Gorilla Warfare

More documents

Recommendations

Info

a corrupt mafia of charcoal merchants has recently begun harvesting Virunga's forests to fuel a $30 million-a-year industry. "These are their oil wells," Leakey says ofVirunga's trees. Ifunchecked, the loggers' activities could decimate the gorilla habitat in a few years. The mountain gorillas, partofa worldwide population that numbers around 700, have become more-direct targets as well. Seven have been killed, some would say murdered, since January. They have not been killed for their meat or their pelts or their internal organs. In fact, no one is quite sure why they've been killed. InJanuary two of them died amid fighting between the renegade general, Laurent Nkunda, and government forces. But others, like the family found last week, have been shot at close range and in some cases mutilated. One of the rangers, Paulin Ngobobo, 43, has been intimately involved in trying to stop the charcoal trade from spreading across Vrrunga. A devout Christian, with a wry sense of humor, Ngobobo is fiercely protective of the gorillas in his sector of the park. Six months ago he was lecturing villagers about the threat the charcoal industry posed to Vuunga when men in military uniforms showed up, stripped him of his shirt and flogged him in front of the audience. Last month he posted a blog item in which he accused the charcoal merchants of being complicit in the destruction ofthe gorillas' habitat. Two days later unknown gunmen killed a female gorilla under his care. Ngobobo says he has received death threats and warnings to stop criticizing the charcoal industry. Then came last week's killings, which many in his unit have interpreted as political assassinations-a message from the powerful interests that operate in the area. "There are people who are feeding off this conflict:' Ngobobo warns darkly. Last week authorities arrested Ngobobo and accused him of negligence because the recent killings all happened on his watch; his supporters claim that that was part ofthe assassins' plan all along. Ngobobo denies any wrongdoing. Rangers like Ngobobo are certainly not the ones profiting in Vrrunga. Some 600 of them patrol the vast park, the oldest in 28 NEWSWEEK AUGUST 6. 2007
Africa. Yet most have not received their government salaries in years. Instead many are now paid by a European Unionfunded conservation group called Wildlife Direct, cofounded in January by Leakey. The group solicits funds from donors with the guarantee that 100 percent ofthe money goes straight to the rangers. Those officers are devoted to their imposing charges. They have their favorites, whom they follow closely and write about on a blog that Wildlife Direct has set up. Leakey's partner, Emmanuel de Merode, says thatas recently as 2001 "therewasn't a single vehicle in the whole sector; none of the rangers had uniforms or rifles!' Since 1994, about 120 rangers have been killed in the line of duty. Even now they are hopelessly outgunned: Nkunda alone has almost 8,000 highly trained men under his command. Last week the United Nations, which has several thousand peacekeepers stationed in the area, declared Nkunda's forces "the single most serious threat" to Congolese stability. "It's almost impossible to be sanguine about the gorillas' future," says Leakey. "They are hugely vulnerable in part because they're living in areas that are hugely unsettled ... The security ofthis species is not guaranteed." The morning after last week's massacre, whenthe rains hadstopped, rangers returned to the forests to search for survivors. That's when they discovered the hulking mass ofSenkekwe, a 600-pound silverback shot execution style in a copse oflush vegetation. One massive arm was outstretched, the other held close to his heart, perhaps a sign that he died while thumpinghis chest. With Senkekwegone, the unity of the family was immediately cast in doubt. As the sun cleared the valley walls and rose into the sky, nearly a hundredvillagers from nearby settlements gathered on the slopes below the forest. They carried the powerful bodies out and laid them reverently on the ground. They carefully wrapped the great apes' faces with leaves to keep flies away. Using trees and stalks of cut bamboo, they lashed the dead gorillas to makeshift stretchers. And then, with a mighty surge and a great clattering of voices, they hoisted the gorillas onto their shoulders and marched down the hills, toward the setting sun. • AUGUST 6, 2007 NEWSWEEK 29
Page 3 and 4: ..nternational BY SHARON BEGLEY N T
Page 6 and 7: BY SCOTT JOHNSON THE MEN HUDDLED UN

Gorilla Warfare

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?