The Marshall Islands’ vote at the International Whaling Commission “is not for sale,” Foreign Minister John Silk said in a statement issued Wednesday in response to the Sunday Times article.
The Sunday Times reported that an undercover investigation by its reporters exposed Japan for bribing six small nations — including the Marshall Islands — with aid, cash and prostitutes to get their support for the slaughter of whales.
“The unprincipled tactics and methods employed by the ‘undercover reporters’ toward obtaining information with respect to IWC issues is beneath any standard of ethical journalism,” he said.
The Times said its reporters posed as representatives of a fictional Swiss billionaire who was offering an aid package to get the countries to change their vote on whaling at next week’s International Whaling Commission annual meeting in Morocco. The countries were St. Kitts and Nevis, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Grenada, Republic of Guinea and Ivory Coast, the paper said.
The Marshalls Foreign Ministry in a statement Wednesday acknowledged its “long-standing diplomatic relationship with Japan,” and confirmed it “has received tremendous bilateral assistance from Japan through grants, trainings, economic development projects.”
A Japan-funded $8 million fish market is currently under construction in the nation’s capital, Majuro, and Japan last week confirmed $3.3 million grants to the Asian Development Bank for Marshall Islands energy and poverty reduction programs. The Japan Embassy also recently confirmed that a $4 million solar project has been approved for 2011. Since the 1980s, Japan has been the second largest aid donor behind the United States, the Marshall Islands primary diplomatic partner.
“The Marshall Islands is a sovereign nation and, as such, determines its own government policies,” Silk said in response to the Times story. “The Marshall Island’s policy on whaling is not based on the aid from Japan or any other country. If that were the case, it must be noted that the Marshall Islands also receives the same, if not more, assistance from some of its other development partners, countries which oppose Japan in the IWC.”
A transcript of an exchange between a Times reporter and Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority official Doreen deBrum shows she confirmed the Marshall Islands vote in support of Japan is related to Japan’s aid program. The reporter asked, “you support whaling because of the aid that Japan gives you?” DeBrum is reported to have responded: “We support Japan because of what they give us.” The paper said she later denied this when told that the interviewers were actually reporters.
The paper said representatives of other countries talked about cash being given to government leaders by Japan and “call girls” being offered.
“Japan is a very close friend and ally of the Marshall Islands,” said Silk. But the fact it receives more aid from some countries opposed to whaling “clearly demonstrates that the Marshall Islands’ vote, whether in the IWC or any other regional and international forums, is not for sale.”
He said the comments of the Marshall Islands government official were taken out of context by the London paper and therefore did not accurately reflect the position of the his government.
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