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Southern Sudanese
rebels belonging to the Sudan People's Liberation
Army have been linked to poachers who kill elephants
for ivory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
according to national park authorities.
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One
park official said that 200 to 300 people were involved,
and that only 14,000 elephants remained in the country of
90,000 before war there began in 1997.
A spokesman said that what began as poaching
for meat two years ago in Garamba National Park near the
Sudanese border has now turned to poaching for ivory.
Despite an international ban on the sale
of ivory, the BBC's Arnaud Zajtman reported that it is still
sold at the main tourist market in Kinshasa.
UNESCO
has designated the five national parks in the nation as
World Heritage sites. The government is
hopeful now that the country's five-year war is over that
tourism to the parks will increase (BBC Online,
May 7).
Copyright. National Journal Group. Year
2004.
