Detained antiwhaling activist in good health: Okada+

TOKYO, Feb. 19 Kyodo -
An antiwhaling activist from New Zealand who has been detained since boarding a
Japanese vessel in the Antarctic Ocean is in good health, Japanese Foreign
Minister Katsuya Okada said Friday.

The New Zealand Embassy in Tokyo confirmed by telephone how Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society activist Pete Bethune is doing on board the Japanese
vessel Shonan Maru No. 2, which is bringing him to Japan for questioning.
The telephone talks took place Thursday night, Okada told a regular press
conference, adding that Bethune has been given a private room and a certain
freedom of movement while being placed under watch.
The conservationist boarded the Japanese whaling fleet's security vessel on
Monday and is suspected of having injured some Japanese crew members by
throwing bottles of butyric acid on Feb. 11.
Meanwhile, Okada said that he ''welcomes'' Togo's decision to remove the Togo
registry of one of the Sea Shepherd's ships, the Bob Barker.
Losing registry could mean that the ship will face difficulties in making port
calls, according to a Japanese Foreign Ministry official.
Okada reiterated the Japanese government's position that Japan's ''research
whaling'' is legal and that he would like to exchange opinions with Australian
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the issue during his visit to Australia from
Saturday.
Rudd told a local television Friday that Australia will initiate legal action
with the aim of suspending such whaling by Japan before the commencement of the
whaling season in November 2010, if diplomatic talks do not lead Japan to cease
its whaling activities.
Japan halted commercial whaling in 1986 in line with an international
moratorium but has been hunting whales since 1987 for what it says are
scientific purposes, which some environmentalists condemn as a cover for
commercial whaling.
==Kyodo
2010-02-19 22:31:16