Zimbabwe sold ivory to China for arms

Asian Political News, July 17, 2000

NAIROBI, July 13 Kyodo

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe sold more than 8 tons of ivory to China worth $1 million in May in exchange for weaponry, a German wildlife conservation group says.

In a report released Wednesday in Nairobi, ECOTERRA said China delivered guns to Zimbabwe in May in exchange for ivory flown from Zimbabwe to China via Libya.

"That was just a few days after the international community had refused Zimbabwe's demand to sell ivory," a senior ECOTERRA member said, referring to the Convention on International Trade in Wild Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) conference in April in Nairobi.

Zimbabwe's request for permission to sell 10 tons of ivory was rejected by more than 140 countries at the conference.

"Western governments must finally stop the hypocrisy to finance only the discussions and research on protection policies and strategies in conferences over and over again and to no avail," said Tuiya Cheruiyot, an ECOTERRA representative in Nairobi.

"The rich nations, including China, must get their own house in order to stop further criminal deals, which starving people can hardly refuse," Cheruiyot said.

Delegates at the CITES conference clearly decided that no ivory could be sold worldwide.

Experts and delegates refuted Zimbabwe's claim that there would be no illegal killing of elephants in Zimbabwe and that the elephant population would grow.

"Now even Zambia confirms that in the Zambezi Valley, the illegal killing of wildlife, and especially elephants on the Zimbabwe side of the border, has increased tremendously," ECOTERRA said.

"Large numbers of elephants, which are totally confused, flee that zone toward Zambia in order to escape the slaughter," said Daniella Freyer of the nature group Pro Wildlife.

ECOTERRA quoted a July 9 Sunday Times article that said the guns were mostly distributed to Mugabe's supporters, self-styled war veterans of the country's struggle for independence from Britain who heeded Mugabe's call to invade white-owned farms.