By IANS
Lima : Peru took its long-standing maritime border dispute with Chile to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, hoping that the action will resolve the quarrel without disrupting bilateral ties that both countries describe as good, Spanish news agency EFE reported Thursday.
Former foreign minister Allan Wagner, representing Peru before the ICJ, filed the case before the world court Wednesday four months after Peru officially announced it would make the move.
“The historic international action taken Wednesday by Peru brings an end to a careful preparatory stage carried out step by step by my government,” President Alan Garcia told lawmakers in Lima.
Garcia said Peru was looking in this way to find “a fair and equitable solution” to the controversy.
He said he was confident the suit would not be interpreted by Chile as an “unfriendly act”.
But in a statement read by Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley, the Chilean government said it “deeply” regrets Peru’s action, which “ignores existing treaties” between the two countries.
The dispute has its roots in the late 19th century, when Peru and Bolivia lost territory to Chile in the War of the Pacific.
Peru and Chile in 1929 relied upon the pact, the 1883 Treaty of Ancon, to define their land border that ended the conflict.
Lima says that border should continue its southwesterly direction into the Pacific Ocean, while Chile says the frontier runs westward from the coast.
The controversy was revived last May, when the Peruvian government presented before the UN a claim to its maritime waters, which Chile considers its own.
The decision to take the case to The Hague irks Chile as it alleges that the bilateral maritime boundary was set in treaties signed in the 1950s. Peru, however, says those agreements only covered fishing rights.
The head of the Peruvian congress, Luis Gonzales Posada, said Wednesday that the legislature “strongly” and “without hesitation” backs Garcia administration’s position.
While Peru and Chile ruled out the possibility of the dispute spilling over into a military conflict, Santiago pledged to “assert all the rights” it possesses “under international law”.