Greenpeace action against Japanese whaling in Southern Ocean.
The democratic process took a pummeling again today at the IWC
when the indigenous peoples of the Inuit and Chukotka were denied
their quota for a second time.
Japan now has the US over a barrel as it is obliged by its
treaty obligations with the Inuit to grant them their whaling
quota.
To meet their treaty requirements the US will now have to
contravene the IWC decision, setting a precedent that Japan and its
alternate delegate Masayuki Komatsu will find very useful in
pursuing their target of another 25 minke whales for their coastal
whalers.
"Subsistence whaling is very different to the Fisheries Agency
of Japan´s request for 25 minke whales for coastal whaling," says
Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner Richard Page.
"Coastal whaling is for profit, not to simply survive. Coastal
whaling is commercial whaling, not subsistence whaling.
"Subsistence whaling means people have nothing else to eat. They
will starve if they don´t get their quota.
"This is the most acrimonious IWC meeting Greenpeace has
attended in the past 20 years," Page says.
The Government of Japan and Komatsu´s obstructive tactics were
made clear by their cynical manipulation of the aboriginal
subsistence quota and by their manipulation of the countries they
have bought.
"Vote buying by the Japanese Government is making a mockery of
the democratic process at the IWC. The process should be decided by
one country, one vote," Page says.
"Instead, Japan wields 15 votes, even though these bought
countries continue to embarrass themselves by insisting they are
not bought."
Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Lucia, Dominica, St Kitts and
Nevis, Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Panama continued to vote in
line with Japan. Morocco uses abstentions to appear
independent.
This year St Vincent and the Grenadines broke rank for the first
time in two important votes; the sanctuaries vote and the vote on
the Revised Management System (RMS), following a commitment by
their Prime Minister to do so.
"We hope this sets a new path for St Vincent and the Grenadines
that other countries in the region will follow," Page says.
On all the key votes the four new countries Gabon, Benin, Palau
and Mongolia voted with Japan as predicted. In particular,
Mongolia´s voting record is identical to that of Japan.
However, despite this vote buying strategy, the Fisheries Agency
of Japan has failed to secure any gains that would have led to a
resumption of commercial whaling. But the Government of Japan will
continue to carry out some commercial whaling under the dishonest
title of "scientific research".
Proposals by the Government of Japan for secret ballots, which
would have provided cover for vote buying and viewed by many as
undemocratic, also failed.
Greenpeace is obviously disappointed that the proposals for a
South Pacific Whale Sanctuary and a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary
failed. Given that these proposals had the support of the countries
within the sanctuary, it is extremely disturbing that the
Governments of Japan, Norway, Antigua and Barbuda, Palau and many
others see fit to deny these countries their wishes.
"But the countries that proposed both these sanctuaries will
continue to push forward in the hope that the wishes of both
regions will eventually be respected," says Page.
Indeed, today one of the countries of the South Pacific, Samoa,
has declared its EEZ a Whale Sanctuary.