Wednesday 24 June 2015

Live animals saga: Team awaits travel documents

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INNOCENT-THE BLOGGER-BOY
Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda
 As Members of Parliament continued to pressure the government to return the 132 live animals and birds smuggled out of the country last year, the government yesterday said the investigative team  formed to probe the matter was waiting for travel documents from the Qatar government.
 
 
 
 
As a result of the saga in August 2011 the government announced a one-year ban on licences for export of live animals.
 
Announcing the ban, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda said measures would be taken to plug loopholes being used to export animals illegally.
 
The investigative team which was formed in 2012 to probe the illegal export of live wild animals to Qatar had not visited the country because  the team was still waiting for the travel documents  from the Qatar government, in the United Arab Emirates.
 
The 132 live wild animals and 16 birds were alleged to have been smuggled out of the country in November 2010 to Qatar.
 
The team’s mission is to establish whereabouts of the animals and the propose measures to be taken to ensure the animals were flown back to  the country.
 
The decision to send the team was reached mid-2012 following positive response from the Qatar office of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which confirmed that the 116 animals and birds were indeed in Qatar.
 
However, the deputy minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mahmoud Mgimwa told the National Assembly yesterday that all procedures for the team to travel to Qatar had been completed except the travel permits from the Qatar which they were still waiting.
 
Mgimwa did not say the specific reasons of why until now they did not get the travel documents from Qatar government.
 
The deputy minister made the remark in response to a supplementary question by Special   Seat MP Christowaja Mtinda (Chadema) who had wanted to know the reasons for the probe team formed by the government in 2012 .
 
Christowaja questioned the government’s   silence over the matter while CITES confirmed that the animals were illegally kept in Qatar.
 
Responding, Mgimwa admitted that following the scandal the government had formed a special investigative team which included members from the National Assembly and the  Parliamentary Committee for Natural Resources and Tourism.
 
Mgimwa told the House that according to the law they cannot travel to any foreign country without getting a travel permit from the country of destination.
 
 Minister added that the failure to get the traveling permit from Qatar was the main reason of why the team  had  not travelled  but he stressed that the government was still processing for the permission; he added that the committee will travel immediately after receiving the permit.
 
In her basic question Christowaja wanted to know the government measures to deal with piracy challenges in the country.
 
Responding to a basic question, Mgimwa said that the live wild animals in the country were in massive piracy and the government had put in place strong strategies to control the problem.
 
Mgimwa told the House that some of the measures were increasing the security at the airports, at the ports and at all borders as government efforts to protect the wild life in the country.
 
Meanwhile, in August 2011 members of Parliament pressured the government to return the smuggled live animals and birds, resulting in the government slapping a one-year ban on the export of live animals.
 
The cargo alleged to have been smuggled in 2010 included four giraffes.
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