President Bachelet signed the Chilean whale sanctuary bill in
the former whaling town of Quintay, joined by 20 young Greenpeace
Ocean Defenders project members, and government ministers from four
countries; Australian environment minister Peter Garrett, New
Zealand's environment minister Steve Chadwick, Lord Rooker, UK
Minister for Sustainable Food and Farming and Animal Health and
Roberto Dobles Mora, Costa Rican Minister of Environment and
Energy.
"The creation of the Chilean sanctuary is a great step forward
for whale conservation in Latin America, especially as the IWC is
currently discussing the creation of a South Atlantic Whale
Sanctuary", said Greenpeace Chile whales campaigner Samuel Leiva.
"Now it's up to the IWC members to take president Bachelet's
example, and modernize the organisation into one that works for the
whales, not the whalers."
Japanese activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were arrested in
Tokyo on Thursday, during a heavy-handed police operation involving
raids on the Greenpeace Japan office and the homes of a number of
Greenpeace staff. Both had already offered to present themselves to
police and had submitted written statements describing how they
obtained evidence of a major whale meat theft scandal. This
evidence included a box of whale meat that had been smuggled off
the whaling factory ship, Nisshin Maru, disguised as crew members'
personal possessions for black market sale, at the expense of the
Japanese taxpayer.
"It's appalling that Japan's delegation is attending an IWC
meeting aimed at healing division within the organisation, while
the Japanese government holds Junichi and Toru in custody for
exposing the whale meat scandal and corruption at the heart of the
whaling industry." said Karen Sack, Head of Oceans for Greenpeace
International. "Japan needs to end its sham scientific whaling
programme in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary now, if it is to
retain international credibility".
Greenpeace has launched an international on-line petition
directed at Japan's Prime Minster, Fukuda, appealing for him to
intervene to end this heavy-handed charade and order the release of
the activists. Within 48 hours of the petition's launch, some
76,000 people had sent messages to Japanese embassies
worldwide.
Other contacts: Keiko Shirokawa: Greenpeace Japan Media, in Tokyo: + 81 90 3470 7884Mike Townsley, Greenpeace International, in Amsterdam: +31 621 296 918Dave Walsh, Greenpeace International, at the IWC in Chile, +56 9 939 2952
Notes: 1. The activists can be held for up to 23 days without charge under Japanese law.2. The "Stolen Japanese Whale Meat Scandal" dossier is available to download in English and Japanese at:http://www.greenpeace.org/whale-meat-scandal