botswana/namibia - Cour international de Justice

very clear from their evidence that they were never challenged by the Namibian authorities or
their predecessors in their exercise of jurisdiction over the Island.
(D) Aerial Photographs
527. There is a remarkable series of aerial photographs taken in 1925, 1943, 1947, 1962, May
1972, November 1972, 1977, 1981, 1985 and June 1997, which represents a visual history of
Kasikili/Sedudu Island and its immediate environs covering a period of over seventy years
(see the Attachment to the Botswana Counter-Memorial). All photographs were taken at an
appropriate height of 3,500 to 4,000 metres (10,000 to 12,000 feet). There has been no change
over seventy years. All these photographs are presented at an approximate scale of 1:10,000
except for the 1977 photograph and the 1997 strip montage.
528. Comparison of each of the photographic images over this period reveals that there is
virtually no discernible change in size or shape of the Island and its surroundings.
529. There is an absence of visible signs of settlement, agriculture or other human occupation
on the Island. The absence of evidence of human occupation is borne out by the Report of the
Sedimentological Study of Kasikili/Sedudu Island. During the coring exercise no evidence in
the form of artefacts, charcoal or bones was found. Nor was evidence of a once cultivated area
found on the Island. During the coring, it was found that the saturated zone lies only about 1.5
metres below the surface, making cultivation difficult. The sand layer was very highly
saturated. It would be difficult to bury human bodies under such conditions.
(E) Absence of Signs of Human Occupation
530. Kasika is clearly defined and visible as a thriving settlement to the west of the Spur
Channel. A succession of witnesses called by Namibia gave evidence at Katima Mulilo on 26
to 31 July 1994 to the effect that there was a large community on the Island. Thus Ntwala
Lwizi Mutwa aged 87, who would have been 15 in 1925, said:
"At Kasikili it's where we were staying, it's where we were ploughing. Our Chief,
Liswaniyana, all of us and his induna Silumbu are the people who took us there and some of
his indunas Mr Jova, Mr Six, Mr Libalamwe, all of us were staying there, we were ploughing
there. It was our field area. It's where we were ploughing. We didn't see anybody coming
from another place and ploughing there".
"When we were ploughing there, there is a time when we used to harvest and then we get our,
what we have harvested we build great silos, we put them there and then sometime used to
come a flood and then when that flood comes, that's the time we used to leave the island, we
go now into the forest".
"That is at Kasika and when it was dry we used to go back. Then we found that our mud
houses have been destroyed and then we rebuild them and we start ploughing again and we
went on like that".
"Then the thing which used to trouble us was the flood and then there is other thing which
brought that we should also move and those were the elephants which came and destroyed our
grain silos and our fields and that's when the chief said so, this thing is now too much, we
better move to another place. And there was a school there and the teacher for the chief was