High seas 'violence' riles Japanese whalers

Japan has lashed out at anti-whaling activists, accusing them of piracy and threatening legal action against Japanese nationals engaged in Greenpeace protests.

In an open letter issued yesterday from Hiroshi Hatanaka, director-general of Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, protesters are accused of "violent activities" during clashes between the Japanese whaling fleet and Greenpeace inflatables in the Southern Ocean last week.

The institute is the body through which Japan carries out its so-called "scientific" whaling programme.

The letter also accuses Greenpeace of colluding with a "terrorist organisation", the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and calls the organisation "opinionated" and "self-righteous".

It threatens Japanese nationals involved in whaling protests with legal action under international piracy law.

"The data of Japanese Greenpeace activists engaged in the obstruction of Japan's whale research programme will be submitted to the authorities as evidence for indictment and criminal prosecution," it says.

The Japanese also accuse Greenpeace of co-operating with Sea Shepherd which, the letter says, engaged in "criminal and violent activity in the past".

"Sea Shepherd is a terrorist organisation, their members use threats of violence, sabotage and an open disregard for human life in furthering their cause."

But Greenpeace defended its tactics. Greenpeace Australia chief executive Steve Smallhorn welcomed any investigation into whether the group had breached maritime law.

When conditions permitted last week, protesters placed their inflatable boats between the harpoons and the whales, prompting the Japanese to spray them with fire hoses.

Since then the weather has deteriorated, halting the whale hunt.

Pia Mancia of Greenpeace New Zealand denied the group was linked with Sea Shepherd and said there was no mention of it on Greenpeace's website.

"We are two separate organisations - we wish them well, but we do not work with them.

"They are going down there, we can't stop them, but we hope they will work as safely as us."

The Greenpeace crews were all well-trained and equipped with safety gear, she said.

In a Christmas greeting to Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd crewmember Pawel Achtel of Australia quipped "We are not violent! We are collecting Japanese ship samples for scientific research," an apparent reference to Japan's contention that it only kills whales in Antarctica for scientific research.

Conservation Minister Chris Carter said last week that Japan's "research" whaling programme had been discredited by independent scientists.

Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986 under an International Whaling Commission (IWC) agreement.

But the moratorium is in danger of being overturned at next year's annual IWC meeting because Japan has been increasingly successful in persuading smaller IWC member nations to vote for a return to whaling.

It needs a three-quarters vote majority to overturn the whaling ban.

The activists have had a Christmas break for the past four days, when bad weather forced the Japanese fleet to suspend killings.

"However, the weather is clearing so we'll just keep our fingers crossed that we can continue to expose commercial whaling as much as we can," said Ms Mancia. "We'll be down there for the duration."