Whalers vs activists: High-seas stand-off

Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

Two activists held on Japanese ship as whalers, activists trade accusations

SYDNEY - A HIGH-SEAS stand-off has emerged in the icy waters of the Antarctic as Japanese whalers and anti-whaling activists traded accusations of piracy and terrorism yesterday.

At the centre of the row are two activists who remained locked up on a Japanese ship after boarding the vessel in a protest action.

The whalers said that they would release the two men only if the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Group promised not to take any 'violent action' against their ship and keep the protest ship Steve Irwin 10 nautical miles from the whaling ship Yushin Maru No.2.

But Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson, the captain of the Steve Irwin, demanded the immediate and unconditional handover of the two activists.

'When you start making demands for the return of hostages, that sounds like terrorism to me,' he told AFP from on board the Steve Irwin.

'We will continue to chase them until they stop their hunt,' he said.

The Japanese have accused the activists of attempting to entangle the ship's propeller with ropes and throwing bottles of acid onto the decks.

Sea Shepherd group said the pair - Australian Benjamin Potts, 28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35 - boarded the ship to deliver a letter demanding an end to the hunt, but they were assaulted, dunked in icy water and tied to the radar mast by the Japanese crew.

The Japanese side said that the two men were briefly tied up near the bridge of the Yushin Maru, and later moved them to a cabin.

'It was the only way, you couldn't have them running around the deck not knowing what they're going to do,' said Mr Glenn Inwood, a spokesman for Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research that organised the hunt.

He added that the pair had been given hot meals, a bath and had a good night's sleep.

Mr Inwood yesterday accused Sea Shepherd of stalling the handover to get more publicity.

'It is completely illegal to board anyone's vessel... on the high seas so this can be seen as nothing more than an act of piracy by the Sea Shepherd group,' he added.

A spokesman for Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Tomohiko Taniguchi, said that it was incorrect to call the two men 'hostages'.

'The two crew members were intentionally left behind on board,' he was quoted as saying by BBC News.

'According to the International Whaling Commission, what the Japanese whaling fleet is doing in the South Pacific and Antarctic region is legal,' he added.

Despite a moratorium on whaling, Japan is allowed an annual 'scientific' hunt, arguing whaling is a cherished cultural tradition and the hunt is necessary to study whales.

The programme is widely condemned as a front for commercial whaling.

'The pirates down here are the Japanese,' Mr Watson of Sea Shepherd told Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) radio.

The stand-off was an escalation of the annual contest between the fleet that carries out Japan's controversial whale hunt in the ocean at the bottom of the world and the environmental groups who try to stop them.

One way to resolve the stand-off could be for the two activists to be handed to an Australian fisheries ship en route to the area.

The two anti-whaling protesters were detained inside Australia's declared Antarctic waters and a southern whale sanctuary declared by Canberra but not recognised by Japan.

Australia criticised both sides for behaving in a potentially dangerous way in a region that is thousands of kilometres from the nearest help in case of an emergency.

'From the very first day I urged all parties in this matter to exercise restraint,'Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told ABC radio, referring to previously known plans for the environmentalists to chase the whalers.

'It's quite clearly the case that restraint hasn't occurred here.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

Group known for aggressiveness
Straits Times 17 Jan 08;

ANTI-WHALING group Sea Shepherd has been labelled 'eco-terrorist' for its aggressive tactics.

It has rammed whaling ships in the past, sinking some of them.

Its founder Paul Watson said he would do everything he could to stop whaling.

'Greenpeace claims they don't like our tactics, but they are protesting against whaling and we are policing whaling,' said the former member.

Greenpeace, which kicked out Mr Watson in 1977 because of his militant style, says it will not cooperate or share information with his group.

Its spokesman Sara Holden said Sea Shepherd placed lives at risk while Greenpeace only disrupted whaling by placing inflatable boats between harpoon boats and the whales.

'Our actions are peaceful and are not designed to do anything other than defend the whales,' she said.

In response, Mr Watson was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying: 'You don't go down the street and watch a dog being kicked to death and do nothing.

'You don't sit there and watch a whale being harpooned and killed and do nothing except take its picture.'

His group's reckless act of sending two members to board a Japanese whaling ship has achieved its goal - at least for now.

The harpoon ship has halted whaling until the activists are handed over.

REUTERS