Belgian King Used Plane for Illicit Cargo, Paper Says

Belgian King Baudouin was accused by a Socialist newspaper today of smuggling rare chimpanzees and ivory from Zaire on the royal jet which flew him back from a state visit last week.

The Dutch-language newspaper De Morgen said its editor in chief, who accompanied the king on the trip to the former Belgian colony, saw elephant tusks being loaded onto the royal plane in Gemena, in northern Zaire, on the final day of the visit last Tuesday.

It said that two African chimpanzees were taken to the zoo in Antwerp after the royal jet landed at the Brussels military airport Tuesday evening.

An official at the Belgian Agriculture Ministry, which enforces an international convention on trade in endangered animal species, said an investigation had started into the case, which he said “appeared to involve royalty.”