Japan accused of offering bribes, prostitutes to protect commercial whaling interests

London, June 14(ANI): Japan has been accused of bribing representatives of six countries with cash and prostitutes to win their backing for commercial whaling.

The allegations come ahead of this month's International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Morocco, where the officials will determine the fate of a 24-year suspension on whaling activities.

According to The Times, officials from the governments of St Kitts and Nevis, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Grenada, Republic of Guinea and Ivory Coast participated in negotiations to sell their votes in return for Japanese aid.

A top fishery official from Guinea said that Japan usually gave his minister a minimum of 1000 dollars-a-day spending money in cash during conferences and other fisheries meetings.

The official also said that three Japanese organizations were used to channel the payments to "the fisheries agency, the aid agency and the Overseas Fisheries Co-operation Foundation".

The report also quoted Tanzania's IWC Commissioner as saying that during all-expenses paid trips to Japan, "good girls" were made available at the hotels for ministers and senior fisheries civil servants.(ANI)