Further to item circulated by Charles Gurdon as re-enclosed below, please see UN Equatorial Guinea/Gabon Mediation of 6 July at: www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sgsm9407.doc.htm & 7 July at: www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42050&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=EQUATORIAL_GUINEA-GABON; 8 July at: http://eri24.com/news6048.htm (via: http://eri24.com/bottom.htm)

UN Cameroon/Nigeria Mixed Commission charged with demarcation of the boundary delimited by the 2002 ICJ Judgment is at: www.un.org/Depts/dpa/prev_dip/africa/office_for_srsg/cnmc/preleas/comlist.htm and its 11th Meeting will be held on 18-19 August 2004.

With respect to pending demarcation of the boundary delimited by the 2002 UN EEBC Decision (www.pca-cpa.org/ENGLISH/RPC/), see UNSG Kofi A. Annan Urges Resolution of Eritrea/Ethiopia Border Dispute of 5 July at: www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=41993&SelectRegion=Horn_of_Africa&SelectCountry=ERITREA-ETHIOPIA, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3864027.stm; 6 July at: www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11248&Cr=africa&Cr1=darfur & www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sgsm9406.doc.htm; US Congress and UNSG Urge of 8 July at: http://eri24.com/news6052.htm; Secretary Colin Powell's Remarks on Africa Policy of 8 July at: www.state.gov/secretary/rm/34251.htm (via: www.state.gov/p/af/).

Israeli Barrier Advisory Opinion is not yet reported upon at: www.icj-cij.org but its result is already presented at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3879057.stm It seems that only Judge Thomas Buergenthal dissented, even though hopefully at least some Judges appended their concurring Opinions. The Opinion will later be commented upon at: www.middleeastdaily.com, www.unitednationsnews.com, www.un.org/News and elsewhere.

The third volume of Summaries of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders of the International Court of Justice 1997-2002, ST/LEG/SER.F/1/Add.2 (United Nations: New York 2003), containing perhaps the most important decisions in the history of the World Court, was just published under Sales No. E.03.V.12. They are surveyed in my article on the ICJ Triennium 1997-2000 & Beyond at: www.uu.nl/content/TRIEN210604.PDF or under Publications - Papers at NILOS website of: www.law.uu.nl/nilos The 6th Revision of Shabtai Rosenne's The World Court, Edited by Terry Gill et al., is at: www.brill.nl/product.asp?article_ID=651&ID=18150

With respect to Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands items circulated via IBRU before (the latest having been of 1 July at: www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=14438), please see IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato's Interview of 9 July at: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200407/09/eng20040709_149081.html

Best regards, Barbara

Thought this might interest some of you

Best wishes - Charles

Charles Gurdon
Menas Associates
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www.menas.co.uk

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African leaders look to settle territorial dispute

Oil fires Mbanie peace pact

17:07 GMT

The leaders of Equatorial Guinea and Gabon have signed an agreement to draw up an accord on joint oil exploration in waters disputed for over three decades.

Equatorial Guinea has become sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil producer in recent years but the dispute over a handful of islands has prevented the full exploration of waters believed to hold large commercially exploitable reserves, Reuters reported.

"The parties will abstain from all behaviour and all acts that could compromise, impede, or endanger the negotiation and execution of the accord," said the agreement, signed by the presidents of the two central African countries on Tuesday.

The dispute has been simmering since 1972, when Gabon's army chased Equatorial Guinean fighters from the island of Mbanie, but had been largely forgotten until the prospect of oil rekindled interest in the Gulf of Guinea.

Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and his Gabonese counterpart Omar Bongo pledged in the document to hold "formal negotiations" on a joint development zone.

Shell Gabon says it has rights to prospect the Mbanie zone according to its contract with the Gabonese authorities, and has said it would like to do so. But it has put the project on hold because of the territorial dispute.

Mbanie, with an area of just 30 hectares (74 acres), and the nearby Corisco islands are inhabited by people from the Benga ethnic group, present in both Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

Prof. Dr. Barbara Kwiatkowska
Professor of International Law of the Sea
Deputy Director NILOS
Faculty of Law - Utrecht University
Achter Sint Pieter 200
3512 HT Utrecht - The Netherlands
Phone: 31 30 253 7037/7038
Fax: 31 30 253 7073
http://www.law.uu.nl/nilos
E-mail: [log in to unmask]