STAGE SET FOR DISPUTE OVER WHALES
Japan fails again to have Greenpeace expelled from an International Treaty meeting

10 April 2000

NAIROBI/AMSTERDAM -- On the opening day of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Nairobi, Kenya, Japan led its campaign to resume commercial whaling by trying to have Greenpeace expelled from the meeting.

Japan wrongly accused Greenpeace of ramming the Japanese whaling factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, whilst taking non violent direct action to protect whales from the illegal Japanese hunt in the protected waters of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in December 1999 and January 2000.

"Not only is Japan is trying to dodge responsibility for ramming the Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, but it is now attempting to curb the right to peaceful protest against illegal whaling. Its attempts to pull a veil of secrecy over its strategy to resume international trade in whale meat and blubber must not be tolerated," said Greenpeace spokesperson, John Frizell.

Japan previously attempted to have Greenpeace removed from the International Whaling Commission meeting in May 1999, a move that was overwhelmingly rejected. The CITES Secretariat intervened in today's attempt, pointing out that activities outside the meeting are not relevant to observer status at CITES.

Greenpeace has protested on numerous occasions the ramming of the Greenpeace vessel, the Arctic Sunrise the whaling vessel, the Nisshin Maru, in the Antarctic. It has officially complained to the owners of the Japanese ship in question, Kyodo Sempaku. The incident sparked a heated diplomatic row between Japan and New Zealand when Prime Minister, Helen Clarke, intervened in the whaling protest in January 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Greenpeace International Press Desk on +(254) 72 52 6285 or + 31 20 5249 515

Follow the CITES conference on the web: www.greenpeace.org/~oceans/cites/