CASTRIES, St. Lucia (6 June 2001) -- St. Lucia will side with Japan at the International Whaling Commission meeting next month to help defeat a proposal to establish a whale sanctuary in the South Pacific. St. Lucia Prime Minister, Dr. Kenny Anthony, told CDNN that St. Lucia and several other countries will be voting along with Japan. But he refused to comment on allegations that Japan has bribed St. Lucia politicians with expensive SUV cars and is pouring money into various pork barrel projects in return for votes against the whale sanctuary. Caribbean countries that have been accused of accepting bribes to support Japan's pro-whaling agenda include St. Lucia, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, Grenada, Dominica and Antigua/Barbuda in the Caribbean as well as the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. ECO ALERT On July 5, 2000, CDNN issued an Eco Alert advising dive travelers and tourists to support commercial and tourism boycotts of St. Lucia and other countries that have sold their votes to defeat the international proposal to establish a whale sanctuary in the South Pacific, an area halfway around the world from the Caribbean. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK | | Japanese scientists are testing the theory that whales can be brutually slaughtered and sold to restaurants, grocery stores and schools. |
