Although France took responsibility for ta bling the «French» Proposal, no French scientist ever stepped forward to claim it as their own. Indeed, it is doubtful whether the proposal was ever even translated into French.
«When the French government first made the proposal, we received it in the form of a circular letter faxed from the IWC Secretariat in Cambridge,» recalled Japan’s IWC commissioner, Kazuo Shima (Science & Technology in Japan, April 1994).
«So the next time I was in Paris, I asked for a clear copy of the English version, but they couldn’t give me one because all they had was the same faxed copy I had! So then I said to them, “The French people are very proud of their language, so the original of the proposal must surely have been written in French,” but they didn’t have that either!»
Meanwhile, all questions relating to the proposal in the IWC’s Scientific Committee were being handled by Sidney Holt of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), leading the Harpoon to suspect Holt was the true author of the document. Our suspicions seemed to be confirmed last October when IFAW gave Holt a special award for playing a «critical, positive role ... to establish a Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary» (see «IFAW Recognises ...»).
In the Dark
Belatedly, the Harpoon has now learned that in June 1994, less than a month after the sanctuary was voted through by the IWC, Greenpeace UK director Peter Melchett wrote to his members: «This sanctuary was first proposed by Greenpeace a few years ago. It was formally proposed to the IWC by the French Government, at Greenpeace’s request.»
Why had Greenpeace, in whose vocabulary «humble» does not exist, never broadcast this fact to the media and reaped the accolades? Presumably because the green points became the property of the French government as its reward for acquiescing.
Yet in a documentary aired last September on the TV station France 2, entitled «Greenpeace, les Commandes de l’Ecologie», a former French Environmental Minister makes no bones about his country’s role in the biggest pseudo-scientific hoax ever perpetrated at the IWC. «We had a deal,» he says. «Greenpeace and France had a deal to save the whales. The scientific arguments of France were partly written by Greenpeace. Then we presented it at the IWC.»
Payback Time
Which still leaves one question hanging: Why France?
A possible clue was presented to the Harpoon in 1994 by a member of the IWC’s Scientific Committee, on condition he remain anonymous.
Asked to comment on Holt’s role in promoting the sanctuary proposal, he replied: «Although I find it intolerable when Sidney poses as a scientist while practicing politics, he is an extremely intelligent guy. He may have been behind the French proposal in concept, but in execution it was a New Zealand job. Sidney would never have written anything that stupid.»
New Zealand?
«New Zealand is still really pissed off at France for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior,» he said. «You guys should look into that one further. It’s a good story if you ever get close to the truth.»
With no evidence linking Greenpeace or New Zealand to the sanctuary proposal, Harpoon put this interview on hold. With the latest revelations, however, the notion of France paying retribution for sinking the Greenpeace flagship rings a little truer.
In 1985, while en route to protest French nuclear tests in the South Pacific, the Rainbow Warrior was sunk in Auckland by the French secret service, killing one crewmember. New Zealand’s fury knew no bounds. First, it failed to extradite the French agents. Then the agents were found guilty in France but released after serving only token sentences.
Did France agree to table the sanctuary proposal under duress, either from Greenpeace or New Zealand? No better explanation has yet presented itself.