Pulau Sipadan

Pulau Sipadan
Location of Pulau Sipadan off the east coast of Sabah
Waters	Celebes Sea
Archipelago	Ligitan group
Geographical location	4 ° 6 '53 "  N , 118 ° 37' 44"  E Coordinates: 4 ° 6 '53 "  N , 118 ° 37' 44"  E
length	600 m
width	250 m
surface	13 ha
Highest elevation	20  m

Sipadan diving area

Reef Shark Sipadan

Pulau Sipadan is an island belonging to Malaysia in the Celebes Sea east of Borneo . It lies about 36 kilometers off the coast and belongs to Semporna in the Malaysian state of Sabah . The island became internationally known through the abduction case Abu Sajaf in 2000, in which foreign tourists were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists.

description

The 13 hectare island is 600 meters long and 250 meters wide. The wooded island rises to a height of 20 meters from the sea.

Pulau Sipadan belongs together with the islands of Pulau Kapalai , Pulau Danawan , Pulau Ligitan , Pulau Si Amil and Pulau Mabul to the so-called "Ligitan Group".

history

In the recent past, the islands of Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan have sparked disputes between Malaysia and Indonesia. Indonesia denied Malaysia sovereignty over the two islands , citing the historical division of Pulau Sebatik along a line 4 ° 10 'north latitude . Indonesia argued that the line established by the Dutch-British Border Commission on February 17, 1913 also applies to all islands east of Sebatik. However, the International Court of Justice in The Hague did not follow this line of argument and in 2002 ruled that the islands of the Ligitan Group belong to Malaysia. The judges saw the fact that the legal predecessors of Malaysia, namely the North Borneo Chartered Company and later the United Kingdom , "exercised a legislative, administrative and quasi-legal function over a long period of time" as the main reason for the decision . Neither Indonesia nor its legal predecessor, the Netherlands, had ever contradicted these activities.

A claim by the Philippines to the islands had already been rejected by the court in 2001.

In the " Abu Sajaf kidnapping case ", a total of 22 hotel employees and tourists, including a family of three from Germany, were kidnapped from a diving resort on the island by the Islamist terrorist group Abu Sajaf and taken to the Philippine island of Jolo . Some of them were only released after being held hostage in the Philippine jungle for several months.

Diving

Sipadan is known as a diving area . The abundance of marine life is enormous and ranges from reef sharks (photo) and barracuda to a wide variety of buffalo head parrot fish ( Bolbometopon muricatum ). In addition, turtles can also be observed in large numbers.

The main dive sites on Pulau Sipadan are:

Barracuda Point Coral Garden The drop off

Hanging Gardens Sipadan Midreef South Point

Staghorn Crest Turtle Cavern Whitetip Avenue

natural reserve

In 2004 the island was declared a nature reserve and the tourist resort there was closed. The closest resorts are on the nearby islands of Pulau Mabul or Pulau Kapalai . Since then, the island has only been allowed to be visited by a limited number of people in daylight and it is no longer allowed to spend the night on the island. Entry to a large part of the island has also been restricted. Only a small military and police station is still inhabited.

Remarks

1. ↑ The values ​​were approximately determined by evaluating the satellite image from google maps.
2. ↑ For details on the reasons for this division, see Tawau .
3. ↑ Here you can see the turtles swimming on Sipadan. Filmed by Christoph Brüx .

Web links

• Fabio Spadi: Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan: New Parameters for the Concept of Dependency in the Maritime Environment? In: The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law , 18, 2003, pp. 295-310.
• Website of the Pulau Sipadan Park
• International Court of Justice: Sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan (cIndonesia / Malaysia) . (PDF; 8.0 MB), judgment of the International Court of Justice of December 17, 2002

Individual evidence

1. ^ David A. Colson: Sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan (Indonesia / Malaysia) . In: The American Journal of International Law , Vol. 97, No. 2 (Apr., 2003), pp. 398-406, here p. 399, footnote 5, JSTOR 3100115
2. ↑ ^{a b} Sailing Directions (Enroute) - Borneo, Jawa, Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara (PDF; 5.8 MB), United States Navy Publication 163, sector 10, page 283, 2002; Retrieved August 24, 2012
3. ↑ Ligitan Coral Shelf - Diving Guide . ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.5 MB) accessed on July 12, 2012 
4. ↑ Case Concerning Sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan . International Court of Justice, here: Memorial of Malaysia ( Memento of the original from June 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 5.4 MB) accessed on July 12, 2012 
5. ↑ ditto Reply of Malaysia . ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 6.5 MB) International Court of Justice; Retrieved July 12, 2012 
6. ↑ United Nations: International Court Finds That Sovereignty Over Islands of Ligitan and Sipadan Belongs to Malaysia . Retrieved July 12, 2012