Baraza

Greetings everyone. This morning I had to apply for my USA Visa – I had to wake up at 6 am to get to the visa center in time – 7 am. I got there early but there was already quite a crowd. After a body search and bag search I was allowed into the compound. Then I joined the queue, it started raining, luckily the path is covered, which wasn’t the case last year when I had to stand in the rain for an hour – you see if you miss your visa appointment its virtually impossible to get another one. The lady in front of me had an open basket and I could see a whole picnic in there! I teased her about it and she confirmed to me that she was anticipating a 4 hour wait in the queue! After an hour of slowly nudging forwards, I got to the window and then into a door – it’s like an obstacle course. There the search is repeated and my computer was wiped and tested chemically – to my horror the alarms went of in screeching bleeps. They tried another box of the wipes, same thing. They did something to the machine turned the machine and tried again. The alarms screamed. They started to look at me with great suspicion, ask questions, make phone calls, ‘had anyone else used my computer?’ they asked. No! The problem they said was that the machine was registering chemicals… I asked if they could be agricultural chemicals and they said ‘organophosphates” …bugger, I told them about the pot of Furadan on my desk which I bought and wrote about a few posts ago in our Stop Poisoning Wildlife campaign. I was told to step out of the building, and after a few more phone calls I was asked to take my computer away and come back without it!

Luckily my car was nearby so I dropped it off, returned to the queue and there was no further drama, I submitted my documents and had my fingerprints taken, two and a half hours later and 150$ poorer I was back in the sunshine. I have to return tomorrow to pick up the passport. It felt like the longest morning although it was nothing compared to my last visit where I was rained on, insulted by guards and stood in queues for many hours.

Actually, I’m not here to write and complain about the visa process (it’s truly miles better than last year) but to give you an update about the baby gorilla sales. Well, several people have tried calling and faxing, but nobody seems to be at the other end of that telephone number. However, Botha middle farm does exist and infact has a church and a school on it. I found several references to it on the interenet. It is in LImbe and very close to the Limbe sanctuary We have contacted the folks at Limbe as well as at LAGA the Last Great Ape Organization which is based in Cameroon. They are amazing and solve wildlife crimes by working with local authorities. They sent me this report.

“The first two arrests of the week were of leopard and Caracal skin dealers in the North of Cameroon. The third succeeded just today, of an internet dealer. He was arrested following a complaint from Malaysia and caught with a falsified CITES permit for sulcata tortoises. He admitted regularly carrying these illegal activities, falsifying CITES permits for several protected animals including chimps for more than a year. He stated that he has many collaborators around the world, including a Cameroonian based in China , that sends him contacts and “blank” CITES permits to “fill in”. As Sone’s work gets us more and more Internet trade and fraud arrests, our strategies are improved. I renew my call for more collaboration – please forward us any relevant complaints.

All 3 dealers are locked behind bars after blocking several attempts of obstruction of justice. A forth case of this week was initiated by the Ministry asking for our legal support.

I want to renew my appeal for financial assistance urgently needed in Congo . Our short mission in Congo can result in a sustainable impact if we use the momentum to set up a local structure. Project proposal is available for a structure that would be run by The Aspinall Foundation, financially audited by WCS and with technical support of LAGA.”

I told them about the baby gorilla and they promised to look into it.

I also invited them to start blogging with us as I’m sure they have one or two great stories to tell. I’ll keep you posted on developments.

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