Japanese whalers to release hostages

By Lauren Williams

January 16, 2008 09:05am

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...ml?from=mostpop

 

JAPAN has agreed to release two anti-whaling activists who were taken hostage and tied to a mast in freezing conditions after a high seas clash in Antarctic waters.

 

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Japan had agreed to release Benjamin Potts, 28, of Sydney, and Giles Lane, 35, from Britain, after the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and embassy officials in Tokyo approached the Japanese government.

 

"Late last night I was advised the Japanese had agreed to this and they had instructed the relevant whaling ship to return the men to the Steve Irwin," he told ABC radio.

 

"The most important thing here is the safety and welfare of the two men concerned and we do as the Australian government want their immediate release.

 

"My most recent advice, which is in the last hour, is that that transfer has not yet occurred and I'm calling upon both parties, both the Steve Irwin and Sea Shepherd and the Japanese whaling vessel, to effect immediately their safe return of the two men concerned."

 

The two crew members of the Sea Shepherd protest ship Steve Irwin were tied to the radar mast of Japanese harpoon vessel Yushin Maru after the pair tried to hand over a petition calling for an end to whaling.

 

The drama on the high seas unfolded shortly after 6.30pm last night when the two men tried to board the ship. A scuffle ensued before the pair was taken hostage and tied to the mast.

 

Captain of the Steve Irwin, Paul Watson said the two men were assaulted as they climbed aboard.

"They tried to throw Benjamin overboard before they tied him up,'' Mr Watson said.

 

The pair boarded the ship after the Japanese crew failed to respond to radio contact from the Steve Irwin.

 

Last night's act of piracy came just hours after a landmark Federal Court ruling that ordered Japanese Government-backed whaler Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd out of the Australian Whale Sanctuary in Antarctic waters, ruling it unlawfully slaughtered and harmed "a significant number'' of minke, fin and humpback whales.

 

"Unless restrained it will continue to kill, injure, take and interfere with them, and treat and possess them,'' Justice Jim Allsop said.

 

As anti-whaling campaigners were celebrating yesterday's historic ruling, the Sea Shepherd was in hot pursuit of five Japanese whaling vessells before intercepting the Yushin Maru.

 

Mr Watson said the Sea Shepherd had "put radio calls in, in Japanese and English, informing them they were in violation of international law.

 

"When they failed to respond, we deployed the inflatable,'' he told The Daily Telegraph.

 

Six crew members - including Mr Potts and Mr Lane - drove a 6m inflatable next to the Japanese vessel to deliver a letter of protest.

 

But the pair were seized after they tried to climb on board the Japanese ship. As the siege unfolded last night, the Sea Shepherd helicopter kept watch over the two hostages.

 

"They gave us the thumbs up to indicate that they were OK,'' Mr Watson said.

 

"This has now escalated to an international incident involving the citizens of two different countries.

"If that isn't enough to make the Australian Government act then I don't know what is.''

 

Spokeswoman for Sea Shepherd Kristine Vasic said she had contacted the men's families, informing them the pair were being held against their will.

 

"The families have no statement to make at this stage,''Ms Vasic said.

 

She said Sea Shepherd had informed the Australian Federal Police and the British Embassy.

 

Sea Shepherd located the Japanese chaser ship and refuelling vessel Oriental Bluebird at about 3.30pm yesterday, outside the designated Australian Whale Sanctuary, northwest of the Antarctic landmass. They had been searching for more than two weeks.

 

Yesterday, spokesman for the Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR) - which has been overseeing the whaling operation -Glenn Inwood warned of an incident if Sea Shepherd made contact with the whaling fleet.

 

"Any damage in the Antarctic would be greatly increased if (the Sea Shepherd) makes contact,'' Mr Inwood said.

 

"(It) is greatly unpredictable.''

 

I think that this is horrid. The Japanese were whaling in an Australian Whale Sanctuary and then proceeded to kidnap 2 Australians.

In what way do anti-whaling activists have any right to go aboard any ship, whether the Japanese ship was in Australian waters or not? O.o

 

 

In what way do anti-whaling activists have any right to go aboard any ship, whether the Japanese ship was in Australian waters or not? O.o

 

I agree that the protestors shouldn't have been there, instead it should have been the navy who showed up to force the ship out of our waters.

 

I mean the Australian government has ruled that they don't want any whaling ships in our waters and they have given the navy the right to impose this new law which is why I think that sending protest boats instead was very stupid. Its not like im blaming all of Japan, it just seems that it was this one ship that didn't seem to care, and to take hostages is even worse.

It's a case of both sides being in the wrong here.. The Japanese whalers were totally wrong to stray into Australian territorial waters, but the activists were also wrong to board a vessel registered to another country unauthorised... If anyone should have been stopping the Japanese from whaling where they shoudn't, it should have been the Aussie navy who would have the authority to enter a vessel and, if need be, impound that vessel if any evidence of illegal activity was found....

Greenpeace have been on their tails during the whole fiasco.

The Japanese say they want to kill the whales for scientific research when it's been proven that the whale ends up in restaurants where it's a delicacy and it fetches a lot of $$$$.

 

They have been doing this for decades.

 

The fact that they have murdered whales in waters where they shouldn't be just proves how arrogant the Japanese are on this issue.

 

 

Japan should hang their heads in shame at the barbaric way they continue to hunt an endangered species for their own selfish greed.

 

I'd quite happily welcome a ban on ALL Japanese imports here and I would never, ever visit this country, or Canada, whilst their animal rights laws are so many years behind the rest of the civilised world.

 

The whale-hunters disgust me to the pit of my stomach. Absolutely unforgiveably vile.

Japan should hang their heads in shame at the barbaric way they continue to hunt an endangered species for their own selfish greed.

 

I'd quite happily welcome a ban on ALL Japanese imports here and I would never, ever visit this country, or Canada, whilst their animal rights laws are so many years behind the rest of the civilised world.

 

The whale-hunters disgust me to the pit of my stomach. Absolutely unforgiveably vile.

 

couldnt agree more m8......