ICJ hears arguments on Nicaragua-Colombia border row

THE HAGUE, June 4 (Reuters) The UN's highest court opened hearings today into a border dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia over a group of Caribbean Islands and fishing waters.

Nicaragua asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to grant it sovereignty over the archipelago and to determine the maritime boundary in a dispute that Colombia says was settled more than 70 years ago.

Nicaragua also indicated it might seek compensation from Bogota for money earned by Colombia from the islands and for interference with Nicaraguan fishing vessels.

The hearings will last through Friday.

The countries, separated by Panama and Costa Rica, both lay claim to the isolated Caribbean Islands San Andres and Providencia off Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast, as well as several keys and some 50,000 square kilometres of rich fishing waters.

Colombia says the dispute was settled in 1928, when Nicaragua and Colombia signed a treaty granting Colombia sovereignty over the islands.

But Nicaragua's Sandinista government in the 1980s annulled the accord, arguing it was signed while Nicaragua was under US military occupation.

''Nicaragua asks the court to rewrite history,'' Colombia's representative Sir Arthur Watts told the court today, adding that Nicaragua's legal action was an ''attempt to ignore a bilateral treaty, valid and in force for over 70 years.'' But many Nicaraguans consider the treaty a US payoff to Colombia for arranging the independence of Panama from Colombia in order to build the Panama Canal.

The islands and keys in question also fall within the maritime borders of Costa Rica, Honduras and Jamaica.

Nicaragua sued Colombia in 2001, two years after it also took neighbouring Honduras to the ICJ, arguing it was forced to act after Honduras and Colombia agreed their own border.

In this treaty, Honduras and Colombia carved up between them 130,000 square km of Atlantic waters traditionally claimed by Nicaragua. The area is rich in fish and, potentially, oil and natural gas.

In retaliation, Nicaragua slapped a 35 per cent tariff on imports from Honduras.

The ICJ, or World Court, opened the hearing in this case in March. The Court, based in The Hague, hears disputes between states and its decisions are founded in international law. Its rulings are binding and without appeal.

REUTERS AE RS1920