Greenpeace
denounces charges as disproportionate and
politically motivated
11 July 2008 - Aomori, Japan — Our Japanese
activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were
charged with theft and trespass today by
the prosecutor in Aomori after they exposed
a major scandal around the embezzlement
of whale meat from the Japanese government-sponsored
Southern Ocean whaling programme.
Junichi and Toru continue
to be held in detention in Aomori, where
they have been since their arrest on June
10th, despite widespread international protest.
They exposed the whale-meat embezzlement
scandal on May 15th, when they presented
a box of whale meat stolen by crew of Japan's
so-called "scientific whaling"
fleet to the Tokyo Public Prosecutor. A
dossier documenting how the box was intercepted
during the four month long Greenpeace investigation
was also submitted to the Tokyo Public Prosecutor.
The scam, in which prime
cuts of whale meat are smuggled off the
ship by crew members and sold outside official
channels – for personal profit, appears
to have been running for years, with the
full awareness of the officials that conduct
the whaling expeditions.
"Instead of prosecuting
peaceful protesters and those who exposed
crimes within the whaling programme, the
government of Japan should revoke all Southern
Ocean whaling permits, release the activists
and order an immediate and independent investigation
into the embezzlement scandal."
Gerd Leipold, Executive Director, Greenpeace
International
However, it appears
that powerful forces within Japan's government
don't want scrutiny of the whaling industry.
On the day the activists were arrested,
the Public Prosecutor dropped the investigation
into the whaling industry, claiming there
was insufficient evidence to pursue charges
against any of the crew or whaling officials.
Also, on the day the
activists were arrested, more than 40 police
officers raided the offices of Greenpeace
Japan - watched by the media, who had been
tipped off by the police - and spent ten
hours seizing cell phones, documents, and
computers. Given that we had already submitted
a dossier detailing how the box was taken
and why, and promised our full support with
any investigation, a simple phone call would
have been enough to bring Junichi and Toru
to the police station.
"From the beginning
it has been clear that the arrest and detention
of the Junichi and Toru has been politically
motivated, and that powerful forces within
the Japanese establishment are attempting
to silence legitimate peaceful protest,
in order to protect the so-called scientific
whaling programme," said Gerd Leipold,
Greenpeace International Executive Director.
"We have exposed
a scandal at the heart of the whaling programme,
involving embezzlement of valuable cuts
of whale meat, and we have highlighted the
massive waste of Japanese taxpayers' money
on the annual so-called scientific hunt
in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,"
he continued.
"Instead of prosecuting
peaceful protesters and those who exposed
crimes within the whaling programme, the
government of Japan should revoke all Southern
Ocean whaling permits, release the activists
and order an immediate and independent investigation
into the embezzlement scandal."
There's been massive
global reaction to the arrest of Junichi
and Toru. Some 30 environmental and human
rights organizations have either put their
names to an NGO (Non-Governmental Organsiation)
statement of protest, or sent letters of
support, including Amnesty International,
the Lawyers Network for Human Rights Observation,
International Fund for Animal Welfare, InArticle
19, Transparency International, Oceana,
Ubuntu, and Oxfam. A network of Japanese
lawyers has called the arrests a "violation
of human rights", and "a challenge
to the freedom of expression in Japan".
Almost quarter of a
million of you have sent letters to the
Japanese Government calling for the release
of Junichi and Toru and demanding a full
investigation into the whale meat embezzlement
scandal. Protests have been held outside
Japanese embassies and consulates in 35
cities across 30 countries.
We're still working hard to get Junichi
and Toru out of detention, so if you haven't
written to the Japanese government yet,
please do so!
The investigation
Our four-month undercover
investigation revealed evidence of an embezzlement
ring involving crew members on board the
Nisshin Maru, who were openly taking the
best cuts of whale meat during the so-called
scientific hunt, smuggling it ashore disguised
as personal luggage and then passing it
to traders for illegal sales and personal
profit.
Working from information
given by former and current Kyodo Senpaku
employees, we documented the off-loading
of smuggled whale meat into a special truck,
in full view of Kyodo Senpaku officials
and crew members when the Nisshin Maru docked
on April 15th, this year.
The consignment was
documented by our team once it left the
ship and tracked to a depot in Tokyo. One
of four boxes destined for the same private
address was then intercepted in order to
verify the contents and establish the fraud.
The consignment notes
claimed the box contained "cardboard"
but in reality it held 23.5kg of salted
'prime' whale meat, worth up to US$3,000.
One informer told Greenpeace that dozens
of crew take as many as 20 boxes each. One
crewmember was overheard to claim he had
built a house on the proceeds from his whale-meat
sales over the years.
+ More
Australian smokestack
occupied for 33 hours
14 July 2008 - Queensland,
Australia — Over the weekend, four activists
from Greenpeace Australia occupied the top
of a 140-metre high smokestack for 33 hours
enduring near freezing temperatures overnight.
They began the two-hour descent yesterday,
at Swanbank B coal fired power plant near
Brisbane, leaving a message for Australia's
leaders - "Go Solar!"- painted
on the side of the smoke stack.
Upon descending, Greenpeace
energy campaigner Julien Vincent, who was
part of the climbing team, said they sent
the message that the situation is urgent
and we have to act fast on climate change.
This means revolutionising the way Australia
generates energy.
The activists climbed
the stack at dawn on Friday, 11 July and
spent a night up the top in near-freezing
temperatures.
Why did we do this?
We did this to get the message out that
Australia urgently needs to cut greenhouse
gas emissions. They must start replacing
old and dirty coal fired power stations,
like this one at Swanbank, with true clean
renewable energy, like solar. It is tragic
that Queensland, with the best solar resources
in the world, is not a leader in the booming
global renewable energy industry.
The activists’ occupation of the 37-year-old
Swanbank B coal-fired plant began at 5.30am
on Friday 11 July. Of 13 activists who entered
the plant yesterday morning, nine were arrested
before they started climbing the stack.
The remaining four were arrested after 33
hours up top of the major climate changer.
Swanbank B is responsible
for more than two million tonnes of carbon
emissions a year - that's the annual pollution
of 300,000 cars.
The world's best solar
resource
If every home in Queensland switched to
solar water heating, Swanbank B could be
switched off. We want a commitment from
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to
close Swanbank by the next election.
Australia is way behind
many other countries in developing renewable
energy. In the next 18 months Spain will
roll out enough solar thermal power to replace
Swanbank B power station four times over.
If Australia makes the right choices it
could become a powerhouse for renewable
energy manufacturing and technological development,
creating thousands of new jobs and investment
opportunities.
The Australian Government’s
climate change advisor, Professor Ross Garnaut,
says that if Australians do not successfully
combat climate change, theGreat Barrier
Reef will die and they will lose 50,000
jobs and $5 billion in tourism dollars each
year.
Jobs in coal can be
replaced by jobs in renewable energy. There
is no way to replace the Great Barrier Reef.
+ More
Eiffel Tower anti-nuclear
protest
13 July 2008 - Paris,
France — French state nuclear company Areva
sponsored a ring of golden European Union
stars for the Eiffel Tower, to mark France's
term as EU president. Today, we added a
nuclear hazard symbol.
“The fact that Areva
is sponsoring the EU stars on the Eiffel
Tower gives a pretty clear indication about
Sarkozy’s agenda for the EU presidency,"
said Frédéric Mareiller, Greenpeace
France nuclear campaigner.
Since coming into power
in May 2007, President Nicolas Sarkozy has
been aggressively promoting nuclear energy,
and attempting to sell French reactors at
every turn. His government has signed agreements
on nuclear exports and cooperation with
nine Mediterranean and Middle East countries
in the last year.
It took fifteen Greenpeace
France activists to hang the nuclear symbol
in the middle of the EU stars - as the Union
for the Mediterranean summit, organized
by Sarkozy, started in Paris today.
France's nuclear folly
Sarkozy is desperately
trying to sell the French designed European
Pressurised Reactor (EPR), the flagship
of the so-called “nuclear renaissance” despite
the fact that the only construction attempts
of the EPR, in Finland and France have been
disastrous.
The Finnish Olkiluoto
3 reactor is two and a half years behind
schedule, and costs have doubled to just
short of €5 billion. The French nuclear
safety authority shut down the French construction
site after just 6 months due to chronic
safety problems.
Last week, a uranium
leak contaminated two rivers in Southern
France. Swimming, fishing and drinking local
well-water was banned after roughly 30 cubic
metres of liquid containing uranium leaked
out of a tank.
Over 80 percent of Frances
electricity production is from nuclear power.
Nuclear energy undermines
the solutions to climate change by diverting
urgently needed resources away from the
true renewable and energy efficiency solutions.
Our Energy [R]evolution blueprint shows
that renewable energy, and greater energy
efficiency can deliver half of the world’s
energy needs by 2050, without nuclear power.
