- Mugabe's bankrupt regime has illegally sold more than
eight tons of ivory to China, sources in Harare have revealed.
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- The London Sunday Times reports today that the cargo,
flown to Bejing via Libya, is believed to have been part payment for thousands
of Kalashnikov rifles.
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- 'Worth almost US$1million, the sale is a serious breach
of rules covering the ivory trade and is being investigated by Interpol
and the Geneva-based secretariat of the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species (Cites).
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- 'News of the illicit operation has rekindled fears among
wild life organisations that the Zimbabwean government's official claim
to be a protector of the elephant is a sham.
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- 'Zimbabwe's tourist literature makes great play of a
supposedly rising elephant population, but experts believe the figures
have been distorted as part of an attempt by Mugabe's cash-strapped regime
to make Cites relax its ivory trading rules.
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- 'An appeal to Cites earlier this year for clearance to
sell ten tons of ivory failed. Since then there has been an upsurge in
poaching in the Zambezi Valley where experts claim up to 200 elephants
have been killed this year alone.
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- 'Up to 50 elephants can be killed by poachers in a typical
raid lasting between two and three weeks, bringing anything up to two tons
of ivory onto the illegal market.
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- 'Ivory commands a black market price of more than $100
a kilo and demand is greatest in China and Japan
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- 'Wildlife experts say a string of middlemen arrange deals
through the close-knit Chinese community in South Africa. They claim Mugabe
was approached by the Chinese shortly after his proposals for a new constitution
were defeated in the referendum in February.
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- 'Worried that his grip on power was slipping, he knew
he might need arms in the build-up to the elections.'
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- http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=990
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