Two anti-whaling activists that have been held hostage by Japanese whalers were released today, after the Australian government intervened.
The activists, members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, had boarded the Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru No.2 on Tuesday to deliver a letter. According to Environment News Serivce, the letter read in part:
“I am not boarding your ship with the intent to commit a crime, to rob you or to inflict injury upon your crew and yourself or damage to your ship. My reason for boarding is to deliver the message that you are in violation of international conservation law and in violation of the laws of Australia. It is my intent to deliver this message and then to request that you allow me to disembark from your vessel without harm or seizure.”
(As background, if you’ve heard of Sea Shepherd you know this wasn’t a touchy-feely symbolic letter. The group has rammed whaling ship, tossed debris into rudders, fired cream-pie cannons onto their decks, all in the name of obstructing what they say is illegal killing of whales).
Benjamin Potts, 28, and Giles Lane, 35, were transferred to an Australian vessel, the Oceanic Viking. According to a statement (and the video above), they were roughed up a bit when they boarded but otherwise weren’t harmed.
Gabriel Gonzalez, a spokesman for The Institute of Cetacean Research in Tokyo (the whalers, gotta love the misleading name) told The Telegraph that the two were initially tied up because they might have been carrying bombs or weapons.
“This is a terrorist organisation, let us be clear of that, and if they respond with aggressive tactics, who knows what might happen,” he said.
So let’s get this all straight. Two activists board a ship, with a letter of intent, because the whalers refused to respond to radio communications. Whalers rough them up, tie them up, and then Yasuaki Sasaki, the captain, makes a series of demands, including activists must stop filming the whalers’ activities and not come within 10 nautical miles of the whaling ship.
But the anti-whaling advocates are the terrorists?
This hypocrisy isn’t new (on a related note, a union called Greenpeace “terrorists” for using non-violence civil disobedience, and whalers have also rammed anti-whaling ships. But this case truly reaches new heights. Paul Watson summed it up pretty well in this interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:
ALI MOORE: If, of course, it does appear if the Government or the ‘Oceanic Viking’ does get in contact with you, you are prepared to cooperate?
PAUL WATSON: Oh, absolutely.
ALI MOORE: Whether or not the Japanese have attached conditions to that transfer?
PAUL WATSON: Oh well, I’m not going along with any conditions.
ALI MOORE: So if the previous condition that you halt all protest action is attached to this transfer via the ‘Oceanic Viking’ it’s not happening as far as you’re concerned?
PAUL WATSON: I don’t acquiesce to terrorist demands and that’s what that is. Holding hostages and making demands is a terrorist tactic.