Judicatory Authority of Belgium recently announced that Belgian
police Sunday arrested 15 Chinese aid-Mali medical staff in
Brussels International Airport on suspicion of being involved in
ivory smuggling.
Spokesman for Brussels Procuratorate said that the 15 Chinese were
detained immediately after they got off the plane in Brussels
Airport on their way home from Mali. The reason is the Belgian
customs tracked down 150-kg of ivory and ivory products in their
baggage checked to Beijing on June 30.
Besides, persons of Belgian customs also found rawhides of the
animals under protection and products made of crocodile leather in
their luggage. All of these are forbidden for trading in accordance
with the international convention. After interrogation, Belgian
police suspected that the 15 Chinese belong to illegal smuggling
group and decided to arrest them. Later they were put into a jail
in Brussels.
The 15-person Chinese aid-Mali medical team was reported to have
come from China’s Zhejiang Province. According to Belgian law,
anyone who illegally smuggles ivory and ivory products shall be
sentenced to two years of life in imprisonment.
In
October 1989, the Seventh Conference of the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species was held in Lausanne,
Switzerland. The conference passed the international trade
amendments for a complete ban on trading of African ivory and ivory
products. From then on, trading of ivory and ivory products is
absolutely forbidden by the international community.
Since China formally joined the “Convention” in 1981, it has always
been taking the management of the imports and exports of wild
animals and plants and the striking on ivory smuggling as the key
measures to intensify the protection of wild animals and
plants.
( 08/09/2001)