OUTRAGE OVER WHALING ... #2 <cont>

I still think its gonna be a long effort but that gradually a change in the worlds attitude will come about so that who are now called "outlaw environmentalists" will be looked on as heros to saving these species from disaster.

I believe that if the Australian goverrnment were to send a naval ship to the area for surveillance all it could do would be to document the systematic violations of the international rules of the road for ocean going ships done by the "green" ships.

The unfortunate fact for you in this matter is that - like it or not - the Japanese have international law on their side.

I will agree the other national parties to the agreement, Australia included, knowingly accepted a somewhat hypocritically stated loophole that gave Japan the rights it is now exercising.

George, you're going to be on the side of anything goes for profit, no matter what is said. We could argue endlessly about the validity of exploiting the IWC "scientific whaling " regulation vs the validity of the existence of a whale sanctuary. There is no "law" that I actually know of which actually clearly sanctions the Japanese position. If you want to believe that exploiting a loophole in the "rules", to carry out commercial whaling, constitutes respect & adherence to international law, feel free.

I'm not arguing with your or msolga's preferences on this matter - only citing the fact that the Japanese operations in the sanctuary are being done in accordance with the governing international agreements. You don't agree with them, and that is your right. The Japanese see it differently, and that is their right.

What international law establishes a "whale sanctuary"? This is a volunary convention and Japan, a sovereign nation,

Whale meat scandal and the Tokyo Two

Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, known as the “Tokyo Two”, are due to stand trial on February 15th - charged only for theft and trespass. But over the past two years it has become clear that they are being persecuted for so much more.

Corrupt government practices, censoring public information, Japan’s adherence to international law, freedom of speech and the right of individual protest together with the commercial killing of thousands of whales are all under the spotlight. And before the verdict has even been rendered, a working group of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has already ruled that, in the defendants' attempts to expose a scandal in the public interest, their human rights have been breached by the Japanese government.

In January 2008, Greenpeace Japan commenced a four month investigation into claims, made by a whistleblower, that crew members of Japan’s whaling fleet have for many years been embezzling significant amounts of prime whale meat and selling it for personal gain, with apparent official consent.

Working from information given by former and current whaling company Kyodo Senpaku employees, we documented the offloading of smuggled whale meat into a special truck, in full view of Kyodo Senpaku officials and crew members, when the Nisshin Maru docked on April 15th, 2008.

Junichi and Toru, removed one of four boxes addressed to a crewmember from a mail depot, whose contents were listed as ‘cardboard’. Inside, they found salt-cured unesu or ‘whale bacon’, valued at up to US$ 3,000. One informer told Greenpeace that dozens of crew take as many as 20 boxes each with the agreement of the whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku

Having exposed this scandal, two of our activists our now facing up to 10 years in prison in Japan. .

Greenpeace Japan exposed the scandal at a press conference, and delivered the box of whale meat to the Tokyo District Prosecutor, as evidence of widespread corruption in Japan's publicly funded whaling programme.

Before the embezzlement was exposed, an official of the Japanese Fisheries Agency claimed that whale meat was never given to crew. But once the whale meat embezzlement was revealed the responses from those involved with the Japanese Government’s whaling programme were many and varied. Kyodo Senpaku changed their story three times in almost as many days. The company now claims that each crew member receives 9.5kg of whale meat.

An investigation was initiated by the Tokyo District Prosecutor but was suddenly dropped on the same day that the Greenpeace office in Tokyo and the homes of four staff members were searched by some 40 police officers, in full glare of the media, who had been tipped off. Junichi and Toru were arrested and held for 26 days. During this period, they were questioned daily for up to ten hours, strapped to a chair, without access to counsel " common practices in Japan, which have drawn repeated criticism from the UN Human Rights Committee. Eventually, Junichi and Toru were charged with theft of the "cardboard" and trespass. They were released subject to strict bail restrictions and face up to ten years in prison.


A hugely significant ruling

The UNHRC’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention informed the Japanese government in December that their treatment of Junichi and Toru breached no fewer than five articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The working group also recognised the following facts. ....