Arrest warrant for Nottingham whaling activist
JAPAN has issued an arrest warrant for a Nottingham man over alleged damage to its whaling fleet.
In an action described as "petty", Japanese police want to place Daniel Bebawi, 28, and two Americans on an international wanted list.
The activists from conservation group Sea Shepherd are accused of damaging the propeller of Japanese whaler the Kaiko Maru in the Antarctic in February, 2007.
But Mr Bebawi, who lives in Nottingham city centre, is not taking the threat seriously.
"They are just messing about really. It's a face-saving political exercise," he said. "It's for the Japanese public more than anything else. I don't think Interpol will take it seriously."
Sea Shepherd's UK spokesman Darren Collis said he believed the warrants were issued in retaliation for the anti-whaling group's success in disrupting Japan's whale hunt in the Southern Ocean last year.
Mr Collis, who on a Sea Shepherd vessel at the time of the incident, said: "It's pure retaliation for preventing them from killing over a thousand whales and costing them a huge amount of money.
"It's a very petty action."
Mr Bebawi maintained that his actions as an activist for Sea Shepherd were legal.
The Japanese government claims the whales where being hunted for research, which is legal, but Mr Bebawi says they were being sold for meat and the hunts were illegal.
"I know what they are alleging but I don't think they've got any evidence," he said. "We enforce the law, they are the ones who act illegally."
"They are just trying to distract everybody from what's going on."
Mr Bebawi only became aware of the allegation after being contacted by a Japanese journalist.
He said: "The police haven't been in touch at all and I'm pretty sure they won't be."
The Japanese government has labelled the conservation group "terrorists" for the direct action campaigners have taken against the whaling fleet in recent years.
Nobutaka Machimura, the Japanese government's chief spokesman, said: "Regardless of a difference of opinion, it is unacceptable that those who are involved in whaling get injured... or face life-threatening dangers."
Sea Shepherd says its strategies and tactics are designed to avoid physical injury to the whalers.
The warrants relate to clashes when the anti-whaling group's boat and the whaling vessel collided twice in the Antarctic near a pod of whales.
Earlier this year, there were further clashes between whalers and the conservation group, in which another Briton was held on a whaling ship.
Japan kills around 1,000 whales each winter as part of its annual "scientific programme". Although the slaughter is allowed under International Whaling Commission (IWC) rules, Japan's actions have drawn international condemnation – including from the British Government.
In June, Sea Shepherd announced plans to disrupt the 2008/2009 hunt, pledging to "sink the Japanese fleet economically".
Comments
by Miss Rainbow, Derbyshire
Tuesday, August 19 2008, 5:53PM
“Sea Shepherd's, Darren Collis is right when he says Japan is retaliating for the successful disruption of its whale hunt. Sea Shepherd was only doing what civilized governments should have been doing if they had stuck to their principles.
The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary was established in 1994 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and every year since then it has condemned Japan for continuing to whale under the guise of "scientific research". Japan is also breaking international maritime laws that require all nations to co-operate with "appropriate international organisations" for the conservation of whales.
Not only was Japan condemned by the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and most other major nations, for whaling in the Southern Ocean, but an Australian Federal Court ruled Japanese whaling in the Antarctic illegal, and declared the Japanese in contravention of Australian environment protection legislation by whaling in the Australian whale sanctuary. The Australian government considered sending navy vessels to stop the whaling, but drew back because it did not want to damage trade relations with Japan.
The Japanese Fisheries Agency claims it is acting in defence of Japanese culture, with the support of its people, yet most Japanese people have little knowledge of what is being done in their name and with their money. A recent poll shows that 69 per cent of Japanese people don't support whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary, and 87 per cent were unaware that their tax money was being used to subsidise the whaling.
Japan ignores all legal and ethical appeals to stop whaling. Only direct action, like Sea Shepherd¿s, will prevail. And Japan resents the fact that someone is finally hindering their brutal, illegal activities.”