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Dominican Republic territorial waters debate keeps growing

SANTO DOMINGO. - The Foreign Ministry?s ambassador assigned to the Oceanographic Department, Carlos Michelén, said yesterday that there?s no sense to the warning from the Armed Forces Ministry that Dominican Republic would enter into conflict with several nations, if Congress approves maritime limits different from those existing in the country.

The expert feels that it?s illogical that national sectors oppose his proposal that the country becomes an "archipelago State," when none of the foreign parts is against it.

He said that if that took place, it would then be the responsibility of the Overseas Court, located in Hamburg, Germany, to decide the matter. "That is senseless an inopportune position and that resists logical analysis; I would be ready to refute at the academic level, previous administrative consent, since I work in the Foreign Ministry and am an adviser of the Chamber of Deputies," he said.

The newspaper Listin Diario interviewed Michelén in his residence, where he showed charts and books that the deputy Pelegrín Castillo used to draft the bill, approved by both Chambers, but which has yet be sent to the Executive Branch. He complained of the situation because the piece was approved last August.

For its part, the Armed Forces feels that if the Dominican territorial waters are extended from 6 to 12 nautical miles, as exists in other latitudes, the country would come into conflict with England, United States, Haiti, Venezuela and Colombia, in addition to that the Turks and Caicos islands would become a Dominican possession.

"Where could the conflicts with Venezuela, Great Britain, the United States be if it?s an internal law? The limitation law is an internal act of the State an ambassador from any country is not going to be called , nor a foreign expert so it does its own law," argued Michelén.

He added that the limits must agree with the Convention on the Seas and the United Nations, always considering the national interest.