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Interpol to Probe Gorilla Poaching

New Vision (Kampala)
NEWS
December 17, 2002
Posted to the web December 17, 2002

By Gerald Tenywa
Kampala

THE Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and its counterparts in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have petitioned Interpol to investigate and arrest suspects engaged in poaching of the highly endangered mountain gorillas.

Dr. Arthur Mugisha, the executive director of UWA, said poachers have butchered six mountain gorillas in four incidences in the three countries this year.

Mugisha said Traffic, which is a network set up by the World Conservation Union for combating wildlife crime, had been contacted by the lead agencies on wildlife in the region.

"We had a meeting in Kabale last week to co-ordinate our efforts to apprehend the perpetrators of this crime," he said.

The police in Kisoro are holding five suspects who were allegedly hunting for an infant mountain gorilla in the most recent incident at Nteko village near Bwindi.

However, the LC2 chairperson and one resident of Kisoro who were not named by UWA but are suspected to be working for a group of smugglers, had vanished from Kisoro district.