(JP) IWC Wrap-up

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http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002052500239.html

 

Straight talk:Some say the IWC has become an

irrelevant forum.

 

By JUN SAITO, The Asahi Shimbun

 

``The U.S. should feel the same pain that Japan has

felt for the past 15 years.'' MASAYUKI KOMATSU

Japanese negotiator

 

SHIMONOSEKI-If you likened the International Whaling

Commission (IWC) annual meeting to a boxing match, you

would have seen a lot of jabs and bruised egos-but no

knockout punch.

 

The weeklong meeting ended Friday without signs of

visible progress and doubts about the commission's

ability to get anything done.

 

As in past years, the conference became a

battleground: Such are the emotions raised by the

issue that those for and against whaling engaged in

traditional mud-slinging matches. Delegates from the

45 member nations had little time for anything else.

 

The result? When the conference kicked off Monday, the

writing was already on the wall. The first order of

business was dealing with Iceland, a pro-whaling

nation, which sought re-entry into the IWC. Debate on

this was acrimonious, and Iceland lost the round.

 

It went downhill from there.

 

Iceland stormed out of the meeting the next day with a

parting shot by Stefan Asmundsson, the country's

commissioner to the IWC. Some other entity is needed

to discuss whaling issues, he fumed.

 

Japan made clear it feels the same.

 

``When we look outside of the IWC, the sustainable use

of whale resources has already been approved by a

majority of the members of the Food and Agricultural

Organization,'' noted Joji Morishita, a senior

official of the Fisheries Agency.

 

Even so, Japanese officials saw a glimmer of hope.

 

They said Japan's position-its readiness to resume

commercial whaling in a sustainable way-is gradually

being understood.

 

Japanese officials cited the IWC's rejection Thursday

of a joint U.S.-Russian proposal to renew a five-year

catch quota of 280 whales for indigenous peoples. They

contended it was evidence that Japan's position is

gaining ground.

 

Japan, as it turned out, voted against the U.S.-Russia

proposal. It apparently was a revenge of sorts for

earlier rejection of Japan's bid to resume limited

coastal whaling, although Tokyo backed up its cause

with scientific explanations.

 

``The United States should feel the same pain that

Japan has felt for the past 15 years,'' said Masayuki

Komatsu, a key Japanese negotiator, referring to

Japan's repeated efforts, all failed, to get approval

for limited coastal whaling.

 

The aboriginal whaling issue dominated proceedings,

making it impossible for the conference to fully

address other key topics such as Japan's hopes of

accepting a scientific framework for sustainable

whaling.

 

The IWC is expected to convene a commissioners'

meeting before next year's annual meeting in Berlin to

save the next IWC meet from being further bogged down.

 

 

Lamenting the lack of meaningful progress at the IWC

conference, Rolland Schmitten, the U.S. commissioner

to the IWC, fired a shot across the bows, calling the

meeting ``a political game that is being played, and

right now, it's a political game that is denying

people being fed.''

 

In the absence of meaningful progress, analysts said

there appears to be no prospect for a resumption of

commercial whaling following the moratorium that was

imposed in 1982.

 

This year's meeting was further evidence the

``organization can no longer come up with specific

solutions to the whaling issue,'' said Kumao Kaneko,

president of the Japan Council on Energy, Environment

and Security, a private research institute.

 

``Just as pro-whaling countries like Japan are said to

have campaigned to have more pro-whaling nations join

the IWC to gain power this year, the anti-whaling

nations will do the same thing next year,'' Kaneko

said. ``This vicious circle may continue, which means

both sides will never achieve the mandatory

three-quarters support during voting on important

issues.''

 

Kaneko, a former diplomat on energy and environmental

policy, said Japan's insistence on resuming commercial

whaling could harm Japan's national interests in the

long run.

 

``What the Japanese delegation has kept arguing is

based on scientific data. But to say the right thing

is one thing, and to produce results beneficial to the

country is another.

 

``Japan has been at odds with other Western nations

over environment policy and the use of natural

resources. If the Fisheries Agency remains rigid and

Japanese people become excessively nationalistic on

whaling, we might lose more important national

interests,'' he warned.

 

* * * An unproductive week at the IWC annual

conference

 

May 20

 

*IWC general meeting opens.

 

*Iceland, a pro-whaling nation, loses bid for re-entry

to IWC.

 

May 21

 

*IWC votes down Japan's proposal to allow local

communities to catch 50 minke whales in coastal

waters.

 

*IWC votes down proposal by Australia and New Zealand

to create a whale sanctuary in the South Pacific

Ocean.

 

*IWC votes down proposal by Brazil to create a whale

sanctuary in the South Atlantic Ocean.

 

May 22

 

*Pro- and anti-whaling camps heatedly debate issue of

aboriginal subsistence whaling without reaching

agreement.

 

May 23

 

*IWC votes down proposal to renew subsistence whaling

permits for aboriginal peoples in the United States

and Russia.

 

*IWC votes down Japan's proposal for completion of the

Revised Management Scheme (RMS)-a framework for

sustainable whaling based on scientific data.

 

*Anti-whaling camp's proposal on RMS is also voted

down.

 

May 24

 

*A revised U.S.-Russian proposal to allow their Arctic

indigenous peoples to catch bowhead whales is voted

down.(IHT/Asahi: May 25,2002)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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