{"id":127348,"date":"2014-07-04T01:20:06","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T19:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=127348"},"modified":"2014-07-04T13:08:18","modified_gmt":"2014-07-04T07:38:18","slug":"friday-forum-urges-govt-to-destroy-millions-of-dollars-worth-blood-ivory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/friday-forum-urges-govt-to-destroy-millions-of-dollars-worth-blood-ivory\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Forum Urges Govt. To Destroy Millions Of Dollars Worth “Blood Ivory”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Friday Forum has today urged the government to return the\u00a0millions of dollars worth\u00a0“Blood Ivory”\u00a0<\/span>seized by the Sri Lanka Customs\u00a0<\/span>to Kenya or publicly destroy them. “Refusal to take such action will inevitably\u00a0cast doubts on Sri Lanka\u2019s commitments to biodiversity conservation and its age-old legacy of wildlife protection.” the Friday Forum said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Issuing a statement the Friday Forum said; “In the last few years\u00a0confiscated\u00a0stockpiles of \u201cblood ivory<\/a><\/span>\u201d have been publicly destroyed in several countries including the United States, China, France and Hong Kong to demonstrate\u00a0their\u00a0opposition to the illegal trade in ivory and the poaching of elephants.\u00a0 The\u00a0Friday\u00a0Forum calls upon the government to\u00a0follow these best practices and\u00a0take similar action to fulfil its legal and ethical obligations under CITES.”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Friday\u00a0Forum also notes that in the last few years\u00a0there have been serious violations of \u00a0Sri Lanka\u2019s obligations under international law relating to the protection of elephants,\u00a0for which the government must be held accountable.<\/p>\n

We publish below the statement in full;<\/p>\n

Profiting from\u00a0the defenceless<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

There\u00a0have been several news reports recently\u00a0about a surge of instances\u00a0of baby elephants taken illegally from the wild and held in captivity by private individuals. Environmentalists and members of the public have expressed their concern. The Friday\u00a0Forum joins these citizens in calling for a full investigation into the\u00a0allegations, and if found correct, for necessary action to bring those responsible to book.\u00a0 The\u00a0Friday\u00a0Forum also notes that in the last few years\u00a0there have been serious violations of \u00a0Sri Lanka\u2019s obligations under international law relating to the protection of elephants,\u00a0for which the government must be held accountable.<\/p>\n

\"Blood<\/a>

Blood ivory seized by the Customs<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2009 there was an incident of two baby tuskers forcibly removed from the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. The illegality of this action was compounded by the cruelty of separating\u00a0young animals from their mothers before they were old enough.\u00a0Since then\u00a0there has been a steady increase in reports of baby elephants being seized from the wild with one report estimating that as many as 60 have been taken within a period of 2-3 years.\u00a0 It is also alleged that several animals have died while being captured or in captivity.\u00a0 Unconfirmed reports have\u00a0disturbingly\u00a0cited the names of several high ranking officials and prominent personalities\u00a0with close connections to the administration\u00a0as being in illegal possession of\u00a0these\u00a0elephants.\u00a0The reports also identify those allegedly responsible for capturing and selling them. \u00a0All captive elephants must be registered with the Department of Wildlife Conservation but media reports allege that\u00a0such registration is\u00a0being misused and further that the register mysteriously disappeared\u00a0from the Department for some time.<\/p>\n

The Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance has\u00a0specific\u00a0provisions on the protection of elephants and the Department of Wildlife Conservation has a legal duty to implement them.\u00a0The\u00a0Friday\u00a0Forum calls upon the Department and other relevant law enforcement authorities to carry out a full, impartial and transparent investigation into these allegations and take necessary legal action against any person found violating the law. This is\u00a0a matter of urgency in order to rescue the captured animals and ensure their welfare in the custody of the State. Elephants are an iconic species in Sri Lanka, reflecting its rich biodiversity and are of\u00a0cultural and\u00a0social significance to\u00a0the people. Capturing young elephants from the wild poses a further threat to their already precarious status as heavily endangered.<\/p>\n

At international level, Sri Lanka has been in violation of binding obligations on the protection of elephants. In May 2012 the Sri Lanka Customs detected and seized a shipment of 359 elephant tusks<\/span><\/a>, amounting to 1.5 tons of ivory and worth millions of dollars.\u00a0 This stock had reportedly originated in Kenya and was en route to Dubai. While the Customs was deservedly commended for this detection, the refusal of the Sri Lankan government to deal with the stock of ivory according to international law has invited equally well deserved criticism from several quarters.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora of 1972, commonly known as CITES, and has binding legal obligations under it. CITES seeks to regulate, and in some instances prohibits, the trade in species classified as endangered or facing threat\u00a0of extinction. Both the African and Asian elephant\u00a0have been classified as species threatened with extinction, and consequently the international trade in ivory was banned as far back as 1989\u00a0in order\u00a0to protect them\u00a0from being hunted for their tusks.\u00a0 Under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance of Sri Lanka too it is illegal to trade in elephant tusks, or to have in one\u2019s possession an unregistered tusk.<\/p>\n

To date, the Sri Lankan authorities have not dealt with the stock of seized ivory as required by\u00a0international law.\u00a0They\u00a0have neither returned the ivory to Kenya nor destroyed it. There\u00a0is no information as to its current whereabouts. Given\u00a0that these tusks represent the mass scale slaughter of hundreds of elephants,\u00a0usually with extreme brutality,\u00a0and international organized crime,\u00a0it is ironic that they are reportedly intended as donations to Buddhist temples, hardly an appropriate destination.<\/p>\n

In the last few years\u00a0confiscated\u00a0stockpiles of \u201cblood ivory<\/span><\/a>\u201d have been publicly destroyed in several countries including the United States, China, France and Hong Kong to demonstrate\u00a0their\u00a0opposition to the illegal trade in ivory and the poaching of elephants.\u00a0 The\u00a0Friday\u00a0Forum calls upon the government to\u00a0follow these best practices and\u00a0take similar action to fulfil its legal and ethical obligations under CITES, and to\u00a0either return the tusks to Kenya or publicly destroy them.\u00a0 Refusal to take such action will inevitably\u00a0cast doubts on Sri Lanka\u2019s commitments to biodiversity conservation and its age-old legacy of wildlife protection.<\/p>\n

Related stories;<\/p>\n

Exposed: Rajapaksa\u2019s Secret Plans To Smuggle Blood Ivory From Customs<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Exposed: Rajapaksa\u2019s Blood Ivory Robbery: Justice Rohini Lies Internationally<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":91383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nFriday Forum Urges Govt. 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