Thai coup may hit wildlife traffic, From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006

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>From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

 

 

Thai coup may hit wildlife traffic

 

BANGKOK--The September 20, 2006 Thai

military coup postponed for six days the already

long delayed return of 41 smuggled orangutans

from Thailand to Indonesia. Still, Wildlife

Friends Foundation Thailand founder Edwin Wiek

told members of the Asian Animal Protection

Network, " We believe that under the new rule the

conservation of wildlife will improve. "

The repatriation flight, originally set

for September 23, was rescheduled for September

29.

Another seven orangutans are suffering

from hepatitis, the Jakarta Post reported on

September 16. Indonesia has refused to accept

them, at least until after they recover.

" The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation

and Wildlife Friends, who were to facilitate the

repatriation for the Indonesian government, were

told that the Indonesian Navy plane that was to

pick up the apes could not land in Thailand until

further notice, " Wiek said earlier.

The plane, a C-130 Hercules, was

designed to fly tanks into trouble spots. The

mission might therefore have been dangerously

confused with military activity.

The orangutans were central to two of the

many prominent corruption cases that Thai Army

chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin cited as his

reasons for leading the bloodless coup that

deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

 

Safari World

 

The orangutans became a cause celebré in

November 2003, when Thai forestry officials

impounded 115 orangutans altogether at the Safari

World zoo in Bangkok. Investigating alleged

cruelty in connection with kick boxing matches

held between orangutans to amuse visitors, the

forestry department found that many of the

orangutans were kept in cramped and unhealthy

conditions, and were not properly registered.

" Safari World claimed that the many young

orangutans were produced by a successful breeding

program, but DNA testing paid for by the

Orangutan Foundation found in 2004 that at least

72 of the orangutans were illegally smuggled into

Thailand, " summarized Karmele Llano of the Dutch

organization Stichting ProAnimalia International,

in a September 2005 letter to ANIMAL PEOPLE.

Llano, Wiek, and others formed a

coalition called Send Them Back Home to try to

return the orangutans to Indonesia. Many of the

impounded orangutans meanwhile vanished, mostly

before they were physically removed from Safari

World in August 2004.

" At least 15 of them reportedly died, in

strange circumstances, without adequate medical

documentation, " wrote Llano.

Twenty-two orangutans were somehow

smuggled to Cambodia, where they were found

performing kick-boxing exhibitions at a casino.

Five were loaned to the Chiang Mai Night Safari

Zoo.

 

Night Safari

 

" Night Safari has veterinarians and

everything to take care of them, so we lent them

temporarily, " National Parks director Damrong

Phidej told Associated Press.

Opened in late 2005, the $30 million

Chiang Mai Night Safari Zoo was politely

described by Associated Press as " a project

initiated by Thaksin in his home town. "

" The project was not brought before

Parliament for deliberation and suspiciously

favored a group of people with vested interests

in hotels and tourism, " summarized Chaiphan

Praphasawat of the We Love Chiang Mai coalition,

to The Nation, of Bangkok.

The We Love Chiang Mai coalition included

local zoo opponents, environmentalists, and

animal advocates who became concerned about the

deaths of animals who were obtained and held in

temporary quarters while the Night Safari was

built. They soon found much more to worry about,

including allegedly obsolete and substandard

habitat designs and questionable transactions

arranged to obtain animals.

Wildlife Fund Thailand president Pisit Na

Phatthalung noted in November 2005 that

then-Natural Resources and Environment Ministry

vice-minister Plodprasop Suraswadi was paid more

than $5,250 a month to double as chief executive

officer of the Chiang Mai Night Safari Zoo.

" We also found that most of the top

executives were close to Plodprasop and they

received ludicrous salaries, " Pisit Na

Phatthalung told The Nation.

Both Thaksin and Plodprasop were sued on

June 7, 2006 by the We Love Chiang Mai

Coalition, for allegedly improperly creating the

Night Safari Zoo in a national park.

At request of the We Love Chiang Mai

Coalition, the Thai National Human Rights

Commission in July 2006 began investigating land

deals made to add an elephant park to the Night

Safari Zoo.

Plodprasop, who previously served as

fisheries minister, lost that post and

eventually lost the Natural Resources and

Environ-ment Ministry amid allegations of

facilitating wildlife trafficking. His most

notorious deal was authorizing the 2002 export of

100 tigers to a privately owned zoo or tiger

farm, depending on definitions, in Hainan,

China.

While Thaksin has often posed as an

animal lover, including in public denunciations

of wildlife trafficking, he defended Thai

cockfighters against pressure to end cockfighting

that has intensified since 2004 due to outbreaks

of the avian influenza H5N1, which have killed

more than 130 people worldwide. Many Thai cases

have been linked to the transport, exhibition,

and sale of gamecocks.

 

Kenya deal

 

Plodprasop embarrassed the Thaksin

government in November 2005 by disclosing his

intent to open a restaurant at the Night Safari

Zoo that would serve dog meat and the meat of

lions, tigers, elephants, and giraffes.

Plodprasop spoke only days after Thaksin and

Kenyan President Mwai Kbaki signed the most

notorious of the Chiang Mai Night Safari Zoo

animal acquisition agreements.

As the transaction was originally

structured, Kenya was to send the Chiang Mai

Night Safari Zoo as many as 300 animals of

approximately 30 species, including lions,

elephants, hippos, and rhinos.

The deal was scaled back under opposition

led by Youth for Conservation and Africa Network

for Animal Welfare founder Josphat Ngonyo to

include only about 100 animals, chiefly zebras,

giraffes, and gazelles--but opposition from

Ngonyo and current YfC president Steve Itela

continues.

Nairobi High Court Justice Joseph Nyamu on July

4, 2006 delayed until September 25 hearing

arguments on the legality of exporting Kenyan

animals to the Night Safari Zoo. Nyamu in

December 2005 issued a temporary injunction

blocking the exports, and has repeatedly

extended it.

The coup " has effectively killed the

proposal, " reported Bogonko Bosire of Agence

France-Press.

" The deal is as good as dead, " affirmed

a source whom Bosire identified only as " a senior

official in Kenya's tourismministry. Ironically,

it's a bit of a relief, " the source said, " since

the government has come under intense pressure to

stop it. "

Thaksin denied having personal economic

interests in Kenya, but Kenyan Tourism and

Wildlife Minister Morris Dzoro contradicted

Thaksin's claims at a June 2006 press conference

in Nairobi.

" Thaksin has asked us about putting up a

hotel here in Kenya and we are considering his

application just like any other investor, " Dzoro

said.

The Thai coup proceeded with the apparent

endorsement of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Ceremonially reigning for 59 years, the

78-year-old king and his wife, Queen Sirikit,

are outspoken animal advocates. In 2002 King

Bhumibol published an 84-page biography of Khun

Tongdaeng, a street dog he adopted in 1998, and

in his birthday speech called for better

treatment of street dogs and elephants.

At the king's request, the Thai national

police added eight former street dogs to their

elite airport security dog team.

A year later, at the queen's request,

Prime Minister Thaksin denounced animal

trafficking as immoral, " especially if the

animals are to be killed for meat, " and

initiated crackdowns on both wildlife trafficking

and the sale of dogs for human consumption.

Dog-eating by ethnic Chinese immigrants who fled

to Thailand from Vietnam during conflict between

Vietnam and China in the 1970s has often become a

flashpoint in cultural conflicts in the Thai

northeast, Thaksin's political stronghold.

Wildlife trafficking arrests and seizures

have continued. So has the commerce. The

biggest recent bust came on July 18, 2006.

" After receiving a tip from the new Association

of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement

Network, " the Bankok Post reported, officials

from three Thai government agencies " detained

four dealers for questioning and confiscated over

250 purported shahtoosh shawls [made from the fur

of poached Himalayan antelope called chiru],

" which can cost as much as $12,000 apiece. "

 

Wiek case

 

" When you read this, " Edwin Wiek posted

to the Asian Animal Protection Network, " you

almost believe the Thai authorities are actually

really doing something to stop the illegal

wildlife trade. Please don't be fooled. The

traders will not go to jail, they will not get a

fine and they might even get their goods back, "

Wiek predicted. " There is no law that forbids

keeping foreign wild animals or parts of wild

animals. Traffickers can only get in trouble

when they are caught red-handed smuggling the

goods into the country. In this case they were

not. "

But Wiek got into trouble in early 2005

for keeping 11 macaques who were turned over to

the Thai Animal Guardians Association by their

former owners, and relocated to better housing

at Wildlife Friends after the Thai forestry

department declined to take them. Wiek was in

August 2006 fined $525 and given a suspended

eight-month jail sentence for possessing the

macaques without holding a permit to do so.

" Wiek, a Dutch national, who has spent

the past five years setting up one of the

country's top animal centers, is the first

activist to receive such a sentence, " reported

Pennapa Hongthong and Jim Pollard of The Nation.

" Wiek claimed the charges were pushed by a senior

official who was upset by his efforts to force

the government to return the smuggled orangutans

found at Safari World to Indonesia. "

" No one will want to provide shelter to

unwanted wildlife through fear that one day they

might be arrested and charged with the same

offence as Wiek, " said Animal Guardians

Association chair Roger Lohanon.

Responded Thai wildlife department deputy

director Schawan Tunhikorn, " I didn't abuse my

power. I just did my job in protecting wildlife. "

" To the animal welfare community, Edwin

Wiek is someone who works to help Thai wild

animals in distress, " e-mailed Indian animal

advocate and journalist Azam Siddiqui, mentioning

Wiek's " contributions to the animals of India as

well. "

Elaborated Siddiqui, " Last year, on

coming to know of a zoo exchange between the Thai

zoological authorities and the Assam State Zoo

here in India, Wiek warned me that the

orangutans involved could be those who were

smuggled into Thailand. Wiek brought a

nine-member Thai TV crew to Assam in November

2005. He met with the Forest Minister of Assam

and the zoo divisional forest officer in charge,

and exchanged a few thoughts with the zoo vets

about treating an injured tiger. Everyone was

impressed with the trouble that he took to come

all the way from Thailand to Assam. "

" Edwin Wiek has the support of all animal

welfare people, not only in Asia but around the

world, " added Blue Cross of India chief

executive Chinny Krishna. " In much of Asia and

in many other parts of the world, money speaks.

Wiek is a soft target because he lacks the

monetary power of Safari World. "

The new government of Thailand, with

King Bhumibol as titular head, is expected to

erase many suspected unjust convictions of

opponents of the Thaksin regime, leaving hope

that Wiek's conviction might be set aside.

--Merritt Clifton

 

 

--

Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

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