Hanish islands crisis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hanish islands crises | |||||||||
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 Map of the Hanish islands |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Eritrea |
 Yemen |
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| unknown | unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 3-12 killed | 15 killed 196 captured 17 civilians taken prisoner |
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The Hanish islands crises (or the Eritrean-Yemeni Border crises also known as the Odd War[1]) took place over three days from 15 December and 17 December 1995 on the island of Greater Hanish, one of the largest in the then disputed Zukur-Hanish archipelago.
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[edit] The War
Reports vary on the number killed in action; between three and twelve members of the Eritrean Defence Forces were believed to have been killed while fifteen Yemeni soldiers were believed to have been killed. Between 185 and 196 Yemeni prisoners of war (soldiers) and 17 civilians were captured by the Eritreans. The prisoners were repatriated a few weeks later at the end of December to Yemen.[2] During the fighting a passing Russian merchant ship was hit and damaged in mistake for a Yemeni naval vessel.
The archipelago is on the southern side of the Red Sea near Bab-el-Mandeb (Mouth of the Red Sea). The Red Sea is about 30 miles (50 km) wide at this point. Since the British occupation of Aden the islands had generally been regarded as part of Yemen although they were on the southern, Eritrean, side of the straits.
After being granted independence and membership of the United Nations, the new Eritrean government had started negotiations with Yemen over the status of the archipelago. Two rounds of talks had taken place before the invasion:
Gutmann [French mediator] produced an Agreement on Principles, which Eritrea and Yemen signed on 21 May. The two sides agreed to resort to arbitration, to refrain from using force, and to abide by the verdict of an arbitration tribunal. The French mediation effort almost collapsed when, on 10 August, Eritrean forces occupied Hanish al-Saghir. With Yemen threatening to take military action, the UN Security Council ordered Eritrean troops off the island. Asmara withdrew its forces on 27 August…. The renewed threat of conflict prompted Eritrea, at the end of August, to begin deploying along its coastline Russian-made SAM missiles acquired from Ethiopia.
– Lefebvre [3]
On 22 November 1995, Yemen's Foreign Minister Adb al-Karim al-Iryani met in San'a' with three Eritrean officials to discuss the problem. Iryani, heading a Yemeni delegation, then attended a meeting in Eritrea on 7 December. There, both sides agreed to resolve their dispute over maritime borders through negotiations, which they scheduled for February 1996. If those negotiations failed, both sides agreed to take the case to the ICJ at The Hague.
– Lefebvre [4]
Greater Hanish (or Hanish al-Kabir) is one of three main islands in an archipelago, and until 1995 was inhabited only by a handful of Yemeni fishermen. In 1995 German company, under Yemeni auspices, began building a hotel and scuba diving centre on the Island. The Yemenis then sent a force of 200 men, to guard the construction site. Eritrean officials thought that the construction work which the Yemen started on Greater Hanish was an attempt to establish facts on the ground before the negotiations scheduled for February started. "Prompted by concern over the Yemeni construction project on Hanish al-Kabir, Eritrea's Foreign Minister Petros Solomon delivered, on 11 November 1995, an ultimatum giving San'a one month to withdraw Yemeni military forces and civilians from Hanish al-Kabir"[5]. When that ultimatum ran out and the Yemeni military forces and civilians had not withdrawn the Eritreans launched their attack and captured the Island.
Three other reasons have been proposed for the attack by the Eritreans on the island. The Yemeni opposition sources claimed that during 1994, Sana'a received clandestine military assistance from Israel via the Eritreans and the Eritreans took Hanish when Sana'a failed to deliver the promised payments. Yemen's military claimed that they had intercepted radio messages in Hebrew and that "several Israelis" had helped to direct the Eritrean operation. This led the Arab League to suggest that the real motive for the attack was that Israel intended to set up a base on the island. The third reason put forward is that there may be oil in the Red Sea and that the territorial rights to the seabed was the underlying reason for the war.
As no resolution to the problem could be reached in bilateral talks, the status of the archipelago was placed in front of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in the Netherlands.
[edit] Arbitration
The two parties presented their case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration on October 3, 1996. The court returned its findings (CHAPTER XI – Dispositif) on 9 October 1998 and it found that:
The islands, islet, rocks, and low-tide elevations of the Zuqar-Hanish group, including, but not limited to, Three Foot Rock, Parkin Rock, Rocky Islets, Pin Rock, Suyul Hanish, Mid Islet, Double Peak Island, Round Island, North Round Island, Quoin Island (13°43'N, 42°48'E), Chor Rock, Greater Hanish, Peaky Islet, Mushajirah, Addar Ail Islets, Haycock Island (13°47'N, 42°47'E; not to be confused with the Haycock Islands to the southwest of Greater Hanish), Low Island (13°52'N, 42°49'E) including the unnamed islets and rocks close north, east and south, Lesser Hanish including the unnamed islets and rocks close north east, Tongue Island and the unnamed islet close south, Near Island and the unnamed islet close south east, Shark Island, Jabal Zuquar Island, High Island, and the Abu Ali Islands (including Quoin Island (14°05'N, 42°49'E) and Pile Island) are subject to the territorial sovereignty of Yemen;
– CHAPTER XI – Dispositif[6]
- Eritrea - Yemen Arbitration at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague, The Netherlands
- Arbitration Agreement (October 3, 1996)
- Phase I: Territorial Sovereignty and Scope of Dispute
- Award: Phase II: Maritime Delimitation: Introduction
On 1 November 1998 "Yemeni Defence Minister Mohammad Diefallah Mohammad raised his country's flag over the island of Greater Hanish as Yemeni army and navy troops took up positions on it. At the same time, Eritrean troops departed on board a helicopter and a naval vessel."[7]
[edit] References
- Brian Whitaker Clash over islands in Middle East International 5 January 1996
- Saleh AA Younis The Lessons of Yemen December 14, 2004
- ICRC Eritrea: 196 prisoners of war and 17 civilians repatriated to Yemen 30 December 1995
- Professor Jeffrey A Lefebvre, "Red Sea Security And The Geopolitical-Economy of The Hanish Islands Dispute" (Middle East Journal, Volume 52, No 3.) summer of 1998
[edit] Further reading
- Comparative Study Between Yemeni-Eritrean Ways of Documentation in Arbitration Over Red Sea South Islands 52 - in By: Abdulla Mohammed Al-Saidi Vice Minister of foreign Affairs in Law & Diplomacy - Issue 52 - Yemen Times December 27th through January 2nd 2000, Vol IX
- Allegation and counter allegations
- Air University Library Publications: MIDDLE EAST: December 1999:YEMEN Gidron, Avner. "Disputes: Eritrea's Ally?" World Press Review 43:25 March 1996. "Yemen alleges that Israel backed the Eritrean troops who captured three Red Sea islands from Yemen".
- Ethiopia-Sudan-Yemen alliance a "conspiracy", Eritrea’s FM reported in the Sudan Tribune 8 January 2004. Text of interview with Eritrean Foreign Minister Ali Said Abdella by Musa Idriss entitled "Sanaa Grouping was born by ’caesarean’ - its aims: asphyxiating Eritrea," says Eritrean foreign minister"; published by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 6 January 2004;
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Saleh AA Younis References The Odd War so called by the Saudi Gazette
- ^ El Salvador Civil War. Retrieved on 2006-08-25.
- ^ Lefebvre References page 381, (Quoted by Saleh AA Younis References)
- ^ Lefebvre References page 373 (Quoted by Saleh AA Younis References)
- ^ Lefebvre References page 372-373
- ^ :CHAPTER XI – Dispositif
- ^ United Nations and international organizations page Michigan State University. November 1, 1998 Yemen flag raised overGreater Hanish
