Page 9 - Aruba Today
P. 9
WORLD NEWS 9
Thursday 31 December 2015
Netherlands, Belgium to exchange territory - without a fight
RAF CASERT by boat with all that was The Belgian and Dutch flags flap in the wind at the ferry port of Lanaye, Belgium. The town of
Associated Press needed — the prosecutor,
VISE, Belgium (AP) — the legal doctor, the judi- Eijsden, in the Netherlands, has a short ferry which crosses the water to Lanaye, Belgium in a
Throughout history, borders cial lab — we had to do
have caused unfathom- round trips over the water. matter of minutes. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
able bloodshed, ageless It really was not very practi-
feuds and decades-old le- cal,” Duchesne said. ruled that Nicaragua vio- rial integrity in a longstand- of land near the shores of
gal disputes, which makes And beyond that, Neven lated Costa Rica’s territo- ing fight over a small chunk the Caribbean Sea.q
plans for a friendly ex- remembered: “You had to
change of land between jump from the boat onto
the Netherlands and Bel- the shore. You needed to
gium all the more remark- be in shape for this.”
able. The reason for such But soon there will be no
magnanimity? “Because more wading in water, and
it makes sense to do so,” a peaceful swap should
says Marcel Neven, the be reality.
mayor of Vise, Belgium. “We should have done it
Well, that and perhaps a a long time ago,” Neven
little help from a headless said.
body. Preparatory work has been
While Belgium will be losing done and the two nations’
a splendid piece of nature parliaments should be able
that juts into the Meuse Riv- to complete a deal some-
er dividing the two nations, time in 2016, Neven said,
it will also unburden itself of almost two centuries after
a jurisdictional nightmare the 1843 border posts were
that developed over time set. And all with a smile
as the river meandered on everyone’s face, even
to turn the portion of land though Belgium will get
belonging to Belgium — only a tiny part around a
about 15 soccer fields lock that has been built to
worth — into a peninsula promote traffic between
linked only to the Nether- the two nations.
lands. “In essence, it is very rare
Over time, the area was but it can happen,” said
rumored to be increasingly barrister Malcolm Shaw, an
lawless, a haven for drug expert on international bor-
dealers and illicit sexual der disputes. He highlight-
escapades. Then, some ed how complicated his-
three years ago, passersby tory has woven the borders
stumbled onto a headless in the area close to where
body. “They alerted Dutch Belgium, the Netherlands
authorities, who told them and Germany touch, leav-
it was Belgian territory,” ing enclaves and strangely
said Jean-Francois Duch- twisted borders.
esne, police Commissaire Border swaps can happen
of the Lower Meuse region. but mostly after bitter quar-
In short, the Dutch could rels.
not go there because it On the Indian-Bangladeshi
was Belgian territory, and border this summer, a dis-
Belgian police and judi- pute that raged since In-
cial authorities found it ex- dia’s independence from
tremely tough to get there. British colonialists in 1947
They are not allowed to was settled when the
cross into the Netherlands countries swapped more
without special permission than 150 pockets of land.
and the peninsula had no Earlier this month, it took
proper landing zone for the United Nations’ highest
boats or equipment com- court to settle a dispute be-
ing in by water. tween two Central Ameri-
“So we had to go there can nations. The court
