Village "Store"
Forget conservation in the Virungas. It is a failed policy and we have no more business pumping money into the pockets of well-heeled conservationists than we do sending any more troops to Iraq. We screwed up. Face it. Get over it. Take care of the humanitarian problems and perhaps the people won't need to eat every animal in the park. Kick out the foreign nationals and allow the Congolese to solve their own problems. The gorillas will survive, because the Congolese officials realize their value.
The extent of the ivory trade is another indicator of the triumph of corruption and the failure of conservation. Marc Kauffman of the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/26/AR2007022600932.html writes: "an international effort to halt the illegal killing of elephants for their ivory tusks has all but collapsed in most of Africa, leaving officials and advocates alarmed about the survival of the species. A study released yesterday estimates that as many as 23,000 of the animals were slaughtered last year alone."
The Fate of Elephants in Virunga
A visit to a store in a Goma back-alley revealed the extent of the trade in elephant, hippo and rhino ivory in DRC. A request to revisit the store was denied by "conservationist" who might have realized the shop owner was willing to talk to the American reporter. His motivations remain unclear. Congolese workers in the Virungas, eager to explain the extent of the problem there, exhibited an elephant skull and estimated the animal was killed three months ago. They were genuinely concerned, able to communicate in English to some extent, and their video interview was stolen. They are not getting the money they need to do their jobs. The question remains: “Where’s the money?”
Ivory Is Easily Obtained in Goma
The gorillas ARE the problem. Conservationists use gorillas as pawns to leverage foreign aid programs, charitable foundations, and trusts. Because of the potential tourism value, non-human primates are valued more than human life and other wildlife by foreign NGOs. There is a documentary about this called "Guns for Hire: Congo 2006," at http://www.vonplanta.net
A visit to Virunga puts it in context. There are hardly any animals left in Virunga National Park. No amount of fire power will fix the Virungas. Before any more money is sent there, someone, perhaps the United Nations, should undertake some ground-truthing and audit what is going on. The local population will not suffer from this embargo on foreign aid, because they are not seeing the aid anyway. There are enough guns in the region already. The last thing the region needs is armed conservationists!
Soldier Conservationist
Stories which were fronted by the Frankfort Zoological Society, the London Zoological Society and this author about the rangers of the advance force seemed believable, but not after meeting the rangers. Soldiers wearing plastic shoes, who readily hand their automatic weapons over to me, an aging female Muzunga journalist, to play with, are not soldiers at all. These are desperate men who have been promised a good meal and shelter for their families so that European interests can have a private militia. Unless you witness something with your own eyes, or have an impeccable source of information, do not believe what you are told by conservationists.
Conservationists in this part of the Virungas have found a convenient scapegoat in the feared Mai Mai. According to a local report I heard, a family of Mai Mai was murdered in their sleep in the Mbingi area by the regular Congolese army because of their political resistance. The Mai Mai political organization operates from an office in Goma, which would seem to be an anathema for the accused "cannibals." This is not to say that armed militias are not a scourge in eastern Congo. There is enough blame to go around to all of them for atrocities, but that is a job, well done, by Human Rights Watch: see http://hrw.org/campaigns/drc/2006/katanga/index.htm
MONUC reported last week (March 2, 2007) that "Some 260 Maï-Maï combatants surrendered to the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) based in Kamandi, along the banks of Lake Edward, in Lubero territory, in the north-eastern province of North Kivu. After arriving at the military base on Saturday, they were transported by the United Nations Mission in DR-Congo (MONUC) to the Rumangabo assembly camp for eventual integration into the regular armed forces, as reported today by Radio Okapi of the UN mission."
MONUC reports on what happens. They are peacekeepers, not policy makers. The question must be asked how the Mai Mai can be fodder for murder one day and reintegrated into an undisciplined regular armed force the next.
I happened to be there the week before, and what unfolded pretty much sums up my conflicted feelings about DRC.
Since the village which had seen the latest hippo slaughter was only 17 km to the west of our main route and on Lake Edward, I decided to make a stop there and hopefully document some of what had happened. I had reported accounts from this village and wanted to ground-truth my own rendition. The FARDC (regular Congolese army) guard at the gate says there are no problems, meaning Mai Mai, between the village and us, so we pressed on.
There is reward in the sight of a few bushbuck, baboons, warthog, and later on, twelve elephants (there should be at least 300 in this area). This could be attributed to the proximity of the guard post. Some of the animals have learned to adapt. Things fall apart about two km from our goal. Our ICCN ranger guard shouts for the driver to stop. He has spotted three figures running toward us, and steps in front of our vehicle, rifle ready. What I see are three terrified guys carrying hoes, not guns. “Guard,” as I call him, remained restrained and questioned the men. They are shouting. What? There are a few very distant rifle shots. The Mai Mai are in a gun battle in the fishing village, probably with FARDC forces. There is no way to be certain, but I hope that they are shooting at the twenty-five remaining hippos and not villagers.
