04
November 2008 - International — Despite
the moratorium on commercial whaling, the
Japanese government continues to send a
fleet of ships to the Southern Ocean Whale
Sanctuary to kill over a thousand whales.
Each season, the fleet departs for the Sanctuary
and more whales needlessly die.
This year, we are focussing
our efforts to save whales right where the
Japanese government feels it the most. We’re
heading to Japan. On December 10th the world
will celebrate the anniversary of the United
Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. To coincide with this, we are creating
a mass mobilisation of supporters willing
to declare the arrests of Junichi Sato and
Toru Suzuki an act of political censorship
and declare themselves complicit in the
crime of criticising whaling.
Lies and corruption
On May 15th 2008, we used undercover investigators
and the testimony of informers to expose
large amounts of whale meat being smuggled
off the Nisshin Maru to the private homes
of crew members. Junichi and Toru intercepted
one of the boxes, containing whale meat
valued at up to US$3,000, and took it to
the Tokyo public prosecutor. Now, they are
being prosecuted and are facing up to ten
years in jail, for exposing an embezzlement
scandal at the heart of the whaling programme.
Their arrest is a politically
motivated attempt to quiet opposition to
the whale hunt and has not gone unnoticed.
Over the last few months, more than 250,000
of you have called on Japan’s Prime Minister
to drop the charges and release the activists.
And in the past week,
the Japanese government has drawn criticism
from the United Nations Human Rights Committee
for “unreasonable restrictions placed on
freedom of expression and on the right to
take part in the conduct of public affairs.”
Starting on December
10th, and leading up to Junichi and Toru’s
trial, we will need your help again. Let’s
make sure this trial passes judgment on
the real criminals in the whaling industry,
and not Junichi and Toru, whose crime is
speaking the truth.
End the Hunt
We have sailed to the Southern Ocean Whale
Sanctuary in defence of the whales nine
times. In 2006, a harpoon was fired over
the heads of activists and the cable pulled
one crew member into the freezing waters
of the Antarctic. The whalers rammed our
ships twice, hit one of our crew members
with a metal pole and used high powered
water cannons against us. Despite this,
they were 82 whales short of their quota.
In 2007, the whaling season was cut short
by a fire onboard the Nisshin Maru, and
we provided emergency assistance to the
whalers. In 2008 the whalers ran from the
Esperanza for 14 consecutive days, saving
the lives of around 100 whales.
Now, we are fighting
to end whaling harder than ever. As a direct
result of our work in Japan, whaling is
under increasing scrutiny in the Japanese
media. The diplomatic efforts of Australia
and the US have made it a subject of increasing
irritation for the Japanese department of
Foreign Affairs and the office of the Prime
Minister. But the whale friendly nations
need to make this issue more than an itch.
They need to make it a pain.
Recently, the whalers
suffered a severe blow with the outlawing
of their supply ship, Oriental Bluebird,
as a result of our work in Panama, the state
that previously flagged her. Japan needs
the Oriental Bluebird to transport half
their deadly catch home. Under international
law, the ship should not go to the Southern
Ocean, and no other nation should re-flag
her. If Japan has no supply ship, the number
of whales they can take will be halved.
This year we will not
send a ship to the Southern Ocean Whale
Sanctuary. We see the reaction of whaling
interests as conforming perfectly to the
way the most successful Greenpeace campaigns
play out: 'First they ignore you, then they
laugh at you, then they fight you. Then
you win.' We have not won yet, but whaling
in Japan is now clearly moving toward the
endgame -- and we are moving our campaign
to the place where we believe that endgame
will be played out -- in Tokyo. We can stop
future whaling fleets before they even leave
the port and we can end whaling in the Southern
Ocean forever.
Stand up for justice
If the Japanese government is going to unfairly
prosecute the two activists for exposing
the scandal and corruption of the whaling
industry, they will have to face everyone
that supports an end to the whale hunt.
Join the fight to stop whaling -- in person
and online.
