The International Whaling Commission's (IWC) week-long annual plenary closed with a ban on commercial hunting in place for another year, but divisive debate over aboriginal whaling leaving member nations oceans apart.

The issue that attracted the most attention ahead of the meeting -- whether Japan would succeed in overturning a 16-year-old ban moratorium on commercial whaling -- never looked remotely likely in the debating chamber.

Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC) Secretarty George Ahmaogak, left, answers reporters's questions after a morning session of the 54th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission at this southwestern port of Shimonoseki on Friday May 24, 2002. At right, Thomas Napageak, chirman of the AEWC. A request by the United States and Russia for the IWC to renew quotas for their native peoples to hunt whales was rejected Friday for the second time in two days, falling short by one vote. Theannual conference ends Friday. (AP Photo/Atsushi Tsukada)

Japan's perennial proposal to lift the commercial ban in place since the 1985-86 season was easily defeated by 16-25 on Thursday, far short of the three-quarters majority needed to pass it.

But the commission was left acrimoniously paralyzed as a Tokyo-led minority twice rejected a proposal to renew the five-year 280-bowhead whale catch for northern natives, mainly in Alaska, which expires this year.

"In the 56 years of history in the IWC, that was the most unjust, unkind, unfair vote that was ever taken," US commissioner Rolland Schmitten told reporters after losing a second vote on the issue by a narrow 32-11, one short of the three-quarters majority needed.

"We have had Eskimos calling, asking their leaders will they get their food," he said. "That vote definitely clinched it. The views of Japan and others was no, they will not."

Japan used its minority bloc to reject the proposal after its own request for 50 minke whale for hard-hit Japanese coastal communities was denied.

Conservation groups said they were enraged by the proposed trade-offs on community whaling that some said held aboriginals "hostage" at the expense of unjustified requests from Japan.

"It's absolutely disgusting," said Greenpeace spokesman Simon Reddy. "They used the Inuit and Chukotka tribes as a pawn in this political game."

Japanese senior delegate Masayuki Komatsu said the defeat of Japan's longstanding request for the 50 minke whales showed the IWC had a "double standard".

However, the support for Japan's stance on the resumption of commercial whaling had been promising, he said.

"In the 15 years of our request, we have never been able to press our case as strongly as we did this year," he said.

The pro-whaling bloc led by Japan and Norway included many Caribbean states including Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada and St. Lucia, as well as Benin, Gabon, Mongolia and Palau.

The anti-whalers included Australia, Brazil, Britain, India, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, most of mainland Europe and the United States.

During the heated week of debate, delegation members accused each other of lying, of breaking backroom deals and destroying the credibility of the commission.

"Considering the way this meeting has gone over the last few days, I wonder what honor is left in this organization," UK commissioner Richard Cowan told the plenary.

© 2002 AFP

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