Tokyo, June 19: The Dalai Lama on Saturday criticised wildlife activists for staging what he said were violent protests over Japan’s hunting of whales.
The rebuke came as the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader visited Japan for an 11-day lecture tour.
At a news conference, he said he had told the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to stop its violent harassment of Japan’s whaling fleet.
“One time I wrote a letter…(saying) their activities should be stopping,” he told reporters.
The Dalai Lama said he supported Sea Shepherd’s goal of preventing whalers from harming the giant sea mammals but added that “their (activities) should be non-violent”.
Japan’s annual whale hunt – carried out under a loophole to an international moratorium that allows killing for what it calls scientific research – has long been criticised by conservationists.
Japanese prosecutors have demanded two years in prison for a New Zealand anti-whaling activist on trial for assault and charges relating to his boarding of a harpoon ship in Antarctic waters.
–Agencies