KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia has seized elephant tusks and ivory
handicrafts worth an estimated four million ringgit (S$1.6 million) en
route from Kenya to Cambodia, a customs official said Tuesday.
The haul is the latest to indicate Malaysia has become an Asian
transit hub in the illicit ivory trade, and follows the seizure of
hundreds of African elephants' tusks in several busts by Malaysian
authorities in recent months.
Customs inspectors seized the container last Thursday in Klang,
Malaysia's biggest port, after it was unloaded from a cargo ship.
"The cargo manifest said the container contained handicrafts
(soapstone) and it was loaded in Mombasa port in Kenya," Azis Yacub,
state customs director of the state of Selangor, where the port is
located, said in a statement.
Officials also found carved elephant and rhinoceros ivory. Azis said the container's final destination was the port of Sihanoukville in Cambodia.
In August, Hong Kong authorities seized nearly two tonnes of elephant
ivory worth about $1.7 million in a shipment from Malaysia, which
wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC has described as a major hub
for illicit wildlife products.
TRAFFIC says that the illegal ivory trade has been rising globally
since 2004 largely due to increasing demand in China, where ivory is
often ground up and used in traditional medicine.
International trade in elephant ivory was banned in 1990, but since
then several auctions of tusks from elephants that died naturally or
were seized from poachers have been permitted in Namibia, Botswana and
South Africa.
Resource : AFP
