Japanese Bribery Exposed by the Solomon Islands (Whale Killing issue)

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Japanese Bribery Exposed by the Solomon Islands

 

By Paul Watson,

 

www.seashepherd.org

 

 

Former Solomon Islands government officials have

admitted that Japan paid for the

island's pro-whaling vote at the International Whaling

Commission. The revelations came as a result of a

probe into the loss of millions of dollars from the

nation’s treasury.

 

The officials stated that Japan met the Solomon

Islands costs of attending International

Whaling Commission meetings, and provided pay-offs to

Solomon Island politicians and election contributions.

 

The Government of the Solomon Islands officially

admitted on July 17th that millions of dollars in cash

paid by Japan and other countries for fishing rights

made its way into the hands of island officials.

 

This revelation by the Solomon Islands exposes the lie

behind the claim by Japan's Institute for Cetacean

Research which earlier this year angrily rejected

accusations of buying votes.

 

 

The Solomon Islands voted with Japan to lift the

moratorium on commercial whaling at the commission

meeting in Ulsan, South Korea last month contrary to a

pledge by the country's Prime Minister, Sir Allan

Kemakeza, to Australia's Environment Minister,

Ian Campbell that they would not.

 

Japan's bid failed to reach a majority, let alone the

necessary three quarters, but the Solomon Island vote

angered Senator Campbell, who described it as " foul " .

Sir Allan is yet to decide whether to sack his

Fisheries Minister, Paul Maenu'u, who represented the

Solomon Islands at South Korea.

 

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and other

conservation groups have long complained about Japan's

vote-buying at the commission. It now has the support

of African, Caribbean and Pacific developing nations

which, on paper, gave it a majority at Ulsan.

 

Only the failure of several of these nations to arrive

for the meeting prevented Japan from winning a

majority.

 

Japan has repeatedly denied claims it buys votes and

has tried to have environmental groups that make such

claims thrown out of the commission.

 

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has repeatedly

accused Japan of bribing nations in the Caribbean,

Africa and the Pacific.

 

The appearance of Nauru and Kiribati at Ulsan,

alongside the Solomons and Tuvalu, heightened

Australian concerns about Japan's influence in the

Pacific. Diplomats from each of these nations have

denied that their votes had been bought by Japan.

 

Each of these tiny nations, for example Tuvalu with a

population of only 8,000 people has a vote equal to

Australia or the United States. If Japan can bribe and

recruit enough of these small countries they can

overturn the global moratorium on commercial whaling.

 

Former Solomons IWC commissioner, Albert Wata,

detailed the bribes from Japan.

 

" The Japanese pay the government subscriptions, " he

said. " They support the delegations to meetings, in

terms of meeting air fares and expenses.

 

His claim was backed by a former Solomon Islands

fisheries minister, Nelson Kile, who said Japan had

been paying the fees for a decade.

 

A spokesman for the Institute of Cetacean Research

said some people might be confused about who was

giving them assistance to attend meetings. " It isn't

actually the Japanese Government. You would be hard

pressed to find any link with the Japanese

Government. "

 

This is of course true. Japan is quite good at hiding

their corruption. It is only when the bribed nations

reveal the corruption that allows for the truth to be

revealed.

 

In addition to bribing small island nations, Japan is

funding the World Council for Whalers based in Port

Alberni, British Columbia, Canada to encourage

aboriginal whaling worldwide.

 

The Japanese have a global campaign to encourage the

escalation of whale killing ranging from the promotion

of aboriginal whaling to bribing poor nations for

their votes.

 

Japanese whaling ships are preparing for a massive

illegal whale slaughter in the Antarctic Whale

Sanctuary at the end of this year.

 

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society intends to

intercept this pirate whaling operation.

 

“Japan has become a lawless nation when it comes to

exploiting the world’s oceans and slaughtering

whales”, said Captain Paul Watson. In addition to

disregarding international conservation law, Japan is

now undermining the governments of small nations with

bribes to officials thus encouraging corruption and

scandal in these nations. We’ve seen the damage that

Japan has done in St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada,

the encouragement of corruption in exchange for votes

to kill whales. Now with the admission by the Solomon

Islands of what we have known all along, we call upon

the International Whaling Commission to investigate

the motivation behind each of these puppet nations in

joining the IWC.”