JAPAN'S PUSH FOR SECRET BALLOTS SETS DANGEROUS PRECEDENT

JAPAN'S PUSH FOR SECRET BALLOTS SETS DANGEROUS PRECEDENT
Harare, Zimbabwe 13 June, 1997
Japan showed that it intends to bury the principle of transparency when it forced two secret ballots at the CITES meeting here today, Greenpeace said.
Japan forced a secret vote on its proposal to delink CITES from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) - a resolution which would have jeopardised the current commercial whaling moratorium.
Many of the countries mentioned in recent press reports as recipients of significant Japanese aid funding, spoke in support of the resolution and voted for the secret ballot.
Almost at the same time in another committee, Japan pushed successfully for a secret ballot on a proposal to set up a Marine Fish Working Group. Japan strongly opposed the working group proposal and the secret vote squashed it.
While the conference roundly rejected the CITES-IWC delinking resolution (51-27), Greenpeace said the secret ballot push had set a dangerous precedent for the remaining week of the conference during which Japanese proposals for the downlisting of three whale species are to be discussed.
While the debates raged in Harare, Norway - which spoke in support of Japan?s resolution to change the CITES-IWC relationship yesterday - continued to kill whales in the North Sea and the North-East Atlantic.
According to the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries, Norway has caught 219 Minke whales as of June 10, 1997. At this rate, Norway will catch all of its self-assigned quota of 580 whales by the end of the season.
'In their continuing desire to kill whales in defiance of world opinion, Japan and Norway seem willing to subvert long-held principles of transparency and compliance with international conventions', said Isabel McCrea, the head of Greenpeace?s delegation at CITES.
'Whaling leads Norway and Japan into very murky waters indeed.' She said the rejection of the Marine Fish Working Group meant that CITES had missed an opportunity to pave the way for efficient conservation measures at a time when fish species are under constant threat from international trade.

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Contact Greenpeace in Harare: +263-4-111-601450.