Whaling Row Follows<IPS, May 3(1)
投稿者： tom44 投稿日時： 2002/05/09 00:35 投稿番号： [1650 / 62227]
Whaling Row Follows Koizumi to Australia, New Zealand
Fri May 3, 8:26 AM ET
Bob Burton,Inter Press Service
CANBERRA, May 3 (IPS) - The just-finished visit to New Zealand and Australia by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, aimed at discussing trade issues, was dogged by protests against Tokyo's push at the current International Whaling Commission (news - web sites) (IWC) meeting for a resumption of commercial whaling.
While Koizumi's tour was intended to focus on mutual trading opportunities, wherever he went in Australia and New Zealand he was dogged by protests over Japan's policy on whaling.
"Koizumi san, save face, stop whaling," read banners held by Greenpeace protesters at his Wellington hotel on Thursday night. He visited New Zealand from Sydney and was returning to Tokyo Friday.
At the scheduled one-hour meeting with Koizumi on Thursday night, New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark said would encouraged him to support the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary proposal.
"I don't expect instant conversion on that," Clark, who has previously called Japan's 'research whaling' ''commercial whaling disguise'', told reporters.
Koizumi told the media that while the protection of wildlife was important to the Japanese government, it should be undertaken on a scientific basis. "We are fully aware of New Zealand's position regarding whaling ... but this position will not impede the good relations we have between our two countries," he said.
Japan is waging a vigorous lobbying campaign to overturn the 16- year-old ban on commercial whaling at annual meeting of the IWC. Japan gave up commercial whaling in 1986 after an international moratorium on it. It turned to "research whaling'' the next year.
While preliminary committee meetings of the commission are already underway in the Japanese port city of Shimonoseki southwest of Tokyo, the final deliberations will not begin until May 20.
Earlier this week, the New Zealand government released the joint submission by Australia and New Zealand to the forthcoming IWC meeting that argued for the declaration of a South Pacific Whale Sanctuary to protect the migratory whales that were mercilessly hunted over the last century.
Fri May 3, 8:26 AM ET
Bob Burton,Inter Press Service
CANBERRA, May 3 (IPS) - The just-finished visit to New Zealand and Australia by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, aimed at discussing trade issues, was dogged by protests against Tokyo's push at the current International Whaling Commission (news - web sites) (IWC) meeting for a resumption of commercial whaling.
While Koizumi's tour was intended to focus on mutual trading opportunities, wherever he went in Australia and New Zealand he was dogged by protests over Japan's policy on whaling.
"Koizumi san, save face, stop whaling," read banners held by Greenpeace protesters at his Wellington hotel on Thursday night. He visited New Zealand from Sydney and was returning to Tokyo Friday.
At the scheduled one-hour meeting with Koizumi on Thursday night, New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark said would encouraged him to support the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary proposal.
"I don't expect instant conversion on that," Clark, who has previously called Japan's 'research whaling' ''commercial whaling disguise'', told reporters.
Koizumi told the media that while the protection of wildlife was important to the Japanese government, it should be undertaken on a scientific basis. "We are fully aware of New Zealand's position regarding whaling ... but this position will not impede the good relations we have between our two countries," he said.
Japan is waging a vigorous lobbying campaign to overturn the 16- year-old ban on commercial whaling at annual meeting of the IWC. Japan gave up commercial whaling in 1986 after an international moratorium on it. It turned to "research whaling'' the next year.
While preliminary committee meetings of the commission are already underway in the Japanese port city of Shimonoseki southwest of Tokyo, the final deliberations will not begin until May 20.
Earlier this week, the New Zealand government released the joint submission by Australia and New Zealand to the forthcoming IWC meeting that argued for the declaration of a South Pacific Whale Sanctuary to protect the migratory whales that were mercilessly hunted over the last century.
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