This sounds like you're using two different Java versions. Could you try the following:
* Remove all old Java installations (make sure that your Tomcat installation is also using the new Java)
* Do a complete rebuild of your war file
If this does not solve the problem: Can you reproduce your problem on a freshly installed system?.
Updated Java is available from
http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/widget/jdk6.jsp
msgfmt 0.17 is included in poEdit 1.4.3:
http://poedit.sourceforge.net.
Any particular reason why you use these old versions?
I've just tried
msgfmt 0.17
java 1.6.0
without any problems (On Linux). Should I attach the binarries here? The PO file is unchanged in the SVN repository, though.