SA activists held in whaling protest

South African animal rights volunteer Monique Rossouw is arrested by Danish police.

South African animal rights volunteer Monique Rossouw is arrested by Danish police.

Published Sep 1, 2014

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Cape Town - Two South African women are said to be among 14 animal rights activists arrested in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic while trying to prevent islanders from killing pilot whales during one of their traditional but controversial hunts.

The two South Africans are Nikki Botha and Monique Rossouw, who were working as volunteer crew for the environmental activist group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

The others were eight French citizens, two Spaniards, one Italian and one Australian.

Reports said the activists were arrested on Saturday by the Danish navy, which helps the Faroe Islands secure their fishing rights.

The conservation organisation said last night that the 14 volunteers had been released late on Sunday. Six would appear in court on Monday and the others on September 25. The boats had not yet been released.

Large numbers of pilot whales are slaughtered each year on the Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory in the kingdom of Denmark. While many islanders defend the hunt as a cultural right, animal rights campaigners denounce it as a “brutal slaughter”.

Sea Shepherd organised Operation Grindstop 2014 to try to stop the killing. To prevent whales being driven inshore, its activists have used high-speed boats to get between the mammals and the islanders.

Rossouw, one of the South Africans arrested, wrote on Facebook that the volunteers had been working 16-hour shifts seven days a week to try to prevent the killings.

A comment she posted on Sunday, read: “Feeling helpless. The water runs red in Faroe today… It is with a heavy heart that I share this news with you. The island of Sandoy saw five dolphin whales slaughtered because they beached themselves. The Faroese see this as a gift from God, so they slaughter these majestic creatures and distribute their flesh.”

The communities on the five islands that make up the Faroe chain have killed whales and dolphins for centuries by driving the mammals into bays with small boats and killing them with knives in the shallows. The hunt is called a grindadrap, or grind

Canadian environmental activist Paul Watson, who founded Sea Shepherd, wrote on it’s website that a pod of 33 pilot whales had come close to the island of Sandoy on Saturday, and three of the organisation’s boats sped to the scene.

“Unfortunately a police helicopter and vessels from the Danish navy made it to the bay at the same time,” he said.

“The Danish navy ordered the Sea Shepherd boats to stand off. The boats were detained by the Danish navy and the entire Sandoy land team has been arrested and 33 pilot whales are dead on the beach.”

Danish television channel Nyhederne quotes the islands’ Chief Superintendent, Peter Thaysen, as saying: “Our task is to ensure that the Faroese are allowed to carry out their grind killing, and to ensure there are no clashes. We have planned the task for many months, and with the help we have received from the Danish police, I believe we are well equipped to handle this job.”

AFP quoted a spokesman for the Danish Armed Forces’ Arctic Command, which is responsible for the Faroe Islands, as saying it was standard procedure for the Danish navy to assist the Faroese police in this work.

The news agency said it could not reach the Faroese police for comment.

Department of International Relations and Co-operation spokesman Clayson Monyela said on Sunday the department had not had any formal notice of South Africans being arrested in the Faroe Islands.

“If there were South Africans arrested, the procedure would be for that country to notify our embassy in the country where the arrest was made. The embassy would then request access to them and contact us. So far we have not received any notification.”

Cape Times and Sapa

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