botswana/namibia - Cour international de Justice

[9 Captain Eason was not Assistant District Commissioner stationed at Kasane (Namibian Memorial. para. 297)
but an officer in the Bechuanaland Police stationed at Kazungula.]
568. The Namibian Memorial asserts that "the most important of the early post-1889 maps
was made by Franz Seiner.." (Namibian Memorial, para 293). Rushworth is not quite so
partisan, speaking of "a remarkable series of three successive German systematic maps of the
area that were produced within a seven year period directly before the start of World War I"
(Namibian Memorial, Annex 102, p.38). He thus ranks the Von Frankenberg equal, if not
superior to, Seiner's map.
569. In fact three maps during this period were produced as official publications but Seiner's
Map was not among them.
The 1904 Kriegskarte von Deutsch Sudwestafrika, 1:800,000, Andara Sheet (Botswana
Atlas, Map 4) and Linjanti Sheet (Botswana Atlas, Map 5), by P. Sprigade and M. Moisel,
Dietrich Reimer, Berlin.
570. This Map was part of 'the first systematic mapping of the area', and was commissioned
by the German colonial authorities. The Andara sheet (Botswana Atlas, Map 4) shows the
northern channel by a thick black line, and the southern channel is barely visible except as the
edge to the shaded area which represents the island. On the Linjanti Sheet (Botswana Atlas,
Map 5) a strong black line indicates the thalweg in the river and is drawn to the north of
Sulumbu's island, an early name for Kasikili/Sedudu Island,10 thus placing it within
Bechuanaland. No boundary is shown.
[10 If Sulumbu's island designates Kasikili/Sedudu Island this 1904 map clearly gives the northern channel the
greater prominence, and thereby identifies it as the main channel. Mr. Rushworth, however, expresses
reservations about the reliability of the map (his Report, page 38).]
The Seiner Map of 1909. 1:500,000 (Botswana Supplementary Atlas, Map 2).
571. Namibia asserts that the Seiner map of 1909 shows the boundary in the Chobe River but
this is contested by Botswana. The Namibian Memorial, drawing on Mr. Rushworth's
description, states:-
"Kasikili Island appears under the name of Sulumbu's Island (see Fig.10, following p. 121).
The map's scale of 1;500,000 is large enough for a fully recognisable depiction of the Island,
which is taken straight from Bradshaw's map (Atlas, Map 12). discussed in paragraph 76.
supra. The boundary is shown as a fine red solid line backed on the interior by fine red
hatching except on rivers, where the line, but not the hatching, is omitted. The hatching
clearly covers Kasikili Island, thus placing it unequivocally in Namibia. (See Figure 10,
following p.121) (footnote omitted). (Namibian Memorial, p.122, para. 295).
Thus, the northern boundary of the Caprivi Strip is shown by a straight red line hatched red on
the German side.
572. Botswana maintains that the Extract at Figure 10 in the Namibian Memorial is another
example of the 'blow-up' technique which misleads as to the information which the mapmaker
intended to convey.