Hanish Islands conflict

Hanish Islands conflict
Map of the Hanish islands
Date 15 December 1995–17 December 1995 Location Greater Hanish, Zukur-Hanish archipelago Result Eritrean Military victory. Yemeni Political victory. Territorial changes Eritrean occupation of the island. The Permanent Court of Arbitration eventually determined that the archipelago belonged to Yemen, which then repossessed the island.
Belligerents
Eritrea Israel (alleged)	Yemen
Commanders and leaders
Sebhat Ephrem	Ali Abdullah Saleh
Strength
unknown	About 200
Casualties and losses
3-12 killed	15 killed 185-196 captured 17 civilians captured

The Hanish Islands conflict, was a dispute between Yemen and Eritrea over the island of Greater Hanish in the Red Sea, one of the largest in the then disputed Zukur-Hanish archipelago. Fighting took place over three days from 15 December to 17 December 1995. In 1998 the Permanent Court of Arbitration determined that the archipelago belonged to Yemen.

Armed conflict

The archipelago is on the southern side of the Red Sea near Bab-el-Mandeb (Mouth of the Red Sea). The Red Sea is about 30 miles (50 km) wide at this point. Since the British occupation of Aden the islands had generally been regarded as part of Yemen although they were on the southern, Eritrean, side of the straits.

After being granted independence and membership of the United Nations, the new Eritrean government had started negotiations with Yemen over the status of the archipelago. Two rounds of talks had taken place before the invasion:

Gutmann [French mediator] produced an Agreement on Principles, which Eritrea and Yemen signed on 21 May. The two sides agreed to resort to arbitration, to refrain from using force, and to abide by the verdict of an arbitration tribunal. The French mediation effort almost collapsed when, on 10 August, Eritrean forces occupied Hanish al-Saghir. With Yemen threatening to take military action, the UN Security Council ordered Eritrean troops off the island. Asmara withdrew its forces on 27 August…. The renewed threat of conflict prompted Eritrea, at the end of August, to begin deploying along its coastline Russian-made SAM missiles acquired from Ethiopia.

— Lefebvre

On 22 November 1995, Yemen's Foreign Minister Adb al-Karim al-Iryani met in San'a' with three Eritrean officials to discuss the problem. Iryani, heading a Yemeni delegation, then attended a meeting in Eritrea on 7 December. There, both sides agreed to resolve their dispute over maritime borders through negotiations, which they scheduled for February 1996. If those negotiations failed, both sides agreed to take the case to the ICJ at The Hague.

— Lefebvre

Greater Hanish (or Hanish al-Kabir) is one of three main islands in an archipelago, and until 1995 was inhabited only by a handful of Yemeni fishermen. In 1995 a German company, under Yemeni auspices, began building a hotel and scuba diving centre on the Island. The Yemenis then sent a force of 200 men, to guard the construction site. Eritrean officials thought that the construction work which the Yemen started on Greater Hanish was an attempt to establish facts on the ground before the negotiations scheduled for February started. "Prompted by concern over the Yemeni construction project on Hanish al-Kabir, Eritrea's Foreign Minister Petros Solomon delivered, on 11 November 1995, an ultimatum giving San'a one month to withdraw Yemeni military forces and civilians from Hanish al-Kabir". When that ultimatum ran out and the Yemeni military forces and civilians had not withdrawn the Eritreans launched their attack and captured the island.

As no resolution to the problem could be reached in bilateral talks, the status of the archipelago was placed in front of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in the Netherlands.

Arbitration

The two parties presented their case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration on October 3, 1996. The court returned its findings (CHAPTER XI – Dispositif) on 9 October 1998 and it found that:

The islands, islet, rocks, and low-tide elevations of the Zuqar-Hanish group, including, but not limited to, Three Foot Rock, Parkin Rock, Rocky Islets, Pin Rock, Suyul Hanish, Mid Islet, Double Peak Island, Round Island, North Round Island, Quoin Island (13°43'N, 42°48'E), Chor Rock, Greater Hanish, Peaky Islet, Mushajirah, Addar Ail Islets, Haycock Island (13°47'N, 42°47'E; not to be confused with the Haycock Islands to the southwest of Greater Hanish), Low Island (13°52'N, 42°49'E) including the unnamed islets and rocks close north, east and south, Lesser Hanish including the unnamed islets and rocks close north east, Tongue Island and the unnamed islet close south, Near Island and the unnamed islet close south east, Shark Island, Jabal Zuquar Island, High Island, and the Abu Ali Islands (including Quoin Island (14°05'N, 42°49'E) and Pile Island) are subject to the territorial sovereignty of Yemen;

— CHAPTER XI – Dispositif

• Eritrea - Yemen Arbitration at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague, The Netherlands
  • Arbitration Agreement (October 3, 1996)
  • Phase I: Territorial Sovereignty and Scope of Dispute
    • CHAPTER I - The Setting up of the Arbitration and the Arguments of the Parties ...
    • CHAPTER XI – Dispositif
  • Award: Phase II: Maritime Delimitation: Introduction
    • CHAPTER II - The General Question of Fishing in the Red Sea
    • CHAPTER III - Petroleum Agreements and Median Lines
    • CHAPTER IV - The Traditional Fishing Regime
    • CHAPTER V - The Delimitation of the International Boundary
    • CHAPTER VI - Dispositif

On 1 November 1998 "Yemeni Defence Minister Mohammad Diefallah Mohammad raised his country's flag over the island of Greater Hanish as Yemeni army and navy troops took up positions on it. At the same time, Eritrean troops departed on board a helicopter and a naval vessel."

References

• Dzurek, Daniel J. Eritrea-Yemen Dispute Over the Hanish Islands Boundary and Security Bulletin, 1996 - Durham University
• ICRC Eritrea: 196 prisoners of war and 17 civilians repatriated to Yemen 30 December 1995
• Professor Jeffrey A Lefebvre, "Red Sea Security And The Geopolitical-Economy of The Hanish Islands Dispute" (Middle East Journal, Volume 52, No 3.) summer of 1998
• Schofield, C. H. and Pratt, M. A. (1996 - in press), The Hanish Islands Dispute in the Southern Red Sea, Jane’s Intelligence Review. (cited by Dzurek)
• Dzurek, Daniel J.
• Staff, Yemem, Air University Library Publications, Middle East, December 1999,
• Staff. "Whore wars? The Red Sea. (Hanish Islands)", Economist (London), vol. 338, no. 7947, 13 January 1996, pp. 43–44.)
• Staff. title=El Salvador Civil War, globalsecurity.org, Retrieved 2006-08-25
• Wertheim, Eric. The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World: Their Ships, Aircraft, and Systems, Naval Institute Press, 2007 ISBN 159114955X.
• Whitaker, Brian. Clash over islands in Middle East International 5 January 1996
• Younis, Saleh AA. The Lessons of Yemen, Saudi Gazzette, December 14, 2004

Further reading

• Comparative Study Between Yemeni-Eritrean Ways of Documentation in Arbitration Over Red Sea South Islands 52 - in By: Abdulla Mohammed Al-Saidi Vice Minister of foreign Affairs in Law & Diplomacy - Issue 52 - Yemen Times December 27 through January 2, 2000, Vol IX
• Allegation and counter allegations
• Air University Library Publications: MIDDLE EAST: December 1999:YEMEN Gidron, Avner. "Disputes: Eritrea's Ally?" World Press Review 43:25 March 1996. "Yemen alleges that Israel backed the Eritrean troops who captured three Red Sea islands from Yemen".
• Ethiopia-Sudan-Yemen alliance a "conspiracy", Eritrea’s FM reported in the Sudan Tribune 8 January 2004. Text of interview with Eritrean Foreign Minister Ali Said Abdella by Musa Idriss entitled "Sanaa Grouping was born by ’caesarean’ - its aims: asphyxiating Eritrea," says Eritrean foreign minister"; published by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 6 January 2004;