Russia accuses Greenpeace of encouraging Senegal to seize trawler [View all]
Source: Guardian
The Oleg Naydenov, a Russian-owned trawler that regularly fishes off the west African coast, was boarded by armed Senegalese commandos near the maritime border with Guinea-Bissau last week and escorted back to the port of Dakar. The Senegalese government has reportedly demanded €1.5m in fines for alleged illegal fishing in its exclusive 12-mile fishing zone on 23 December.
"It turns out that the army of the sovereign Republic of Senegal acts on the command of Greenpeace," Alexander Savelyov, a spokesman Russia's Federal Fisheries Agency, told Russia's Novosti news agency on Wednesday. "As such the Senegalese army continues to hold the fishing trawler Oleg Naydenov along with citizens of Russia and Guinea-Bissau at a military base in Dakar."
In a further statement, Savelyov said: "I am far from the thought that this is some kind of crude revenge for the Arctic Sunrise's actions that led to the arrest of the activists for their protest. But I will say that Greenpeace's actions are reminiscent of a woman of little social respectability who can be used by any person of means."
Greenpeace, which says it supports Senegal's move, denied strongly that it had had any contact with the Senegalese government. "These accusations are a way for the Russian government to avoid taking responsibility," said Ahmed Diame, Greenpeace Africa oceans campaigner. Yesterday it emerged that Senegal has repeatedly accused the Oleg Naydenov of fishing illegally in the country's waters, temporarily detaining the ship in 2010 .
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/09/russia-greenpeace-senegal-trawler-fishing
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