Pedra Branca Trial: S'pore Team Ready For Final Rebuttal

Source : The Sunday Times, Nov 18, 2007

THE HAGUE (Netherlands) - SINGAPORE'S legal team in the Pedra Branca case is 'energised' and all set to launch its final round of oral pleadings before the International Court of Justice on Monday.

The team, led by Deputy Prime Minister S Jayakumar and including Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, Attorney-General Chao Hick Tin and Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh, spent the weekend in meetings and crafting their rebuttal speeches.

Professor Koh said: 'We're in good shape. The team is energised and ready to go.'

Singapore has two days to rebut Malaysia's oral arguments, presented over four days last week. Singapore delivered its oral pleadings two weeks ago.

With the final rebuttals, the court will then deliberate and bring to a close a 28-year bilateral dispute over Pedra Branca, an island located some 40km east of Singapore and at the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait.

South-east Asia's first lighthouse - the Horsburgh Lighthouse - sits atop the football field-size island.

Singapore's case is that Pedra Branca was terra nullius, that is belonged to no one, when the British took lawful possession of it in 1847 and built Horsburgh Lighthouse there.

Since then, Britain and later Singapore, upon receiving the title from the British on independence, have exercised sovereignty over the island, it told the court.

Malaysia has argued that the Johor Sultanate, from as early as the 16th century, extended to all the islands in the Strait of Singapore, including Pedra Branca.

It said the Johor rulers gave the British permission to build and operate HorsburghLighthouse there.