S.O.S IN EASTERN CONGO:
MAGIC STICKS, CORRUPTON & GORILLA WARFARE
Georgianne Nienaber
&
keith harmon snow
Two urgent
messages arrived from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in late August
2007—each labeled S.O.S. It is ironic that land-locked Congolese would
use the international maritime distress signal S.O.S. to plea for help. As
independent journalists, we feel a bit like the captains of the Carpathian in their futile attempt to rescue the passengers of
the sinking Titanic. The irony of
the Titanic disaster was that the
ship California was floating ten
miles away and capable of rescuing all onboard—but not responding to the
visual S.O.S. The California analogy fits the mainstream media today, as honest
men and women fire rocket flare after rocket flare from the depths of Congo,
hoping and praying that anyone will take heed of the ongoing conservation and
humanitarian disasters.
The puzzled crew of the California watched the TitanicÕs distress signals until it was too late. Over 1500
people perished in the legendary wreck of the Titanic. By some accounts, 10
million have vanished in Congo, with 1,000 people dying daily in North Kivu
Province alone. Untold lowland gorillas have vanished along with the iconic
mountain gorilla. CongoÕs Virunga Park is as devoid of life as the hulking
wreck of the great ocean liner now rusting on the seabed of the icy North
Atlantic.
On August 27, 2007 Congolese national Vital Katembo
Mushegezi, a state Conservator and Senior Game Warden in the Virungas National
Park, sent out an urgent S.O.S. appeal from the DRC.[1]
The second S.O.S. came from a Congolese animal rights organization that has
been investigating the gorilla trade and corruption in the ranks of
conservation NGOs operating within Virunga Park.
In a stunning revelation, investigators from the Innovation
for the Development and Protection of the Environment (I.D.P.E.)—affiliated with the World Society
for the Protection of Animals and supported by Animal Rights of
HawaiÕi—describe Òa network of people who are in search for sticks that
the big apes, such as those the gorillas and the chimpanzees use.Ó
The astonishing claim—mysteriously never reported by
international primatologists and big conservation NGOs like the Jane Goodall
Institute and Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund—is that elderly or handicapped
gorillas and chimps use wooden sticks to defend themselves or to support
themselves as they walk bipedally. Sorcerers—known as
ÒmaraboutsÓ—seek these magic sticks because of the supernatural powers
they possess and the sticks fetch a $20,000 price on the international market.
INTERNATIONAL SCANDAL IN CENTRAL AFRICA
Conservator Vital Katembo came under attack from powerful
forces seeking to maintain a long-standing silence about corruption, extortion,
and criminality involving international non-government organizations (NGOs)
working in the conservation, development and humanitarian sector in Central
Africa. While previously concerned for his livelihood and security, Katembo was
recently barred from his offices at the internationally renowned Congolese
Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) and remains deeply concerned
for his life and his family's security.
The ICCN was established in the 1970Õs and it prospered in
its early years. A much smaller equivalent of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, the ICCN was crippled and incapacitated by decades of graft and
corruption institutionalized by international NGOs in the so-called
ÒconservationÓ and, more lately, ÒhumanitarianÓ business sectors, as they
supported the regime of dictator Joseph Mobutu (DRC/Zaire/DRC) while pursuing
their self-perpetuating programs.
ÒThe situation remains terrible and I really fear about
myself,Ó Katembo wrote. ÒThe
Administrator Director Techniche (ADT), Benoit Kisuki, who is the second in
command in ICCN headquarters in Kinshasa, has sent a verbal instruction to many
expatriates and to the Provincial Director here in Goma and itÕs difficult for
me to know what he told them. Many rangers are supportive of my cause and all
want to see an independent evaluation to probe the facts and punish all
involved.Ó
The ÒcauseÓ Katembo refers to is an exposeÕ of the graft,
money laundering and intimidation that has been business as usual in
conservation and humanitarian sectors in Central Africa. In the past year
Katembo has been increasingly concerned about ÒconservationÓ in Central Africa,
and he has shown unflinching courage by publicly challenging organizations and
individuals who are profiting from the billion dollar conservation, development
and humanitarian sectors at the expense of human suffering and exploitation of
the environment. Vital Katembo has been increasingly vocal, notwithstanding the
threat and actualization of retaliation over the past several months.
An August 16 communication by Mr. Katembo, challenging the
activities and agenda of international NGOs in Central Africa, prompted direct
retaliation because of a mis-directed email that mistakenly reached Wildlife
Direct.
ÒI have now worked in the Virunga for almost 15 years and my
experience of the last 2 years is of deception,Ó Vital Katembo wrote on August
16, 2007, responding to communication exchanges from Wildlife Direct director
Emmanuel De Merode. ÒAre we saving wildlife or are we trying our best to save
so called Wildlife Direct managers and experts? You are not new to learn that
good people can do evil and this is so obvious in the conservation arenaÉ
Conservation in the Virungas is the last stand of oppression, corruption and
colonialism.Ó
The above statement provoked an attack against Katembo
organized by Pasteur Cosma Wilingula, Executive Director of the ICCN in
Kinshasa. KatemboÕs email was a
mild enough comment made off-handedly to Wildlife Direct director Emmanuel De
Merode, and to these authors.
Emmanuel De Merode is a Belgian born primatologist married
to Louise Leakey, Richard LeakeyÕs daughter, who has years of association with
Congo/Zaire. Richard Leakey is the founder of Wildlife Direct, a non-profit
organization registered in Washington DC that operates under the mantle of the
Africa Conservation Fund: ACF is affiliated with former U.S. State Department
and National Security Agency officials. Wildlife Direct has been at the
epicenter of the controversial gorilla killings in Virunga Park, Democratic
Republic of Congo.[2]
Within a week of KatemboÕs comments the Executive Director
of ICCN, Wilingula, was apologizing to and reassuring the international
conservation sector; Vital Katembo was suspended, ostracized widely, and
threatened.
It is the classic smear campaign to discredit the
whistleblower and shoot the messenger.
ÒBy suspending me and not allowing me to work,Ó Katembo
wrote on August 30, 2007, the Executive Director of ICCN Òis trying his best to
stop me from telling the truth about the weaknesses and failure of management
of protected areas in DRC during his tenure and make sure that all goes into
silence.Ó
These allegations,
leveled by Katembo, need scrutiny. We have sent these charges and others
directly to the United States Department of Justice, which has oversight
responsibilities on USAID and other grants, including the non-profit status of
conservation organizations operating on African soil, but registered as
non-profits in the US. It is obvious that the Congolese officials named will
not investigate themselves, and there is no other system in place to
investigate corruption in DRC.
At the top of the list of alleged corrupt Congolese
officials Katembo names are:
[1] Pasteur Cosma Wilingula: ICCN Executive Director;
[2] Djomo Ngumbi: ICCN finance assistant (WilingulaÕs
brother-in-law);
[3] Georges Mwamba: Cabinet Director and Personal Assistant
in Charge of International Cooperation;
[4] Benoit Kisuki: Technical Director and Interim Finance
Director or ADT;
[5] Numerous Chief Technical advisors for the EU, GEF-World
Bank and UNDP.
ÒToday the Executive Director of ICCN Cosmu Wilungula can
use his power and position to say anything about me,Ó says Katembo, Òbut if he
was not satisfied of my services and contributions in the Virungas he could
have sent me out before—not after—I revealed that he is the master
of a corrupt system.Ó
In Congo there is no national whistleblower protection
organization or even the most basic of court systems to assist an honest man
like Vital Katembo (journalists routinely disappear or are murdered). Both of
the authors of this story have been either detained or briefly imprisoned due
to the machinations of corrupt interests. Corruption is widespread, imported
and institutionalized by Western power brokers. KatemboÕs story will never make
60 Minutes, as did the story of Jeffrey Wigand who exposed the scandal
of BIG TOBACCO in the United States or FBI agent Coleen Rowley who exposed the
inadequacies of the FBI in the aftermath of 9/11.
Katembo charges that ICCN officials approve budgets and
sanction monitoring missions in the field. He lists all the big World Heritage sites
in Congo as targets of corruption: Virunga, Salonga, Kahuzi-Biega, and Garamba
National Parks and the Okapi Faunal Reserve in CongoÕs Ituri region. According
to Katembo ICCN bosses Òdo businessÓ with high-level officials and military in
hotels and restaurants in Goma, Kisangani and Bukavu. These associated costs
could pay for a group of rangers deployed at strategic field outposts within
the park, Katembo says. The Òmission reportsÓ by these individuals who never
leave the hotels always read the same—Òthe evaluation mission went on
well but problems remain.Ó
The ICCN Òbig bossesÓ and their international collaborators
forever justify the need for Òcapacity building,Ó which never occurs, prompting
more calls for Òcapacity building,Ó which never occurs. This institutionalized
system of graft perpetually cycles funding back to the international
gatekeepers: expatriates with big salaries, GPS equipment, shiny new SUVÕs,
international travel and conferences, and, increasingly, weapons and other
ÒsecurityÓ and ÒlogisticsÓ equipment. [3]
Cementing the system in place are the public relations
articles and documentaries that peddle white supremacist mythologies in the Smithsonian
and National Geographic magazines and films, in Jane Goodall IMAX
extravaganzas, and in short pithy fictional ÒnewsÓ pieces by Anderson Cooper on
CNN.
It is important for readers not familiar with the Democratic
Republic of Congo to understand that most of the city of Goma is overrun with
solidified black lava, garbage and human misery, while the relatively untouched
embassy row along the shores of Lake Kivu resembles a spa by Congolese
standards. There is electricity, Internet access, hot running water and
charming colonial era hotels with a 1940Õs European flair.
In regional and provincial ICCN offices, directors are
appointed to serve the strategic interests of the bosses in Kinshasa to whom
they are accountable. ÒThat pleases the bosses above them in Kinshasa,Ó Katembo
wrote, Òand oppresses the staff below them without considering the impact on
the efficiency of the institution and work.Ó
International Òconsultants,Ó colluding in the Òconservation
Ôclique,Õ gather "like hyenas at the killÓ of gorilla conservation. We
have been provided with the names of individuals associated with well-known
international conservation organizations and descriptions of illicit activities
of these organizations, some of which are funded through US tax dollars. We are
holding them back until DOJ completes its own investigation.
ÒThese people
manipulate and handle money from donors on the ground, and the budgets are set
accordingly so they remain in good eyes of the Administrateur Directeur General
(ADG) and Technical Director (ADT) and their accomplices,Ó Katembo charges.
Katembo also alleges that UNESCO funding has been
expropriated.
Salaries for expatriates, often paid by international
donors, are between 5000-6000 Euros ($6850-$8500) per person per month. A
measly $200-500 US per month is allocated for Park Operations (includes food,
fuel, medicine, logistics needs and equipment purchases). And the Congolese
rangers themselves are paid a pittance.
RangerÕs bonuses and salaries top out at $20-30 US per person per
month—hardly a life-sustaining wage.
In a BBC news opinion piece of September 10, 2007
titled ÒConservation Alone is Not Enough,Ó Wildlife Direct founder Richard
Leakey referred to Òludicrously small government salariesÓ in DRC, where Òa
ranger earns about $5 a month.Ó [4]
Richard LeakeyÕs opinion piece should be addressing the
institutional racism inherent in a system which pays (mostly) white expatriates
$6000-$8000 per person per month—with all kinds of travel, health,
lodging and vacation perks—and $5 per person per month for black rangers
living and dying in squalor. LeakeyÕs comments are further rendered obtuse when
we learn that board members of the Africa Conservation Fund backing Wildlife
Direct are involved with multinational corporations plundering gold from
eastern Congo. [5]
The disparity between salaries of Congolese rangers and
those of conservation expatriates parallel those of Congolese nationals
employed by the Western ÒhumanitarianÓ sector: For one poignant example,
national staff on the United Nations Observers Mission to Congo (MONUC) payroll
went on strike in August 2007 to protest the $10 a day wages MONUCÕs black
nationals receive, compared to lucrative salaries of the international staff.
Congolese nationals who protest at private NGOs like DoctorÕs Without Borders
or CARE risk retaliation for the mildest complaints about conditions or
salaries. Congolese nationals working at a Medicines Sans Frontieres/Doctors
Without Borders supported hospital in Basankusu, DRC, who complained (in
solidarity) about wages and conditions were abandoned as MSF closed the program
and pulled out.
Humanitarianism, like conservation, is the big international
scandal in Africa.
GREASING THE GORILLA SKIDS
In the Virungas, Field Station Senior Staff, including the
chief warden and financial managers, are appointed according to favors they can
supply either to the ADG, ADT or Director Mwamba. ÒThey are selectively and
strategically appointed in areas and positions where they have easy access to
finances and all logistical support and other facilities from funded
projects—provided that they remember to report regularly to the bosses.Ó
It is in this capacity that Paulin Ngobobo, who is from the
same village as the ADG Cosma Wilingula, and without any previous experience in
National Park management, was appointed in the southern sector of the Virungas
National Park—where the world recoiled in horror at the record number
gorilla killings in recent months.
Anyone who read the regurgitated press releases of Wildlife
Direct in the Washington Post or Newsweek will recall that ranger
Ngobobo was touted by the mainstream Western media as the gentleman savior of
the Virungas—silhouetted against the African sky, nattily attired in
spit-and-polished uniform and boots.
Katembo charges that Mr. Ngobobo had other duties as well.
Evidently Ngobobo was tipped by the ADG to report straight
to the board members in Kinshasa and ignore Katembo, whose role became that of
protocol only. The same situation exists in Kahuzi Biega, Òfor the same
reasons,Ó Katembo says: the top brass in Kinshasa, who benefit from connections
with Western elite organizations and greased the skids for the conservation and
humanitarian programs that do not serve Congo, have key gatekeepers positioned
to insure that their self-serving agendas are met.
Mysterious wire transfers and money laundering round out the
picture, leaving little room for the survival of the mountain gorilla.
According to Katembo, a man named Djomo Ngumbi connects the old fashioned way
via phone with the ADG in order to trade pin numbers attached to wire transfers
using ÒMistercashÓ or Western Union through regular ICCN finance channels.
(Mistercash is an online money transfer method, developed with the support of
Belgian banks.)
Additional eyebrow-raising ICCN behaviors include:
[1] Issuing phony filming permits to international media and
pocketing the cash;
[2] Issuing contracts directly to communication networks for
cash or favors;
[3] Off-the books purchases of equipment and vehicles not
disclosed to the public and/or without public tender.
Katembo charges that those who do the bidding of the big
conservation and humanitarian NGOs from Europe, Japan and North
America—are rewarded with exit visas and full tuition paid college
educations for their children at top colleges in the donor countries. The end result
is that expatriate agents of big conservation and the humanitarian misery
industry open all the doors for the chosen few at the expense of the excluded many[GON1] .
ÒVirunga National Park has a long tradition of being funded
and supported,Ó said Katembo. ÒFor example by the European Union, World Bank,
USAID/CARPE, United Nations Development Program, UNESCO, all have been giving
and helping in terms of conservation in Virungas. But if we look at the
situation now, in 2007, we have to ask where have all the millions and millions
gone? ICCN people in Kinshasa, where all these contracts are negotiated, have
never been in the field, they donÕt know anything about conservation. The
members of the Western conservation clique go to Kinshasa and they charm the
bosses. It is impossible to question a project after it has been approved in
Kinshasa. You will find the Executive Director of ICCN driving a car that is
beyond his budget and his salary. Pierre Kakule—the Dian Fossey Gorilla
Fund big chief from Tayna Conservation Area—has five cars in Goma and a
mansion on Lake Kivu. You will find big gaps between what they earn and what
you find in their houses. How do these people send their children to America?
To Paris? To Yale or Harvard? It is the clique that intervenes now. They get a
spokesman, a representative, a bonafide
African voice, and in turn he will get gifts. Not a bicycle or a computer, but
$50,000 to build a house on Lake Kivu, or a scholarship for their sons and
daughters. Everything is greased. The entire process of the application, for
example, to an elite college—itÕs all insured, itÕs all organized for
them, and they are protected.Ó
Regarding this allegation, we have photo documentation of
KakuleÕs mansion, having been initially tipped by a US embassy official as to
its existence.
In other words, Dian Fossey was right when she charged in
private correspondences that most money donated to her Digit Fund went directly
into private coffers and shiny new vehicles for government officials.
Katembo charges that the same corrupt practices—what
we call institutionalized white supremacy—are occurring with the hoardes
of Western NGOs descending on war-torn Congo in search of contracts for
ÒreliefÓ and Òpost-conflict
resolution.Ó
ÒThere is money from Brussels for post conflict resolution,Ó
says Katembo. ÒThere is a lot of money for that. Soon we will have EU and USAID
and UNESCO and UNDP and World Bank and Norwegian PeopleÕs Aid flags flying
everywhere. Since January there have been five EU missions where consultants
fly into Congo looking for ÒpriorityÓ projects. An expert comes in and says:
ÔYou need this, you need that, they target the money, they get the money, and
when the money is gotten—then its time to eat—everyone comes
together to divide up the money like hyenas at a kill. They bounce from donor
to donor, you see them circling and circling, and whoever gets the money first
you see all of them displaying the EU flag. Next time it will be USAID or the
flag of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
ItÕs the same culture with the humanitarian organizations. But they are
not doing what Congo needs, and they donÕt include Congolese people.Ó
We personally witnessed SUVÕs from the Norwegian Refugee
organization packing bar parking lots in Goma, but saw no evidence of them in the
villages we visited, or along the roads through Virunga Park.
MAGICICAL MYSTERY TOUR
Carefully orchestrated conservation public relations pitches
to the world revolve around seeming concern for the flora and fauna of the
Virungas World Heritage Site, especially the mega fauna and flagship species:
the embattled and endangered mountain gorilla. But perhaps this public concern
masks motives and manipulations from a more sinister master.
In a bizarre twist to a compelling story in which the truth
shifts and shapes to fit the motivation of the tellers—big conservation
from Western countries and their agents on the ground in Congo—the most
recent investigation charges that the sensational gorilla killings of July 2007
were not due to the elusive Òcharcoal gatherersÓ fingered by Emmanuel Demerode
of Richard LeakeyÕs Wildlife Direct and the UNESCO investigators flown in from
Paris, nor were they due to the trade in infant gorillas or the bushmeat trade
that, being the usual suspects, are forever indicting starving African people
for their own miseries.
The real reason for gorilla killings may be as old as the
soul of Africa—a quest as compelling as that for the Holy Grail—the
acquisition of magic Ògorilla sticksÓ fetching up to $20,000. These gorilla
sticks are reportedly used as walking sticks or canes for elder gorillas and
elder chimpanzees, and according to the recent S.O.S. they are thought to hold
supernatural powers. The question that goes hand in hand with the old gorilla
walking cane story is why the existence of magic walking sticks has not been
raised by either the Congolese rangers—who most certainly understand
local customs—or the gorilla organizations that are quick to capitalize
on and spread media and academic frenzy over the Òtool-usingÓ practices of
great apes.
Why havenÕt gorilla and chimpanzee primatologists reported
on the tool-using capabilities that revolve around magic gorilla sticks?
Meanwhile, the regular Congolese army, in its supposed zeal
to rid Virunga Park of an alphabet soup of militia—including Mai Mai, the
Interahamwe and the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda—not to
mention villagers who only want to find a way to survive in the hell that has
overcome North Kivu Province—has eaten anything and everything that moves.
Virunga has become a ÒGhost ParkÓ in the words of the Congolese animal rightsÕ
investigators.
To get these sticks the primate must be killed. According to
the Congolese investigators the local militia and soldiers Òare engaged in the
dirty business.Ó After the ape is killed, the meat is either taken as a
by-product of the kill or left to rot in the bush. Any orphan gorillas are left
behind too.
The trade in rhino horn—coveted for its believed
aphrodisiac qualities—has eliminated the White Rhino from Virunga and
nearly completed the extermination in Garamba, another national park in the
north of Congo. The power of the magic gorilla stick is even greater in a
region where life and fate turn on a dime.
According to field reports and interviews conducted by
independent Congolese investigators who gained the trust of village women by
posing as gorilla smugglers, Òthe stick used by the big
apes is supposed to carry magic power useful to protect someone in his job so
that he can keep it as long as possible, he must be feared and [can] exert
authority on the other workers.Ó
Local investigations independent of any NGOs or park
authorities report that since January 3, 2007, eleven chimpanzees have been
killed at Tongo and three mountain gorillas at Rumangabo, two sites in the
Virungas landscape. Six of these chimps were reportedly killed on March 19,
three on April 16, and two on June 16 by the forces under command of CongoÕs
resident Rwanda-backed warlord General Laurent Nkunda.
Rubiga, the female mountain gorilla of the Kabirizi Group
(family) was killed in Rumangabo on June 8. The baby, Ndakasi, left feeding at
its breast was hauled off to Goma amidst much media attention by the Mountain
Gorilla Veterinary Project, and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
(DFGF-I) wasted no time in issuing a press release about its own involvement in
the Òrescue.Ó[6]
The Rumangabo location in the Virungas is noteworthy. We
visited Rumangabo in February 2007, and the place was crawling with rangers
affiliated with both ICCN and the Frankfurt Zoological Society. The FZS project
is run by conservationist Robert Muir, and both projects are closely tied into
Richard LeakeyÕs ÒeliteÓ Congo Rangers. The Rangers are either operating with
rusty machetes or well-oiled machine guns: those who believe the story peddled
on July 22 by the Washington PostÕs Stephanie McCrummen can buy the
Òrusty macheteÓ descriptions; those who saw the photos supplied by Robert Muir
have to place their bets on a well-trained and incredibly well-equipped
mercenary army.
Rumangabo also has a sophisticated communications tower,
well stocked food storage areas and, according to local investigators, a lively
ongoing trade in gorilla and chimp orphans.
During the
course of an investigation regarding the disposition of one baby gorilla, the
investigative team brought an interpreter proficient in Kinyarwandan (Rwandan)
to ÒCamp Vodo,Ó a location a scant fifteen meters from the ranger station at
Rumangabo.
Instead of
one infant gorilla, the team found a two-month old and a four month old. Price
was discussed. The two month old was being offered for $3,000 US and a $5,000
price tag with a special ÒdiscountÓ would nab the second gorilla. Investigators
had a digital camera and suggested that their ÒbuyerÓ would like a photo or two
before the price was agreed upon, but Òa man who had a soldierÕs attitude, but
dressed in civilian clothes,Ó prohibited any attempts at photo documentation.
The
investigators recommended that the sellers come with the sting team to Goma to
obtain the money for the gorilla, but the sellers and the military spokesman in
civilian clothes opposed the plan. It was either turn over the money, or head
out, since it was already getting dark and there is no twilight in this part of
equatorial Africa. The Rwandan guide, doubling as interpreter, drove the group
to a third dealer—this one a woman. The baby gorilla in her possession
had a severe wound on its right thigh. The woman appeared to be in close
collaboration with the soldiers whom she said would always provide her with as
many gorillas as she wanted. The gruesome process was always the
same—slaughter the mother, take the baby. The team suggested that the
life of the proffered baby gorilla was in danger because of the severe wound,
but the woman reassured the team that the baby was under the care of a
veterinarian.
The woman
then said she had another gorilla at a location eight kilometres away, but this
one was older than the others, she said, and the team needed to choose which
gorilla it wanted to purchase. Refusing to buy sight unseen, the woman
eventually produced a bag of hair and excrement that she said came from the
older gorilla.
Investigators
reported that the woman appeared confident and said she collaborates with a
Ugandan businessman who often arrives in Kiwanja, a village in North
Kivu province 10 miles west of the border, from Uganda. While in Kiwanja, the Ugandan teams up with a local
businessman by the name of ÒBahatiÓ who is connected with a young man called
ÒKakule.Ó (We confirmed that this is not the Pierre Kakule of DFGF-I and the
MwamiÕs Tale ÒHenchmen and Heartbreak in the Heart of Darkness.Ó[7])
A Rwandan
businesswoman named Rose Musabuwera controls another network—she is a big
provider to the gorilla trade, according to local insiders and investigators.
This Madame of the gorilla trade is colourfully referred to as the Òmotor brain
that nourishes the networks.Ó
When asked
the source of the infant gorillas, Òmotor brainÓ said the babies are taken from
a forest named BUKIMA, within Virunga Park and in collaboration with Òarmed
soldiers.Ó When asked if any bushmeat was sold, she replied it was sold to the
wives of soldiers being integrated into the ranks of the Congolese army at
Rumangabo. This could possibly mean the Mai Mai troops or those of Laurent
Nkunda. Wildlife Direct has a patrol post in this area, but seems surprisingly
ignorant of this ongoing and public trade, and remains silent.
The Congolese investigative team identified the
three-pronged ÒaxisÓ of the trade route: [1] Sake to Goma; [2] Goma to Kiwanja
and Rumangabo; and [3] Kibumba. Sake is 25 km from Goma, and Congolese army
soldiers control this ÒaxisÓ with support from MONUC.
Militia and regular Congolese army officers and soldiers are
believed to be involved in the hunt for magic gorilla sticks. ÒAll the network
of the traders and their facilitators are at work in search for the magic
sticks,Ó reported I.C.P.E. ÒThis business has interested every social class
including the responsible at every level as the price is very attractive and
can go up to 20.000 U.S. dollars.Ó
The Kibumba
route is especially pourous, in spite of the number of check points erected on
this main route through the Virungas. Kibumba is 30 km north of Goma,
the site where some 300,000-350,000 Rwandan refugees were herded during the
Rwandan genocide. Smugglers
are either complicit with authorities or the guards at the roadblocks are
accomplices. A motorcyclist told the team that he had transported baby gorillas
in cardboard boxes on the Goma road, that is, the Kiwanja-Rumangabo route. He
is paid by the hour and considers it Òa good job.Ó
Whether or
not one believes in the fantastic tales of magic gorilla sticks imbued with
supernatural powers, or attributes the horrific loss of mountain gorillas in
July 2007 to human greed, revenge or hunger, several key questions have still
not been answered.
After all
of the time, money, suffering and blood that have been poured into the World
Heritage site known as Virunga National Park since Dian Fossey gave her life in
1985, why has the slaughter of mountain gorillas suddenly been escalated to a
degree that Fossey herself did not witness?
Why havenÕt
primatologists reported the use of walking sticks as tools by the aging
patriarchs and matriarchs of the great apes? Why havenÕt the big primate
protection organizations like Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and the Jane Goodall
Institute and the Gorilla Organization reported the rise of the illegal trade
in magic sticks that is reportedly behind the recent gorilla killings? This is
the stuff mainstream media latches on to and spreads like plague.
Why did the
recent spate of mountain gorilla killings begin in perfect coincidence with the
January 2007 appearance of the mercenary forces known as Wildlife Direct? The
same thing happened in Kenya when Richard Leakey organized mercenary forces
there: elephants were slaughtered in record numbers. In a review of LeakeyÕs
book, Wildlife Wars The respected East African writes:
ÒWhen Leakey embarked on a full-scale war against elephant
poachers, he was up against well-trained bandits from Somalia. He writes that
everyone—the public, the rangers themselves, journalists and even the
international press—were so afraid of the poachers that when he made the
famous remark that he would invite the press to take snaps of dead poachers, he
was seen by reporters as a sort of ÔClint Eastwood character running amok in
the savannah.Õ Ó
The mountain gorilla is not alone in paying the price for
the Western ÒconservationÓ and ÒhumanitarianÓ industry operations in Central
Africa. With all the bloodshed, with all the killings come new markets for the
Western charity/misery industry, new jobs for white expatriates, new sales of
shiny new SUVs for Toyota and Nissan—and the ongoing devastation and
death of Congolese people.
Congo today is a humanitarian disaster that makes the
Titanic look like a speck in an ocean of blood. Magic gorilla sticks indeed.
The people of Congo get the shaft, no matter how you look at it. It is no
wonder the local sorcerers and marabouts need a little magic.
[1] Vital Katembo is the unnamed corruption informant
featured in the KONG series, written by these authors, first published by
COANEWS (www.coanews.org) and then picked up
by OPED News (www.opednews.com).
[2] See: keith harmon snow & Georgianne Nienaber, KING KONG: EXTRA! EXTRA! STOP THE MAINSTREAM
PRESS!:
Gorillas
ÒExecutedÓ Stories front for Privatization of Congo Parks, Truth of
Depopulation Ignored,Ó <http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-210Gorillas_Executed_Final_July30_2007.htm>.
[3] See, e.g., the series of
articles by keith harmon snow and Georgianne Nienaber under the title King
Kong: Scoping in on the Curious Activities of the International Monkey Business,
<http://www.allthingspass.com/journalism.php?catid=45>.
[4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6983914.stm
[5] See: keith harmon snow & Georgianne Nienaber, KING KONG: EXTRA! EXTRA! STOP THE MAINSTREAM
PRESS!:
Gorillas
ÒExecutedÓ Stories front for Privatization of Congo Parks,
Truth of
Depopulation Ignored,Ó <http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-210Gorillas_Executed_Final_July30_2007.htm>.
[6]
http://www.gorillafund.org/about/press_item.php?recordID=54
[7] keith harmon snow and Georgianne Nienaber, KONG
PART THREE: A Mwamis Tale: Henchmen and Heartbreak in the Heart of Darkness,
<http://www.allthingspass.com/journalism.php?catid=45
>.
[GON1]Deleted names