ロシア極地調査船に抗議デモ　南ア・ケープタウン港

【ケープタウンＡＦＰ＝時事】南アフリカ・ケープタウン港に寄港しているロシアの極地調査船に対し、南極で禁止されている鉱物資源の開発に乗り出すことを懸念する環境保護活動家が抗議の声を上げている。（写真はケープタウン港に停泊した、ロシアの極地調査船アカデミック・アレクサンドル・カルピンスキー号）
　ロシアのメディアによると、ケープタウンに寄港したのはアカデミック・アレクサンドル・カルピンスキー号。昨年末、南極での科学調査に向けロシアの港を出港していた。気候変動危機を訴える団体「絶滅への反逆」のメンバーは、ケープタウンへの入港は２８日午前としている。
　これを受けて活動家らは２９日、港に集まり、「化石燃料はもういらない、南極から手を引け、戦争反対」などと連呼した。
　調査船は、ロシア国営の探鉱会社ロスゲオの子会社が所有している。
　「絶滅への反逆」の広報は、「次は鉱物資源開発を狙っているとみている」と述べた。ロスゲオの広報は２８日付のロシア主要経済紙コメルサントに「南極大陸および周辺海域における活動は専ら科学的なものだ」と説明している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/01/31-12:44）

A Russian polar research vessel docked in South Africa's Cape Town harbour at the weekend as climate protesters raised fears it could be used to help Moscow explore for minerals in protected Antarctica.
The Akademik Aleksandr Karpinskiy icebreaker is on its way to the Antarctic as part of a scientific expedition launched late last year, according to Russian media.
The ship is owned by the Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition, a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned mineral exploration company RosGeo.
We believe that exploitation will be happening next, said Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman Jacqui Tooke.
A small group of environmentalists waving placards gathered at the harbour in Cape Town on Sunday chanting No more fossil fuels, hands off Antarctica! No more war!
We saw the ship come into port at 8:41 on Saturday morning, Extinction Rebellion climate campaigner Cassi Goodman said on Sunday.
Mineral exploitation is banned in Antarctica, and RosGeo has denied allegations that the firm is engaged in the exploration of the icy continent's mineral resources.
RosGeo's activities both on the continent of Antarctica and in the adjacent seas are exclusively scientific in nature, its spokesman told the Russian newspaper Kommersant on Saturday.
The 68th Russian Antarctic scientific expedition set out to study global climate change and oceanology in the marginal seas of Antarctica among other glaciological research in and around the Antarctic.
The ship arrived days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Pretoria for talks and comes as Western nations voiced irritation at South Africa's close ties with Russia amid Moscow's war on Ukraine.
South Africa has resisted taking sides over the war, which has triggered sweeping Western sanctions against Moscow and attempts to isolate it diplomatically.
This is the second Russian ship to moor in South Africa in as many months.
In December, South Africa was criticised for allowing a sanctioned Russian cargo ship to dock and unload its cargo at a Cape Town naval base.
A vessel tracking app located the Akademik Aleksandr Karpinskiy in Cape Town's port on Sunday and shows that it left St. Petersburg on Christmas day last year.
The southwestern city of Cape Town is a long-established gateway to Antarctica.
This ship has used Cape Town as a launchpad for these Antarctica missions for over 20 years, Greenpeace campaigner Elaine Nills told AFP on Sunday.
South Africa has a moral duty on behalf of its own citizens, Africa and the whole world to not enable this kind of activity in an area that is very ecologically sensitive, she said.
The Akademik Aleksandr Karpinskiy will join the vessel Akademik Fedorov, which left Russia in November 2022.
The 1991 Madrid Protocol bans all mineral extraction in Antarctica and includes measures for the protection of its flora and fauna, the prevention of marine pollution, tourism control and waste management.