Botswana ivory smugglers on trial
By Thomas Chandan
Three game waderns are on trial for their alleged involvement in facilitating the poaching and illegal smuggling of rhino horns out of Botswana to a suspected Asian destination.
The three, whose names have been withheld, are facing serious jail time under a military tribunal which claimed jurisdiction over the case.
It is understood that the accused are soldiers under the Botswana Defence Forces’ payroll and on loan to the country’ s wildlife ministry which has for a long time been under duress from increased poaching that continues to threaten the country’ s wildlife population.
Late 2023,local media reports in Botswana exposed an intricate crime syndicate comprising wildlife offficials, park rangers, border officials and cross-border truck drivers, that elicits poached rhino horns and elephant tusks mainly from Botswana and South Africa, and illegally transfers the contraband through porous borders demarcating Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
North Korean diplomats, reportedly masterminded by one Han Tae-song, have in the past used Mozambique as a final transit point for shipment of rhino horns to the Far East.
It is understood that the three shipments of the smuggled goods illegally sourced from Botswana and South Africa were, in the past three years, dropped at Mozambique ‘ s major port in the capital Maputo before being loaded onto designated vessels that shipped them to Asia.
Han Tae-song, whose last known diplomatic posting was as an ambassador to the United Nations in Switzerland, was recently reportedly recalled from his station after his name was mentioned in a media report on rhino horns poaching and smuggling.
Information garnered thus far indicates that the three rangers under trial reportedly admitted to conniving with poachers and getting paid to fabricate crucial information on recovered horns and ivory by deflating figures before releasing the smuggled goods to their partners in crime.
“The trial is being held under closed doors and is expected to be concluded as soon as all evidence has been brought to bear against the accused,”a Department of Wildlife and National Parks(DWNP) source says.
According to a 2022 Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area ( KAZA TFCA) Elephant Survey,Botswana’ s elephant population hovers around 132 000 elephants,while its rhino population has considerably shrunk since 2018, with the remaining rhinos dehorned and secreted to undisclosed sanctuaries in Botswana.
