There’s a certain type of coward we all know who, when effectively exposed, and fueled by hidden shame, often with a great display of schadenfreude, doubles down on the source of his disgrace. If nations may be said to follow that same pattern, then in regard to its terrorizing and killing of whales, Japan is surely one of them. There is no reason for Denmark to besmirch itself by enabling Japanese lawlessness and barbarity.
[For more information, visit Paul Watson Arrested - ACTIONS to take]
On August 24, 2024 I emailed the following letter to the Danish Minister of Justice:
Peter Hummelgaard
The Ministry of Justice
Slotsholmsgade 10
1216 Copenhagen
[email protected]
August 24, 2024
Dear Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard,
This is a plea for the release of Captain Paul Watson from Anstalten Prison
and for a nullifying of the request to extradite him to Japan where he’d be
certain to face an unfair trial with the risk of as much as fifteen years in
a Japanese prison that would be far from the enlightened Anstalten model.
The Japanese, currently reported to be slaughtering beautiful, endangered
fin whales in the North Pacific with their slaughter factory, the Kangei
Maru, a vile undertaking they began only ten days after Paul Watson's
arrest, are in defiance of international law and, indeed, the entire
international community, which is increasingly up in arms over Japan's rogue
whaling practices.
There is no excuse for hunting whales. The Japanese public largely rejects
it. Their young overwhelmingly avoid whale flesh, which, in any case, is
full of toxins. The old Japanese tradition of eating the bodies of whales is
dead—a tradition the whalers say they hope to revive, however economically
detrimental. The expanding of their whale kill list to include fin whales
was called by one environmental group, “an appalling step backward." And the
world is finally waking up to the true nature of all animals and moving away
joyously from the entrenched habit of eating them.
There’s a certain type of coward we all know who, when effectively exposed,
and fueled by hidden shame, often with a great display of schadenfreude,
doubles down on the source of his disgrace. If nations may be said to follow
that same pattern, then in regard to its terrorizing and killing of whales,
Japan is surely one of them. There is no reason for Denmark to besmirch
itself by enabling Japanese lawlessness and barbarity. The breathtaking
intelligence, bravery, gentleness, and magic of whales are catalyzing public
awareness and inspiring and leading to an end of whaling.
I urge you to free Captain Watson, especially in light of all his courageous
interventions to save whales and enforce international law. For even
if everything he’s accused of is true—ordering stink bombs onto a killer
ship, trespassing with the hope of saving lives, destroying obscene
instruments of murder—in the eyes of the universe he is innocent.
Joan Harrison
New York City
********
Greenland, for those of you who don’t know, is a territory of Denmark, and the locus of Anstalten Prison. (The Faroe Islands, where groups from all over the world come to slaughter dolphins and whales by a particularly cruel method of hunting, is also a territory of Denmark.) Paul Watson was arrested on July 21 by Danish police acting on behalf of the Japanese whalers.
The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 and all nations now comply with that moratorium except for Iceland, Norway, and Japan. (Note that the whales of the Faroe Islands are not covered by the IWC ban.) The Japanese continued to hunt whales even in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary until Captain Watson drove them out. The incarceration of Captain Watson leaves them free to go on a veritable slaughter binge.
International law is frequently not enforced, and Captain Watson argues that he is being persecuted for enforcing it—both on the high seas and through his (now defunct) television series, “Whale Wars” (2008-2019), which exposed the evils of Japanese whaling, and which the Japanese managed to get shut down. (Cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jGTFiEnRPY.)
Althugh Captain Watson states that he is innocent of all charges brought against him, the last hearing, October 2, 2024, according to Omar Todd, extended Paul’s detention until October 23, 2024. And as previously, Paul was not permitted to defend himself, or even to show the video, a much more detailed version of a video the Japanese were permitted to show, that would have exonerated him. The Japanese video, however, did not substantiate the claims of the Japanese—in particular, that one of their crew members was injured by a stink bomb coming from Paul Watson’s ship—because there was no one on the deck. Even so, the judge asserted that the mere presence of Captain Watson at the throwing of the stink bombs was sufficient to warrant extradition to Japan.
The judge’s assertion is false—and yet the defense was not permitted to respond, its testimony called irrelevant. The judge spoke as if extradition were almost a fait accompli, even though the certainty of an unfair trial in Japan could have invalidated the extradition order in the first place.
There will be another hearing on October 23rd.
Activists should send emails to any or all of the addresses listed below, particularly that of Peter Hummelgaard, the Justice Minister in Denmark, urging Paul Watson’s release. For more information and updates, go to https://www.facebook.com/captpaulwatson/. This case is of the greatest importance not only for Paul Watson and the whales, rather also, for whistleblowers, international law, and lovers of justice everywhere.
These are the relevant email addresses:
The Embassy of Denmark
Washington, D.C. 20008
[email protected]
Peter Hummelgaard
The Danish Ministry of Justice
Copenhagen
[email protected]
The Office of the Prime Minister
Copenhagen
[email protected]
The King and Queen of Denmark
[email protected]
It’d be great if our letters flooded every office!