Dodoma. The government has dismissed as blatant lies claims in local and international media that members of last year’s Chinese presidential delegation illegally bought and exported ivory. Top officials said the reports were driven by jealousy.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe said on television that reports that President Xi Jinping’s plane was used to ferry the ivory were “baseless and fabricated”.
The report was aimed at tarnishing the image of the country and disrupting diplomatic relations between Tanzania and China, Mr Membe added.
On Wednesday, various international media outlets quoted a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)--a non-governmental organisation--saying that Chinese diplomatic and military staff bought illegal ivory when President Jinping’s entourage of government officials and business leaders arrived in Tanzania in March 2013.
“The whistle-blower who was quoted in the report is just a person they met on the street and started asking him questions,” the minister added. “This person is not credible enough to prove the serious allegations levelled against the Chinese diplomats and our government.”
The source of the information, who is also seen on the footage of various international television stations, is neither an official at the airport nor at the Tanzania Ports Authority, according to Mr Membe.
Media reports have it that Chinese buyers purchased thousands of pounds of poached tusks which were later sent to China in diplomatic bags on the presidential plane.
The EIA report, “Vanishing Point: Criminality, Corruption and Devastation of Tanzania’s Elephant”, gives details of Chinese diplomats and military personnel colluding with Tanzanian officials and a Chinese crime syndicate to send the illegal ivory to China.
China has also denied the allegations and denounced the NGO that unveiled the report. The New York Times quoted Meng Xianlin, the executive director-general of China’s endangered species trade authority, saying the report was irresponsible and was aimed at tarnishing China’s image without any evidence.
But the government denial was not enough, Kigoma North MP Zitto Kabwe wrote in his facebook account soon after Mr Membe wound up his statement in Parliament.
According to the MP, who also chairs the powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC), thorough investigations into the allegations should be carried out. “It is not enough to deny the reports,” he said. “The government should invite an independent international organisation to conduct thorough investigations. Concrete steps should later be taken against those found liable in case the allegations are proved against those who have peddled baseless allegations against the government.”
Mr Membe said it was true that a container full of ivory was impounded last year but it was ridiculous to say that the consignment was destined for China through the military ship. “We impounded the container based on intelligence information we obtained from China,” he added. “It is amazing then that the same country which is accused of using its ship to transport the ivory could provide us with intelligence information which led to impounding the same container.”
The minister told the august House that some media organisations had taken it upon themselves to “mudsling” Tanzania after its relations with China improved. “You might ask yourself why these reports of an incident that occurred last year have been unearthed now, a short time after our President concluded a successful tour of China,” he said.
Tanzania has lost more elephants than any other country in the past four years, according to the report. In 2013, an estimated 10,000 elephants were slaughtered. The elephant population in Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve plummeted 67 per cent between 2009 and 2013, to 13,000.
The Citizen
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