Japan asks Australia to take legal action on anti-whaling activists

Jan 22, 2008

Kyodo) _ Japan urged Australia in a ministerial meeting Tuesday to take legal action against two anti-whaling activists who boarded a Japanese whaling vessel in the Antarctic Ocean without permission and to take measures to prevent a recurrence, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura made the demands in talks with Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean in Tokyo, although the two also reaffirmed that the recent clashes over the whaling issue should not affect overall friendly bilateral relations, Press Secretary Kazuo Kodama said.

Separately, Crean met with Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari and reaffirmed the importance of the two countries cooperating closely on key economic issues, including efforts toward an early conclusion of the World Trade Organization Doha Round of liberalization talks, a Japanese trade ministry official said.

During their 30-minute meeting, Amari and Crean also exchanged views on issues related to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and negotiations for a free trade agreement between Japan and Australia, the official said.

But given that it was the first meeting between Amari and Crean, their discussion did not go into details, the official said.

On the whaling issue, Komura was quoted as telling Crean, who described it as a "sensitive" one, that the actions by the two Sea Shepherd Conservation Society members "trying to endanger the safety of our Japanese vessel was unacceptable" and requested that measures in accordance with Australian law be taken should the activists' boat call at an Australian port.

In response, Crean said the Australian Federal Police are investigating the case and that his government would decide on response measures based on the results, according to Kodama.

The two campaigners, an Australian and a Briton, of the U.S. civic group were temporarily detained after they boarded the Yushin Maru No. 2 last week, and were later turned over to an Australian customs ship.

Meanwhile, the interruption of a tanker's refueling of another Japanese whaling vessel in the Antarctic Ocean on Tuesday morning Japan time by a Greenpeace International boat was not taken up in the meeting between Komura and Crean.

Commercial whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission in 1986. But the whaling convention allows Japan to catch the mammals so long as it is for scientific purposes.

Crean, who was appointed trade minister in December, held the meetings with the Japanese ministers on his way to attend the World Economic Forum, which will begin Wednesday in the Swiss resort town of Davos.