Indonesia in sudden rush to finally name nearly 5,000 islands
August 28th, 2007
Jakarta - Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation, is giving names to nearly 5,000 of its unnamed islands to head off territorial disputes with its neighbours, a local report said Monday.
The Southeast Asian nation is comprised of more than 17,000 islands, of which only about 11,000 are inhabited. The Jakarta government has had long-running sovereignty disputes with its neighbours about many outlying islands, including Malaysia, Singapore the Philippines and Vietnam.
Indonesia is unique in that its territorial waters are exempt from international laws so that they encircle all of its 17,000 islands.
The Jakarta government submitted a list of names and coordinates for 4,981 islands during the weekend to the 24th conference of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names in New York, The Jakarta Post reported.
Saut P. Hutagalung, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Ministry, said the country rushed to name all its islands - taking suggestions from its culturally diverse local communities - to strengthen its hand in any border disputes.
Alex Retraubun, another ministry official, said: ‘Local people have names for their islands. All of the time we followed what they wanted as it reflects their traditions.’
Source: http://news.monstersandcritics.com/
Entry Filed under: World Tourism News
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