TIBETAN ANTELOPE ALERT

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Tibetan Plateau Project

TIBETAN ANTELOPE ALERT

March 30, 2001

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March 29, 2001

South China Morning Post

 

BEIJING - Eight men once hailed as local heroes who fended off poachers

hunting wild antelope in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau have been arrested for

alleged corruption, the Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday.

 

They were formerly members of the famous Wild Yak Brigade in Qinghai

province. It was founded in 1992 to defend China's largest uninhabited area

- the 45,000 square km Kekexili - against poachers who were slaughtering

25,000 Tibetan antelopes annually for their valuable shahtoosh fur. The

brigade was disbanded early this year and most of its members were absorbed

into the Kekexili District Protection Administration.

 

According to the newspaper, the eight were arrested on March 16 and accused

of selling 94 antelope pelts they seized from poachers in August 1998. Each

of the eight members was said to have received about 4,000 yuan (HK$3,760)

from the sale.

 

Wives of the men interviewed by the newspaper admitted their husbands did

sell the pelts but they had no choice because they had been owed months of

wages by the authorities.

 

The wives also said their husbands had reported the sale to their superiors

who agreed to offset the proceeds from the wages.

 

For two years, their husbands had not been paid a yuan because of it, the

wives said.

 

While the brigade members had to risk their lives fighting poachers, they

were paid only about 260 yuan a month - barely enough to survive on, they

said.

 

" The wages of 260 yuan were rarely paid, and when they sold the pelts it

was because we didn't have enough to eat or money to buy vegetables, and

they never killed any animals, " explained the wife of former brigade member

Xie Zhou - one of the eight arrested.

 

The wives said they were shocked when their husbands were taken away on

charges of corruption because they had thought that the money from the pelt

sales had been classed as pay the authorities owed their husbands.

 

" The men paid back the money, the problem was solved. Why were they

arrested? " asked one distraught wife.

 

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The Tibetan Antelope Alert is distributed by the Tibetan Plateau Project

(TPP) of Earth Island Institute. The listserve is a free service to

rs.

 

TPP's Tibetan Antelope Conservation Campaign is seeking to halt the

international trade in shahtoosh and protect the Tibetan antelope. For more

information on TPP's campaign activities, see the Tibetan Antelope Resource

Page:

http://www.earthisland.org/tpp/antelope.htm

 

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Tibetan Plateau Project, 300 Broadway, Suite 28

San Francisco, CA 94133 USA

Phone: 1/415/788-3666, extension 132

Fax: 1/415/788-7324 Email: tppei

TPP Webpage: http://www.earthisland.org/tpp

 

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