Island dispute mapped out
The Malaysian Embassy says it will refer to the 'highest authorities' fresh reports that Indonesia plans to include two disputed islands on its national map.
The official news agency Antara quoted Indonesian Justice Minister Utojo Usman yesterday as saying Indonesia would soon publish a fresh edition of a map of its territorial waters.
This would include Sipadan and Ligitan, which lie near the border of Malaysia's eastern Sabah state and the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The two countries have disputed ownership of the pair of tiny islands since 1969.
'East Timor waters already appear on maps printed since 1976,' Mr Usman said. 'Sipadan and Litigan Islands will be shown on the next edition of the map.' However, the Malaysian Embassy's consul for information Tarmidzi said he would refer the matter to Kuala Lumpur.
He said this was the first time an Indonesian minister had announced the islands would be on the map.
Mr Usman made the comments during discussions of a bill on territorial waters in Indonesia's House of Representatives on Monday.
He said afterwards that Indonesia had 'duly taken everything into consideration' regarding Malaysia's dual claim on the islands.
Officials at Indonesia's Department of Foreign Affairs were unavailable for comment yesterday.
However, a foreign political expert said there was a lack of co-ordination in the Indonesian bureaucracy and the map might not necessarily represent government policy. 'Mapping is controlled by the military. Maybe they just wanted to push the issue to pre-empt the Government's position.'
