The great betrayal: Pro-hunting Japanese seize control of whaling commission

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http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article358190.ece

 

The great betrayal: Pro-hunting Japanese seize control

of whaling commission

 

Through a lengthy, covert operation, Japan is poised

to seize control of whale hunting - and that spells

disaster for the endangered mammal

 

Published: 17 April 2006

 

The environmental movement is facing one of its

biggest-ever reverses, over one of its most cherished

causes: Save The Whale.

 

In a remarkable diplomatic coup, Japan, the leading

pro-whaling nation, is poised to seize control of

whaling's regulatory body, the International Whaling

Commission (IWC), and so hasten the return of

commercial whale hunting, which has been officially

banned worldwide for the past 20 years.

 

While the world has been looking the other way, the

Japanese have spent nearly a decade and many millions

of dollars building up a voting majority in the IWC,

by buying the votes of small member states with

substantial foreign aid packages.

 

Their aim is to reverse the moratorium on commercial

whaling brought in by the IWC in 1986 as a result of

the long Save The Whale campaign by Greenpeace and

other environmental pressure groups.

 

This has always been seen as of one of the environment

movement's greatest success stories.

 

But anyone who opposes killing the great whales, or

who thought that the main battle against the

harpooners had been won, is in for a nasty surprise

when at the IWC meeting in the West Indies, two months

from now, this new majority is likely to become clear,

and to be exercised for the first time. It will be a

huge propaganda victory for the Japanese and the other

nations determined to continue whale hunting,

principally Norway and Iceland.

 

The simple majority (51 per cent- plus) of votes the

Japanese and their allies are virtually certain to

command at the June meeting in St Kitts and Nevis will

not enable them to scrap the moratorium outright -

that needs a voting majority of 75 per cent.

 

But it will enable them to reshape the IWC

comprehensively in a much more pro-whaling fashion -

by stopping all its conservation work, stopping all

discussions of animal welfare in relation to whaling,

and promoting the trade in whale products.

 

It will also allow them to get resolutions passed

approving Japan's so-called " scientific " whaling - the

commercial whaling in disguise the Japanese have

continued since the ban. (This year they are hunting

nearly 1,000 minke whales in the Southern Ocean).

Although their pretence of killing the animals for

research fools no one - the meat is sold commercially

- the Japanese are anxious for it to be given

international legitimacy, in the face of continuing

worldwide criticism.

 

But perhaps most significantly of all, the majority

vote will enable the introduction of secret ballots in

the IWC - where voting is at present open. This will

mean that Japan's vote-buying can no longer be

tracked, and will open the way for more countries to

join the Japanese in their quest to have the

moratorium ultimately overturned.

 

" Japan achieving a majority in the IWC is going to be

an environmental disaster, yet the world seems unaware

that it is about to happen, " said Vassili Papstavrou,

from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, who

has carefully followed the Japanese build-up of

supporting countries. " Countries that oppose whaling

have done almost nothing to stop it. "

 

Although the Japanese have always defiantly refused to

accept the international whaling ban, despite world

opinion, it was not until about 1998 that they set out

on a deliberate course to take control of the

institution which brought it in.

 

They did so by a form of entryism - encouraging small,

poor countries to join the IWC, most of which had no

previous whaling tradition at all, and some of which -

such as Mali and Mongolia - did not even have a

coastline. In return, the new IWC members were given

multimillion-dollar aid packages.

 

The Japanese have targeted two groups of nations in

particular - states in west and north Africa, and

small states, often islands, in the Caribbean and the

Pacific. Largely as a result of this, the IWC, which

had 40 members in 2000, now has 66.

 

It is likely that the full total of supporting states

Japan has brought into the IWC since 1998 is 19; they

can all be shown to be clients of Japan by the

consistency of their IWC voting records. They can also

be shown to be in receipt of substantial Japanese

largesse.

 

For example, the Republic of Guinea, which joined the

IWC in 2000, in 2002 received $6.55m in Japanese aid

for construction of a fish market in Conakry, the

capital.

 

For small, often desperately poor nations, these are

sizeable and very tempting sums.

 

The end result has been a dramatic shift in the IWC

voting balance. Ten years ago, when there were 35

active member states, the pattern was 11 or 12 voting

with Japan and 22 or 23 opposed.

 

But by last year's IWC meeting at Ulsan in South

Korea, the Japanese had, on paper, a voting majority

of 33-30 of the 66 IWC members (three anti-whaling

member states, Peru, Kenya and Costa Rica, being

unable to vote because they are behind with their

subscriptions).

 

Yet four Japanese client states - Belize, Mali, Togo

and the Gambia - failed to turn up for the meeting,

and so the Japanese were voted down, much to their

anger.

 

Japan's leading representative at the meeting, Akira

Nakamae, said at the time: " Our side's supporters are

about to reach a majority soon.

 

" Some of you are so glad that some poor countries

could not attend this meeting.

 

" However, next year they will all participate, and the

reversal of history, the turning point, is soon to

come. "

 

An ineffective ban

 

* Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986 except

for " scientific " purposes.

 

* Norway resumed commercial whale hunting in 1993, and

Iceland followed in 2003.

 

* Despite widespread international opposition, Tokyo

plans to kill 1,070 minke whales this year, 400 more

than in 2005 and double the number it hunted a decade

ago.

 

* More than 2,000 whales are likely to be hunted by

Japan, Norway and Iceland this year in defiance of

world opinion.

 

* Japan's fleet is legally allowed to hunt about 1,000

whales a year for " research purposes " and since the

1986 ban it has killed more than 5,000 minke whales.

 

* Despite the pretence of killing the animals for

research, most of the meat is sold commercially.