Orangutan Smuggling Scandal Update

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends of the Orangutan,

This update is from my colleague, Sean Whyte, who is presently en route to

Bangkok and other locations for a series of press conferences on the issue. May

I also take this opportunity to thank each of you who wrote an email or

otherwise helped to support this campaign.

Michelle Desilets

Director, Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK

Sean writes:

The news this time is good. Thanks to the campaign we have all been waging on

behalf of these orangutans, the CITES officials of Thailand have at last

publicly agreed to send the orangutans home. This would never have happened

unless people like you took the time to email them and express your personal

views about their imprisonment of these orangutans. Please accept my sincere

thanks for your support....but don't stop now.

 

Based on my long and painful experience of dealing with Thai officials, we

cannot be certain the orangutans will be returned, or how many. We must keep the

pressure on them.

 

I know all too well how frustrating it can be if you do not receive an answer

to your emails. Trust me, they are being received and read, and the staggering

volume of emails is what often impresses the recipients.

 

On 21-23 April the Thai CITES officials meet their counterparts from Malaysia

and Indonesia in Bangkok to discuss the orangutans. This Tuesday I leave to join

colleagues in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, to hold Press Conferences

calling for the immediate return of the orangutans illegally held in both

Thailand and Malaysia. I will be joined by conservationists from each country.

I'd like to explain more about the Press Releases etc., but to do so in advance

might tempt fate. (We are still working on Saudi Arabia and Cambodia)

 

In the meantime please could you email Dr. Schwann, again, and mention how you

look forward to seeing the orangutans returned to their original home - very

soon. schwann and copy your email to Minister of the Environment: H.E.

Yongyut Tiyapairut yongyut

 

Please could you also email again the Malaysian Minister of Natural Resources

and Environment: Datuk Seri Adenan Satem (adenan) and ask why is he

delaying the return

to Indonesia of seven illegally trafficked orangutans, currently caged in

Malaysian zoos?

 

If possible, please copy the above email messages to

Mr. Willem Wijnstekers, Secretary General, CITES Secretariat

cites

 

Please be polite at all times with all your letters and always ask for a

reply.

 

Thank you yet again for all your help and encouragement. A lot of people

sending these messages have made a big difference - it is approaching three

years (approx. 1000 days) since the orangutans were discovered in Thailand. In a

little over three months 'people power' has achieved a great deal and together

we will save these orangutans.

 

I'll write again after my trip.

 

Many thanks.

Sean Whyte

Coordinator " Born To Be Wild " Campaign

From the Bangkok Post:

Orangutans to return to Indonesia

After two years of investigation and DNA testing, 54 orangutans that were

forced to entertain tourists at a private zoo in Bangkok suburb, will eventually

be returned to their homeland in the Indonesian jungle. Schwann Tunhikorn,

deputy director-general of the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation

Department, said recent DNA tests by Kasetsart University veterinarian confirmed

54 of the 100 apes forestry police seized from Safari World in 2004 belonged to

Indonesia.

Safari World zoo's managing director Pin Kewkacha also admitted that the zoo

illegally obtained the endangered apes from Borneo and Sumatra islands. But a

public prosecutor had yet to lodge a charge against him, said Mr Schwann. ''The

decision [to return the orangutans to Indonesia] reflects Thailand's

responsibility as a member of the Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), which aims to crack down on

the cross-border illegal wildlife trade,'' he said.

The decision was based on the DNA testing and discussions with Cites officers

in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand as well as wildlife experts, he added.

Edwin Wiek, the Thai representative of Indonesia's Borneo Orangutan

Foundation, slammed the department for dragging its feet in investigating the

case and bringing the wildlife smugglers to justice. The zoo operator, he said,

was still at large despite apparently breaching wildlife protection laws.

Mr Schwann, however, dismissed the remark, saying that the delayed judgement

resulted from the time-consuming legal process and the DNA testing.

2 more articles: http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=192210

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2139571,00.html

 

 

 

Michelle Desilets

BOS UK

www.savetheorangutan.org.uk

www.savetheorangutan.info

" Primates Helping Primates "

 

Please sign our petition to rescue over 100 smuggled orangutans in Thailand:

http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/822035733

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