have reached a different conclusion "had it been aware of this new evidence".
The first document is a confidential telegram sent from Singapore's top colonial official to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1958.
In it, the Governor had proposed having "a corridor of international waters passing only one mile from Pedra Branca".
This showed he "did not consider the island of Pedra Branca to be part of Singaporean territory", Malaysia said.
The second document was a report about a naval incident near Pedra Branca.
Malaysia pointed out that the report had said a British Navy ship could not go to the aid of a Malaysian vessel being followed by an Indonesian gunboat because it was "still inside Johor territorial waters".
Malaysia said it showed that "military authorities responsible for Singapore's defence at the time did not view the waters around Pedra Branca as belonging to Singapore".
The third document, a map from 1962, showed that Singapore's territorial waters "do not extend to the vicinity of Pedra Branca", Malaysia said.
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