Remembering the Bangkok Six

[Guest guest]

On 20 February 1990 I received a phone-call from Leonie Vejjajiva,

then with the Wildlife Rescue Foundation of Thailand, telling me that

six baby orangutans and two siamangs had been confiscated on Bangkok

Airport and that help was needed with their care. Smugglers had

stuffed them into crates labelled " Birds " and shipped them to Bangkok

for onward transit to Belgrade in then Yugoslavia, with the final

destination being Russia. Soon IPPL member Dianne Taylor-Snow was in

the air to Bangkok to help the babies.

 

On this, the 20th anniversary of the confiscation of the babies,

please remember these precious babies whose mothers were shot to

bring them into trade. Remember that this evil trade has not stopped.

At least four of the six babies, three of whom had been shipped

upside-down, died.

 

The babies' photos were on the cover of the April 1990 issue of IPPL

News, see http://www.ippl.org/newsletter/1990s/050_v17_n1_1990-04.pdf#page=1

Their story is told on pages 4-6 and was continued in many issues of

IPPL News over the five years that IPPL was tracking the case working

to get justice for the babies.

 

Take a look at

http://www.ippl.org/newsletter/1990s/050_v17_n1_1990-04.pdf#page=1

 

Letters to the late Judge James Kehoe, the judge handling the case

against a US suspect, Matthew Block, appear at

http://www.ippl.org/newsletter/1990s/060_v20_n1_1993-04.pdf#page=16

 

More details of this historic case can be found at

http://www.ippl.org/newsletter/1990s/061_v20_n2_1993-08.pdf#page=9

and at http://www.ippl.org/newsletter/1990s/068_v22_n3_1995-11.pdf#page=23

 

Those involved in smuggling the orangutans included Matthew Block of

Miami (who was sentenced to 13 months in prison in connection with

the crime), Kurt Schafer of Germany (who went to prison on other

wildlife-related charges), Kenny Dekker of the Netherlands, Belgrade

Zoo director Vuk Bojovic, James Lee of Singapore, a notorious

Indonesian dealer who was never charged, and others.

 

Three of the babies were girls. Think of all the babies they could

have produced in these past 20 years, indeed they should have been

grandmothers by now. Multiple the six by the hundreds of babies who

have since died or been placed in sanctuaries or traded for

entertainment. Innocent victims all.

 

 

Dr. Shirley McGreal, OBE, Chairwoman

International Primate Protection League

PO Box 766

Summerville, SC 29484, USA

Phone - 843-871-2280, Fax- 843-871-7988

E-mail - smcgreal, Web: www.ippl.org

 

" He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my

contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him

the spinal cord would suffice. "

--Albert Einstein

 

 

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