Namibians Say They Are Slowing Illicit Ivory Trade

Conservation officials in Namibia believe they are beginning to stem a surge in the illicit ivory trade that followed the withdrawal of South African troops under a U.N.-sponsored independence plan.

They scored their latest success Sept. 16 when police smashed a major international smuggling syndicate after months of investigation, arresting 25 suspects.

Officials seized 980 elephant tusks, weighing about seven tons and valued at nearly $2 million, in what they believe was Africa’s biggest haul of illegal ivory.

“This is the biggest haul made in Africa,” said Col. Johan Meintjies, head of the police diamond and narcotics squad, which also investigates poaching, after the raid in the farming town of Okahandja, 43 miles north of Windhoek.

The tusks were found hidden behind a load of vegetables in a refrigerated truck.

“These tusks came from more than 500 elephants, but we believe most of them were from animals killed in countries either to the north or the northeast of us,” Brian Jones, a spokesman for the Department of Nature Conservation, told Reuters.

South Africa Police Help

Gerhard Roux, spokesman for the South African administrator-general of Namibia, Louis Pienaar, said: “It was with the assistance of the South African police that the police in Namibia were able to achieve this result.”

Environmentalists say ivory is smuggled from Angola, Zaire, Zambia and Zimbabwe by way of Namibia or Botswana. It is then shipped to Taiwan and Hong Kong for processing.

Some of the men detained in the raid could face 10 years in jail under penalties that have been tightened since the latest poaching spate began.

Poaching has increased this year since the number of South African forces in Namibia was reduced under the U.N. independence plan for the huge desert territory, which had been ruled by Pretoria since World War I.

Since July only 1,500 South Africa troops have remained in Namibia, confined to two bases in the north under the U.N. plan.

Police say poachers had previously been deterred by the South Africans, who were trying to prevent infiltration from Angola by pro-independence guerrillas of the South West Africa People’s Organization.

Smugglers Watched

Before the latest arrests, police had followed the smugglers through Namibia from Rundu, a small town on the Angolan border in the northeast, watching them since July 16.

“We waited until we thought we had the biggest and most fish before we pounced,” said Meintjies.

Rundu, on the Kavango River, has been a conduit for ivory from Angola and arms supplies to the rebel movement there, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

The area on either side of the river teems with elephants and other game, now threatened by poachers.

Some of the seized elephant tusks were huge, weighing as much as 80 pounds, while others were tiny, taken from baby elephants. Police also seized 14 rhinoceros horns and a few hippopotamus teeth.

Conservationists fear that one of Namibia’s most precious resources, its abundant wildlife and especially its threatened black rhinoceros, faces a major menace from poaching.

“Since July this year we have captured at least 80 poachers,” police Chief Inspector Kierie du Rand said.

In some areas the police are using former bush fighters from Koevoet--the now disbanded counter-insurgency unit--to hunt the ivory dealers.

Namibian police say the anti-poaching units have had a marked effect. But the South West Africa People’s Organization opposes the use of the units, saying all former Koevoet members should be banned from police duty because they intimidate SWAPO supporters.