The Taiping Four

[Guest guest]

This morning (24 November 2003), IPPL received the message that follows

from Cameroonian wildlife official Gilles Etoga. We will be interested to

see how Sellar responds.

 

Mon, 24 Nov 2003 16:39:51 +0100 (CET)

etoga nkoulou <etogagilles

Gorillas smuggled from nigeria to malaysia

smcgreal

Cc: john.sellar

X-Virus-Scanned: Symantec AntiVirus Scan Engine

Original-recipient: rfc822;smcgreal

 

Dear Dr Shirley McGreal

I'm Gilles ETOGA Head of the Anti-poaching unit in the

Ministry of environment and Forestry of Cameroon. We

have been suprised by your letter of 13th of November

2003 concerning the four Gorillas smuggled from

Niregia to Malaysia. As you may know our Minister have

send a letter to the malaysian Minister requesting the

returning back of these animals to Cameroon, their

native land. We have never discussed the possibility

of sending them in the Pretoria Zoo. This eventuality

is not even possible because Cameroon has at lest two

zoos wich can take care of these animals.

By the end of next week we will fax you the official

response of the Minister.

Best regards,

 

Gilles ETOGA

MINEF

Yaoundé- Cameroon

 

John Sellar, Enforcement Officer at the CITES Secretariat, announced on 7

November 2003 that Cameroon and South Africa had agreed that the Taiping

Four gorillas should go to South Africa. Sellar stated that he had received

the news by telephone from a member of the South African CITES Management

Authority and saw no reason to question its veracity and thus did not

contact Cameroon. IPPL was suspicious as Cameroon has three times requested

the return of the gorillas, including sending the letter that follows to

Malaysia's Minister of the Environment.

 

" As a follow up of the joint letter signed by Dr. Imeh Okopido, the

Nigerian Minister of Environment, and my collaborator Mr Koulagna Koutou

Denis, last November in Santiago (Chile) and referring to the four smuggled

baby gorillas, I would like to emphasize on the hope of the Nigerian and

Cameroonian authorities to see these animals sent back to their native land

instead of being exported to a zoo in South Africa as recently reported by

Dr. Shirley McGreal of the International Primate Protection League. Let me

inform you that two other gorillas smuggled probably by the same network

were seized and repatriated to the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon, in

favor of joint efforts by the Nigerian and Cameroonian government and the

CITES authorities on May 23rd of this year. This information needs to be

given in order to prevent Your Excellency from being convinced that the

Pretoria Zoo is the only [zoo] equipped for the rehabilitation of these

animals, the argument that seemingly oriented the decision of sending the

smuggled gorillas to South Africa.

I would be grateful for any measure you will take for repatriation of the

young gorillas to their native land instead of the Pretoria Zoo.

Hoping to hear from you, I pray you to accept, dear sir, the expression of

my highest regard and I stand ready for any collaboration you will judge

appropriate.

 

Tanji Mbianyor (Minister)

 

Therefore we had a letter hand-delivered to Cameroon's Minister of the

Environment seeking clarification, Shirley McGreal