Belgium, Netherlands to Exchange Territory – Without a Fight

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

VISE, Belgium — Throughout history, borders have caused unfathomable bloodshed, ageless feuds and decades-old legal disputes, which makes plans for a friendly exchange of land between the Netherlands and Belgium all the more remarkable.

The reason for such magnanimity? “Because it makes sense to do so,” says Marcel Neven, the mayor of Vise, Belgium.

Well, that and perhaps a little help from a headless body.

While Belgium will be losing a splendid piece of nature that juts into the Meuse River dividing the two nations, it will also unburden itself of a jurisdictional nightmare that developed over time as the river meandered to turn the portion of land belonging to Belgium — about 15 soccer fields worth — into a peninsula linked only to the Netherlands.

Over time, the area was rumored to be increasingly lawless, a haven for drug dealers and illicit sexual escapades. Then, some three years ago, passersby stumbled onto a headless body. “They alerted Dutch authorities, who told them it was Belgian territory,” said Jean-Francois Duchesne, police Commissaire of the Lower Meuse region.

In short, the Dutch could not go there because it was Belgian territory, and Belgian police and judicial authorities found it extremely tough to get there. They are not allowed to cross into the Netherlands without special permission and the peninsula had no proper landing zone for boats or equipment coming in by water.

“So we had to go there by boat with all that was needed — the prosecutor, the legal doctor, the judicial lab — we had to do round trips over the water. It really was not very practical,” Duchesne said.

And beyond that, Neven remembered: “You had to jump from the boat onto the shore. You needed to be in shape for this.”

But soon there will be no more wading in water, and a peaceful swap should be reality.

“We should have done it a long time ago,” Neven said.

Preparatory work has been done and the two nations’ parliaments should be able to complete a deal sometime in 2016, Neven said, almost two centuries after the 1843 border posts were set. And all with a smile on everyone’s face, even though Belgium will get only a tiny part around a lock that has been built to promote traffic between the two nations.

“In essence, it is very rare but it can happen,” said barrister Malcolm Shaw, an expert on international border disputes. He highlighted how complicated history has woven the borders in the area close to where Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany touch, leaving enclaves and strangely twisted borders.

Border swaps can happen but mostly after bitter quarrels.

On the Indian-Bangladeshi border this summer, a dispute that raged since India’s independence from British colonialists in 1947 was settled when the countries swapped more than 150 pockets of land.

Earlier this month, it took the United Nations’ highest court to settle a dispute between two Central American nations. The court ruled that Nicaragua violated Costa Rica’s territorial integrity in a longstanding fight over a small chunk of land near the shores of the Caribbean Sea.

Belgian military historian Luc De Vos said that friendship between neighbors makes all the difference.

“It is possible between Belgium and the Netherlands because these countries have a lot of ties for centuries and after the second World War territory was no longer that important,” De Vos said.

踩到無頭屍 促比、荷換國土

2016年到來，荷蘭將獲得一份超大賀禮。由於三年前一件「無頭屍案」，比利時政府決定將一塊兩國相鄰的領土歸還荷蘭，以避免雙邊的領土主權困擾。

這塊位於比利時維塞（Vise）附近、約15個足球場大的拉納耶（Petite Lanaye），雖然隸屬比利時，但卻因為地處謬司河（Meuse River）上，和比利時領土不相連，反而和荷蘭領土有交接。要抵達這個地方，必須轉經荷蘭領土。由於位置特殊，這塊土地淪為三不管地帶，販毒等犯罪活動猖獗，警方對犯罪行為多半寬鬆處置，直到三年前的一場無頭屍命案。

歐洲新聞台（Euronews）報導，當時一名路人踩到一具無頭屍，向荷蘭警方報案時卻被告知此地屬比利時轄區，須向比利時警方通報。由於這裡沒有碼頭，只有陸路，比利時警方搭船前往調查時，都得在河岸邊「跳進」該地，十分不便。維塞市長尼文回憶道，「大家必須從船上跳躍登岸，體能還得很好才行。」

這件刑事案件讓兩國政府重新審視領土歸屬問題。經過多時討論後，比利時政府決定將這塊從1843年就隸屬比利時的領土歸還荷蘭，現在只待兩國國會通過後，就會正式將土地畫歸荷蘭，而比利時換也會換得部分疆域，但遠比送給荷蘭的這塊半島小得多。

比利時軍事史家德沃斯（Luc De Vos）指出，能否和平交換國土，關鍵在相關國家之間是否像比荷兩國一般，有良好邦誼。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/12/30/world/europe/ap-eu-belgian-dutch-land-swap.html

2016-01-02 世界日報 編譯中心