Japan says its whaling ship attacked by activists
Posted: 03 March 2008 1219 hrs

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TOKYO: Militant environmentalists hurled a stinging acid onto a Japanese whaling ship off Antarctica, hurting four crew members, the Japanese government said Monday.

Members of the campaign group Sea Shepherd threw brown envelopes containing butyric acid from their own vessel onto the Japanese ship Nisshin Maru, said Vice Foreign Minister Itsunori Onodera.

Butyric acid is a white powder that stings the eyes.

"The butyric acid powder hit two crew members and two Japanese coast guard officers, who complained of pain," Onodera said.

Activists from the US-based Sea Shepherd had also hurled bottles onto the Japanese whaler in January. Two activists, a Briton and an Australian, hopped onto the vessel then, setting off a two-day standoff.

Onodera revealed the incident as he addressed a seminar with officials from 11 developing states that have recently joined or plan to join the deadlocked International Whaling Commission.

Japan is holding the meeting to win support for its position that the international body should allow "sustainable whaling."

Western nations, led by Australia, strongly oppose Japan's whaling.

The countries taking part in the seminar are Angola, Cambodia, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ghana, Laos, Malawi, Palau, Tanzania and Vanuatu, the foreign ministry said.

Micronesia was invited but did not attend, officials said.

Japan, which kills up to 1,000 whales a year, says whaling is part of its culture, and accuses anti-whaling countries of insensitivity.

It harpoons whales using a loophole in a 1986 global moratorium on whaling that allows "lethal research" on the giant mammals, although the meat often ends up on Japanese dinner plates.

Environmentalists accuse Japan of buying votes in the International Whaling Commission by roping in countries that receive Japanese aid and have little tradition of whaling. - AFP/ac