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SYDNEY: An Australian customs ship was trying to end a high-seas
standoff in Antarctic waters Thursday by picking up two antiwhaling
activists held onboard a Japanese vessel, Foreign Minister Stephen
Smith said.
The government was prepared to use the Oceanic
Viking to transfer the pair from the Yushin Maru No 2 back to the
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel the Steve Irwin if all
sides cooperated, Smith said.
The two activists, Australian Benjamin Potts,
28, and Briton Giles Lane, 35, were detained Tuesday after boarding
the harpoon ship to protest Japan’s whaling program.
Australia, which is one of the strongest critics
of Japanese whaling, last week sent the Oceanic Viking to the area
to monitor the operation and gather evidence for a possible
international legal challenge.
Smith said the Oceanic Viking was trying to
contact the two vessels to enable a transfer as soon as possible.
Japan earlier welcomed Australia’s proposal to
send a ship to pick up the two men.
“If concrete, Japan would greatly welcome such
a move because it would be one step forward in resolving this
problem,” Hideki Moronuki, the whaling chief at the Fisheries
Agency said.
Smith said that as the Sea Shepherd had asked
for assistance he expected full cooperation from the crew of the
Steve Irwin.
He refused to discuss the legality of the two
captive men’s actions but said he did believe “restraint has
been lacking.”
He said he would not condone any unlawful
activity. “I not only don’t condone it, I absolutely condemn
it.”
Sea Shepherd founder and Steve Irwin captain
Paul Watson told Australian radio earlier he welcomed the
possibility that the activists could be returned to a third party,
such as the Australian government.
-- AFP
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