TOKYO (AFP) — Japan said Monday it was seeking international arrest warrants for three Western anti-whaling activists who tried to disrupt a controversial whaling expedition in the Antarctic Ocean.
"It's natural to seek arrest warrants if it has been judged that a crime took place," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.
"Whatever opinions they have over whaling, it is impermissible for them to take such violent measures which risk the lives of the people involved."
Police declined to give details, but Jiji Press said the three people were members of the Sea Shepherd group suspected of hurling warning flares into a Japanese whaling vessel in February last year.
It said that Japan would give to Interpol the names of three suspects -- two US citizens aged 41 and 30, and a 28-year-old Briton.
Interpol has the authority to send out a "red notice" which alerts all nations to be on the lookout for a suspect.
Interpol can refuse to send an alert if it is seen as politically motivated, according to the global police agency's website.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose headquarters is in the US state of Washington, has vowed to stop Japan's whaling, by force if necessary. It is currently fighting aggressively against Canada's slaughter of baby seals.
Japan in June arrested two members of the more moderate environmental group Greenpeace on allegations of theft after they took whale meat in a bid to show corruption in the government-funded programme.
The Japanese government, which says whaling is part of the national culture, plans to kill around 1,000 whales a year using a loophole in a 1986 international moratorium that allows "lethal research" on whales.
But Japan's Antarctic catch came to little more than half of that number last season due to harassment by activists.
In the latest season, Sea Shepherd activists hurled stinging acid at the whalers, lightly injuring three of them, and also hopped onto a Japanese ship, setting off a high-seas standoff.
Japan has previously demanded that Australia, where Sea Shepherd had docked, take action against the activists.
Australia and most other Western nations have opposed Japan's whaling, arguing that it is inhumane and endangers a growing whale-watching industry.
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