ANTIGUA & BARBUDA (17 July 2001) -- Prime Minister Lester Bird has admitted that Antigua and Barbuda supports Japan's pro-whaling stance because it is getting financial aid from Japan. "Partly, yes, quite frankly I make no bones about it," Bird told CDNN when asked whether his administration was supporting whaling because Japan had made financial donations to the country. Bird also said that the decision was based on scientific evidence that minke whales are not endangered, however, he refused to comment when asked if he supported Japan's recent hunts of sperm whales and other endangered whale species. Recently, the rhetoric on both sides of the whaling issue has heated up ahead of the IWC whaling in London later this month. Antigua and Barbuda is one of several Caribbean nations that have been accused of selling their votes to Japan. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK | | According to Japanese ultranationalists, whaling is Japan's cultural right but most modern educated Japanese oppose whaling. |
