Get to know YOUR E-NUMBERS
Do you actually know what is in your child’s processed food to even fizzy drinks? Are you even aware that eating the wrong foods can cause crime levels and anti-social behaviour to increase? Well it’s a well-known fact that E numbers are a primary concern in the food industry with many parents now, that are either too lazy to cook a decent meal that consists of fresh vegetables and wholesome food without “artificial colours, preservatives to genetically modified foods” to parents that are too busy with hectic work schedules or those that are living on the poverty line literally being forced to contaminate their children’s bodies that can lead to an array of physical and psychological conditions to form.
E numbers have been linked to various anti-social behaviours to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder more commonly known as ADD Attention Deficit Disorder formally named correctly in 1994 after many Yale Brown tests and investigations on this neurological disorder.
What are E numbers? Well the actual meaning “E number” refers to a number of “food additives and chemicals” that are placed into food that we consume and drink every day. An E number is basically a code for a chemical of which some are good however many are indeed extremely bad for your child’s health to even you and your pets health.
1962 was when the first E numbers where really addressed and added into foods within the European Union then later on in 1964 the directives for preservatives where added giving you not just colourings, but also extra food additives to enhance the foods flavourings, quality and appearance to taste. The European Union believes and still believes to this very day this to be “very healthy for us all” in fact what they didn’t know that by adding these chemicals and this ruling back in 1962-1964 under the European Food Safety Authority E.F.S.A that they were in fact dicing with peoples health and mental stability mainly in children which are more sensitive to E numbers and there intoxicating powers.
1970 saw antioxidants added to foods, and then in 1974 emulsifiers, stabilisers, thickeners and gelling agents all of which have E numbers “chemical components” that are both good and also highly dangerous for you and your families health. In some European countries, “E number” is sometimes used informally as a pejorative term for artificial food additives, and products may promote themselves as “free of E numbers”.
Since many components of natural foods have E numbers (and the number simply is a synonym for the chemical component), e.g., vitamin C (E300) and lycopene (E160d), this is incorrect; presumably, the intent is that the ingredients list does not list any food additives by E number, that is, pure forms of the substances are not intentionally added.
Please view here the I.N.S http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_food_additives,_Codex_Alimentarius better referred to as the International Numbering System for food additives. Please check these chemicals on you food ingredients before purchasing and try to purchase more foods that are not E numbered contaminated.
There is a total of 1599 E numbers that reside in the human food chain and not all of them are actually good nor are they recognised to permitted in the human food chain under European Food laws on additives. You can view the entire list of toxic and non-toxic to allowed and banned E numbers within this link here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_number#E100.E2.80.93E199_.28colours.29
Why are E numbers are bad though? This is quite a difficult question as there are many foods imported legally into the European Nations everyday by manufactures to even the international non-European public that wish to send treats to their family members in the post. The majority of foods that are in fact licensed and allowed to cross into the European Union have been analysed. However there are what I have explained the “hidden dangers” that pass through ports that are not always checked and are then entering the human food chain whether it be on a personal consumption or sold legitimately to illegally in small hypermarkets.
A plausible connection to tantrums, poor concentration and slow progress at school is understood to have been found in a study published by the Government’s Food Standards Agency. Food industry leaders have were summoned to a meeting with the FSA in 2007 for a briefing on the research and its implications.
The findings, from Southampton University, raise the possibility of parents suing food manufacturers in the same way tobacco firms have been pursued by cancer victims in the U.S. The study could also mean the industry will have to reformulate a vast array of children’s products.
Some supermarkets and manufacturers have pre- empted the study by announcing bans on suspect additives in sweets, cakes and soft drinks. The FSA has cloaked the findings in secrecy but its experts are expected to tell parents the only way to avoid any risk is to cut the additives from their children’s diet.
Health campaigners, however, believe a more stringent legal ban is necessary. The risk of allergic reactions, such as breathing problems and asthma, from certain additives was established more than 20 years ago.
There have been similar concerns-about the impact on brain development but nothing strong enough to convince Whitehall’s public health experts. The Southampton research is expected to support the fears of Sally Bunday of the Hyperactive Children’s Support Group.
What E numbers are considered bad though for our children’s health?
- E102 – Tartrazine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartrazine
- E124 – Ponceau 4R http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponceau_4R
- E110 – Sunset Yellow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Yellow_FCF
- E104 – Quinoline Yellow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoline_Yellow_WS
- E129 – Allura Red http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allura_Red_AC
- E211 – Sodium Benozoate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_benzoate
- E112 – Camoisine http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/2570.pdf (please read)
These seven single E food chemical additives have been investigated and shown to prove the following horrifyingly disturbing behaviours to even physiological problems and mental cognitive disruptions. I have listed them below;
- E102 – Tartrazine – Causes hyperactivity, skin rashes and can induce asthmatic attacks
- E124 – Ponceau 4R – Causes allergies to form and an intolerance to some foods
- E110 – Sunset Yellow – Causes / induces Gastroenteritis and allergies to form
- E104 – Quinoline Yellow – Causes Hyperactivity, induces asthmatic attacks and rashes
- E129 – Allura Red – Causes – hypersensitivity that can kill
- E211 – Sodium Benozoate – Causes – hyperactivity and asthma attacks
- E112 – Camoisine – Causes – Allergy and intolerance
Many companies in the European Union have done away with masses of E numbers in their own produced consumer products after scientific analysis proved these E numbers and many more had and were responsible for many adolescent behavioural problems to adult anti-social behaviour too. Some nine thousand to be factual where removed but (the problems are still evident) and they are not going to vanish until parents and individuals start to live a more healthy way of living, learn to slow their hectic life style down and stop being so pig ignorant and bloody bone idle lazy when it comes to feeding ourselves and our families.
Controversial E numbers located for 2012
Sulphur dioxide (E220) and other sulphites (E221, E222, E223, E224, E226, E227 and E228), which are used as preservatives in soft drinks, sausages, burgers, and dried fruit and vegetables. In rare cases, these can trigger asthma attacks. Benzoates (E211, E212, E213, E214, E215, E216, E217, E218 and E219) which are used as preservatives, and can make asthma and eczema vastly worse in children.
Carrageenan (E407), a thickener that has been linked to cancer, another thickener, called Guar gum (E412) can cause nausea. Monosodium glutamate (MSG, E621) a flavour enhancer that is not permitted in foods for infants and young children due to concern about its effects can also cause an adverse reaction in some asthma sufferers. A controversial E number called Monopotassium glutamate (E622) is another flavouring that can cause nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps. Then we have Disodium 5-ribonucleotide (E635), flavouring found in instant noodles and party pies, which is associated with skin rashes.
The European and mainly British and American government claims “Some E numbers are necessary to keep processed food fresh and tasty, but if you want to limit your family’s consumption, you can either make your meals with fresh ingredients or read the labels carefully and switch to brands that use fewer or no additives. Low-calorie foods should be avoided for children, as they usually contain sweeteners instead of sugar”.
The problem is though that processed foods contain major E numbers and these processed foods are used by mainly the following individuals;
- Students
- Single parents with large families
- Parents that are constantly on the run and haven’t the time to prepare fresh foods
- Poor income families
- Families and individuals that are on hastily shopping that feast on fast foods
- More E numbers are consumed on average on Fridays and Saturdays from fast food outlets
- Business men and women that have shorter lunch breaks
Pet foods and how E numbers can in fact affect their anti-social behaviour please read;
In 2012 the law’s recently changed and animal foodstuff manufacturers can no longer list ‘permitted colours/additives’ on products sold in quantities greater than 10 kilos. A prime example of one of these pet food manufactures is Bakers Pet Food.
Bakers Pet Food contains up to thirteen E numbers and the effects of these E numbers are more than concerning from what scientific reports have shown. E320 - has been found to be tumour-producing when fed to rats. In human studies it has been linked with urticaria, angioedema and asthma E321 - banned for use in food in Japan, Romania, Sweden, and Australia. The US has barred it from being …used in infant foods. McDonalds have voluntarily eliminated it from their products. E310 - Banned from children’s foods in the US because it is thought to cause the blood disorder methemoglobinemia E172 - Banned in Germany E132 - Can cause skin sensitivity, a rash similar to nettle rash, itching, nausea, high blood pressure and breathing problems, all of these are found in Bakers Pet Food.
However do you actually know what is on your adorable pet’s foods that could be causing anything from skin rash, cancers, tumours to form, respiratory problems, eye sight dysfunction, hair loss, behaviour problems, aggressiveness, to more. Please view http://www.dogsandco.info/glossary-food.php
Other E numbers in pet foods, please note that Vitamin C,E,B3 are completely safe “if it is just that” without the added toxins
- E101 Riboflavin
- E160 Carotene
- E300/E304, Vitamin C
- E306/E309, Vitamin E
- E375 Nicotinic acid and Vitamin B3
- E440 Pectin
How do E numbers affect our pets though?
Bakers contain many E-numbers that can be harmful to your pet, not only can they be harmful but also potentially for yourself by elevating you’re canines aggression level, and anti-social behaviour too.
Bakers contain various sugars that can impact on your pet’s hyperactivity. Bakers contain MORE sugar than many pet foods which can be dangerous for your pet. It has been quoted that “Bakers Pet food contains vast amount of sugars that “increase significantly on your pet’s hyperactivity”.
Bakers also has lack of “substance within its food” thus making it by far a cheaper alternative to purchase.
The following E numbers in Bakers are;
- E320
- E321
- E310
- E330
- E202
- E490
- E172
- E132
- E102
- E110
- E104
- E171
- E153
All of these E numbers HAVE been linked in one way or the other to bad behaviour, cancer, eye sight problems to allergy and more.
In 2004 it was quoted;
The University of Southern California found a lack of zinc, iron, vitamin B and protein in the first three years caused bad behaviour later on. At eight years old, children fed poorly were more likely to be irritable and pick fights than those fed healthily.
Aged 11, they swore, cheated and got into fights, and at 17, they stole, bullied others and took drugs. The researchers analysed the development of more than 1,000 children on Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa, over 14 years. They found the more malnourished the children were, the greater the anti-social behaviour later on. I would not dismiss the study out-of-hand but I would be surprised if diet plays a big role
Dr Ann Hagell stated;
The team took into account factors such as social background, health and education, the American Journal of Psychiatry reported. Report co-author Adrian Raine said parents could prevent their children developing bad behaviour by ensuring they get better diets.
“Poor nutrition leads to low IQ, which leads to later anti-social behaviour.”At a societal level, should parents be thinking more about what kids are eating? “There’s more to anti-social behaviour than nutrition, but we argue that it is an important missing link.
Risk factors
“Biology is not destiny, we can change the biological disposition to anti-social and aggressive behaviour.” Fellow researcher Jianghong Liu, of the university’s Social Science Research Institute, agreed.
“Identifying the early risk factors for this behaviour in childhood and adolescence is an important first step for developing successful prevention programmes for adult violence.” But Dr Ann Hagell, research development adviser at the Nuffield Foundation, a charitable trust which funds social and education research, raised doubts about the findings. “I would not dismiss the study out-of-hand but I would be surprised if diet plays a big role.
“In my experience diet is not part of the explanation.”It can cause hyper activity disorders, but anti-social behaviour is more influenced by parenting and genetics and teen peer pressure in teenage groups.”
One must remember though that it’s not just E numbers that can affect our health, the leading causes of food allergies and intolerances are entirely natural, milk, wheat, eggs, nuts, fish, soya, celery… And of course every single food or drink on the planet, whether it contains E numbers or not, is toxic at some level - apples contain cyanide, people have died from water intoxication, cabbage contains goitrogens, potatoes contain toxic solanine and broccoli contains carcinogens.
But, as with E numbers, the amounts of these toxic substances are minute, and the benefits of consuming these foods and drinks invariably far outweigh the risks. The difference with E numbers is that they have been extensively tested and analysed to ascertain safe levels.
More information can be located here on E- Numbers http://hamzajennings.com/2008/08/01/list-processed-foods-and-e-numbers/
E numbers can be located in mainly candy, carbonated drinks, fast foods, and/or processed foods/pet foods which most are more commonly targeted at the younger generation. Is there enough proof though to state that E numbers are a major contributor to neurological disorders? We can only wait and see.
Please consume a healthy diet, and for more information you can visit our healthy eating page here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vegan-and-Vegetarian-foods-to-promote-healthy-living/193221637452747?fref=ts
We offer a completely vegan and vegetarian healthy eating diet that consists of fresh vegetables and fruit all year round. Everyone that works for the International Animal Rescue Foundation © are vegans or vegetarians however that doesn’t mean you “have to become a vegan or vegetarian” were just showing to you the benefits of such healthy living. You never know you may enjoy and the weight that you’ll lose will be remarkable.
For more information please contact our healthy eating team at
govegan@international-animalrescue-foundation.org.uk
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Environmentalism Chapter 19 - Plant smuggling
On a regular daily basis we often here within the news animal parts that are smuggled along with narcotics and fire arms too. Smuggling is big business and if it’s freely obtainable such as species of animals, and money can be made relatively quickly then it’s a job well done for the smuggler.
Regrettably animal parts smuggling we are all now aware is almost finically nearing that of narcotics and fire arms raking up some millions of dollars just for counterfeit pharmaceuticals, to clothing within the fur trade of which a single Tiger pelt can fetch up to $100,000 or more.
What we don’t view documented much on is illegal bulb/plant smuggling, and I’m not talking about the ones that light your rooms. Bulb, root stock, seed’s to even whole entire plots of land are being dug up and illegally then smuggled across the borders that is now starting to rage out of control.
Back in 1993 I worked with the Romanian border police for two months to gauge experience on this as botany is one of my specialised subjects which I hold a Bachelor’s degree on, not to mention other subjects I have studied. The trade in plant and bulb smuggling has always been big business in more or less the same way as cattle rustling to animal parts smuggling. One of the main reasons why it’s not really heard of though within news and media is because there are billions of species of plant life upon our planet to date compared to animals which are dwindling in numbers rapidly. However this does not under any circumstances mean it’s not causing environmentalists and agriculturists to horticulturists a rather nasty headache.
The smuggling of plants, bulbs, root stock to trees and seeds is fairly un-documented on within online forums to news and media so please allow me to explain how bad the problems are with regards to endangered botanical species that are being wiped out to bringing with them across international borders plant stock and seeds that are actually infested with pests and diseases that can if they take hold within a nation that has no real agricultural to botanical problems or professional agricultural and botanical management cause widespread billion dollar damage to the environment to even human health placed at risk from crop destruction through human negligence and greed.
Plant smuggling as I am going to refer to it can be dated as far back as the 1990’s but didn’t really take off until the 1950’s – 1960’s within America on large scale that saw many pests and diseases brought in to the United States of America. Smuggling of plant stock in Europe is and always has been big business in Europe dating back to the late 1890’s to present.
One very important documented seizure in the United States that I can only lay a date of around the 1950’s I have recorded below, and hadn’t it been for eagle eyed customs officers ceasing the containment then America could of faced a catastrophic agricultural and botanical nightmare causing billions upon billions of lost crop and revenue due to pest infections from foreign seed, root stock, and bulb, not to mention mass retail breakdown from cereal crop damage that the public mostly rely with regards to consumption.
The news article reads;
It was an ordinary looking package in the hands of an honest-appearing man who stepped from the steamer Charlotte M. Hall onto the Baltimore dock not so long ago.
The parcel had passed the customs officials, and had, apparently, a clear road to its destination anywhere in the United States. Yet it contained destructive agents that bade fair to wreck hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of property, and that might have left a trail of poverty and ruined homes throughout a period of many years.
Fortunately the U. S. government has eyes, concealed in unexpected places. This package aroused the suspicion of an inspector of the Plant Quarantine and Control Administration of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. He got possession of it, questioned the owner, opened the parcel, and saved the nation from a loss than can scarcely be calculated.
The passenger who landed that day from the Charlotte M. Hall was a Mississippi planter, returning from a business trip to Brazil. He was a progressive farmer, and his motive—the improvement of his cotton crop —was legitimate enough. But the package contained 59 separate sets of cotton seed, every set infested with living larvae and adults of the dread pink bollworm, the most destructive enemy of cotton in the world. Already it has destroyed the cotton industry of the Hawaiian Islands, and annually inflicts tremendous damage upon the cotton planters of Egypt, Brazil, and Mexico— in fact every great cotton growing country in the world save the United States.
Experts say that if this innocent appearing personal package had not been intercepted through the vigilance of a plant inspector, it would have carried to the heart of Mississippi enough living pink bollworms to have started an invasion of the entire state which might easily have gotten beyond control before discovery.
This incident is only one of the many thousands involving similar interceptions made annually by the inspectors of the Plant Quarantine and Control Board. Their job is to prevent plant and fruit smuggling, innocently intended, or otherwise; and their personnel, while comparatively small numerically speaking, is of the highest calibre. Inspectors are stationed at all principal ports.
Down along the Mexican border the Federal officers have their share and more of adventures, humorous and dangerous. Even some of the old-timers hardly dare put their hands in their pockets while working in certain hard-boiled communities, for fear of being shot at from behind. The license tags of their trucks carry the letters, U. S. D. A., meaning of course, United States Department of Agriculture. But thirsty souls, and there are many along the border, are prone to take a different interpretation—United States Dry-Agent! And lovers of the corn and rye like to take the law in their hands—when in doubt.
And now for some of the tricks of the smugglers! The following side splitting incident took place at the port of New York a few years ago. It seems that a woman arrived from Jamaica, and in her possession was discovered a basket containing some plants. They did not meet the current rigid requirements so a plant inspector explained that her plants could not be brought in. The good woman explained that she really wasn’t greatly interested in the plants themselves, but that she was anxious to have the soil for her prize cat to play in—he did so love to frolic about in Jamaica soil.
A tear or so appeared in the official’s eye— for he was a kindly soul. However, it did not remain there long. After being hard-hearted enough to do his duty and advise the dowager that she must return home sans the soil, he gave it the thorough Sherlock Holmes. Hardly had the good woman departed when his astonished, but no longer humanitarian eye, noted two bottles of Jamaica gin buried therein.
Joseph of Biblical fame had a coat of many colours. But the inspectors around Brownsville, Texas, and the notorious Tia Juana district, are still chuckling over the Mexican of many pockets. Some years ago this man came waddling across the border at such a slow rate that he aroused suspicion. To begin with, he was plump, but his avoirdupois seemed to be not altogether of the flesh. And it was not, as examination of his portly person revealed. Inside his coat was an ingeniously devised vest containing many pockets filled with alligator pears. Now, these delicacies are likely to contain an unwanted kind of pest. This “inventor” extraordinary was tried, found guilty, and given a stiff fine for his ambitious efforts to pull a fast one on your Uncle Samuel.
A somewhat similar incident, but of a far more serious nature, took place on the border near El Paso recently. A very dignified gentleman of middle age who claimed to be some sort of a scientist presented his trunk for Federal inspection. Nothing contraband seemed to be on hand until one of the inspectors nonchalantly plunged a hand into a bulky looking pile of the man’s coats and trousers. Encountering numerous hard objects, the inspector made a thorough investigation and found no less than 56 contraband orchid plants. That the offender’s intentions were anything but innocent was revealed by the fact that every one of the plants had been sewed painstakingly into the garments with an obvious intent to deceive. Imagine Mr Scientist’s embarrassment when he saw his well worked plans go awry, even to the point of earning a substantial fine.
Then there was the case of the American woman who crossed the Mexican border into the United States wearing an extremely full skirt of a type common to certain well known religious sects. Devout looking was this lady, yet there was a certain something about her demeanour that aroused suspicion, so a lady inspector was instructed to give her a thorough inspection. This brought out the interesting fact that the good woman had tied a huge bag, filled with contraband fruit, around her waist. Which may explain why she chose such full skirts on that eventful day?
But for sheer ingenuity, consider a package lately received by postal inspectors. At first glance it consisted of a number of heavy magazines. But their weight was so out of proportion to their size that the inspector opened the “magazines”. Whereupon he found many bunches of contraband nursery stock, alongside of which a couple of potatoes had been packed in order to afford moisture to the stock.
Other clever ruses of the smugglers are: false bottomed trunks and barrels, besides contraband fruits and plants which have been hidden in partially baked loaves of bread.
End of news article —-
Problems have gotten far worse though since this time and we cannot just blame the smuggler as it is indeed as quoted above the innocent member of the public that has travelled to local or internal continents, spied the eyes in such a beautiful species of plant of seed crop then removed that and brought it into their home nation on returning from their vacation.
Customs are now seizing daily many plant species that are non-endangered to critically endangered, to fruits vegetables and seeds all of which can and will present a massive biohazard. Its takes only one to two pests to escape from the contraband or illegally smuggled plants to enter agricultural land, or botanical crops and within one to two weeks billions in damages are caused, human life is placed in danger from hunger or famine as of infested non-edible crops, and the environment suffers more due to herbicides, insecticides, and pesticides leached in to the soil, streams and seas from chemical land run off.
Main seizures to date and current trends are that of mainly bulbs and, orchids, and seeds that can fetch on the black market millions of euros to dollars. On July 24, 2001 (ENS) - Six men were charged with crimes related to the illegal importation of internationally protected plants called cycads the men were arrested by special agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that Friday.
Cycads, which look like palms or tree ferns, are a group of plants whose ancestors date back more than 200 million years. Some cycad species are endangered or threatened in the wild from habitat loss and over-collection from botanical enthusiasts to general members of the public that are looking at sparking the garden up with lush green tropical growth without realising the mass damage they are causing to the environment and potentially other crops.
Cycads are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a treaty through which the United States and more than 150 other countries regulate global trade in imperilled animals and plants, these palm like tropical species of plant are the most desired simply because of their appearance.
The idiotic and selfish individuals that where arrested are Peter Heibloem, 47, of Queensland, Australia, and Ernest Bouwer, 56, of Sandton, South Africa, were arrested that Friday and charged with 15 counts of conspiracy, smuggling, and making false statements in an indictment unsealed that Friday in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
According to the indictment, Heibloem, Bouwer, and three others charged - John Baker of Gauteng, South Africa, Ian Turner of Harare, Zimbabwe, and Rolf Kyburz, of Queensland, Australia - sent approximately $542,000 worth of protected cycads to the United States from South Africa, Australia, and Zimbabwe, had ANY pests and diseases escaped into the atmosphere that could of caused potential mass crop damage thus endangering human and animal life to even killing through crop famine then the men could have been looking at a potential death sentence or lengthy stay behind bars.
Also charged in the indictment and arrested on that Friday, July 20, is Donald Joseph Wiener, 64, of Mexico. He is alleged to have knowingly purchased approximately $200,000 worth of these plants from Heibloem.
Rolf Bauer, 44, of Johannesburg, South Africa, and Jan Van Vuuren, 54, of Centurion, South Africa, also arrested on that same Friday, are charged with conspiracy, smuggling, and making false statements in a separate 29 count indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
According to the indictment, these two men sent more than $300,000 worth of protected cycads to the United States from South Africa. They allegedly used invalid CITES permits for the commercial shipments and falsely labelled many of the plants to cover up the lack of a valid permit.
The Service investigation also resulted in charges against three individuals accused of trafficking in protected orchids. Antonius Juniarto of Surabaya, Indonesia, and Iwan Kolopaking of Jakarta,
http://boughtonscoffeehouse.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/rare-orchid-named-after-a-coffee/
Indonesia, have been indicted in the Northern District of California on 21 counts of conspiracy, smuggling, and false statements related to the shipment of CITES Appendix I orchids into the United States from Indonesia.
Both remain at large and to this day 2013 have yet to be brought to justice. According to the indictment, the two men sent multiple packages of orchids through the mail with customs declarations falsely identifying the contents as toys. A separate indictment in the Northern District of California charges Terence Leung of Hong Kong with four counts of smuggling related to shipments of CITES Appendix II orchids from Hong Kong into the United States. Leung also remains at large to this date of 2013. If you know of these men, seen or are living please contact International Animal Rescue Foundation’s Conservation Investigation Crime Unit (CICU) at externalaffairs@international-animalrescue-foundation.org.uk immediately, alternatively you can contact your local sheriff.
The maximum penalty for each of the charges against these men is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. An indictment contains allegations against an individual, and all defendants must be presumed innocent of the charges against them unless they are convicted.
The smuggling of plants is BIG business and also very dangerous to the environment that is not being documented on enough throughout animal and environmental sectors and now has to be taken seriously and indeed much awareness has to ploughed throughout the community to help nail the smugglers but also to educate the public on the dangers of brining contraband through the ports.
Rare plants have also been a target for smugglers, with one high-profile bust in June 2011 catching two Dutch citizens trying to take 57 rare inverted tulip bulbs out of Turkey, along with more than 5,000 flower seeds and roots from 160 endemic species. Though the Dutch are often associated with tulips, the flowers actually have their origin in Turkey and other western Mediterranean countries — the inverted tulip grows only in a specific region of Erzurum, Turkey. Taking endemic species outside of the country without official permission is illegal in Turkey.
Illegal attempts to spirit endemic species out of the country appear to be on the rise in Turkey, where officials have recently busted a number of would-be smugglers with large cargos of butterflies and other insects, as well as rare tulips and other plants. A group of people trying to leave the country by car through Bulgaria were apprehended in 2011 with thousands of bugs hidden away in boxes and tubes, the Anatolia news agency reported. Biology professors who examined the cache “identified 6,014 bugs from 48 different species, including ladybugs, cockroaches, and various types of stag beetles, grasshoppers, flies, and bees” from the Black Sea region and the northern part of Central Anatolia. The haul was reportedly worth 500,000 Turkish Liras, or about $300,000.
Agricultural damage and food shortage;
When plants and plant products are imported or smuggled to the EU and other nations, there is a risk that quarantine pests come with them. Quarantine pests are serious plant pests like insects, mites, nematodes, fungi, bacteria, virus and similar organisms that have no or limited presence in the EU and that may cause large financial consequences if they spread here.
EU and international countries have common rules on the import of plants. These rules apply to both private individuals and to companies. However, there are certain exceptions for private individuals. You can locate more information here https://www.ippc.int/index.php?id=nppoAUS please type into the search engine what nation your wish to view that will show a list of current agricultural and botanical problems to date.
Indian medicinal plants are in great demand in the international market. Varieties like the saptarangi plants (Salacia Reticulate) and guvada (Mappia Foetida) medicinal plants are abundantly available in the forests of Khanapur, Bheemgad, Talewadi, Aamgaon Holda regions of Belgaum district. Medicinal plants are found in abundance at Kuveshi, Mayare, Castle Rock and Anamod forest regions near Diggi in Joida taluk.
Spices like Dalchini Moggu (cinnamon buds) and its leaves are also smuggled out. The Forest officers had seized a lorry transporting guvada leaves about three months ago near Jagalpet. The department has to its credit a few such cases. The medicine prepared from guvada leaves is useful in treating cancer and liver conditions and is in great demand in China and Japan, according to a forest officer.
Innocent people residing in the forests of the border areas are roped in for smuggling. Dearth of staff in the Forest department is a major setback in tackling illegal activities. Since most of the staff is aged around 50, they are unable to conduct surprise raids. A team of enthusiastic youth is required in the department to tackle the menace, says the forest officer.
More awareness;
The Wildlife Enforcement Group is calling for more awareness of illegal plant trading, as smugglers earn tens of thousands of dollars selling endangered New Zealand orchids overseas.
Two men from Czech Republic have been charged under the Trade in Endangered Species Act after allegedly trying to smuggle a number of threatened and protected orchid species taken from national parks out of New Zealand.
The Wildlife Enforcement Group’s investigator, Peter Younger, says there’s a huge demand because many of New Zealand’s orchid species are unique. He says the illegal trade in plants doesn’t attract the same attention as other endangered species.
The Wildlife Enforcement Group has officers from Customs, the Department of Conservation and Ministry of Agriculture. Younger says illegal trade in plants gets overlooked by enforcement agencies compared to more glamorous endangered species like elephants or pandas. Younger says more resources are needed to combat growing orchid smuggling.
A spokesperson for the Customs Service, Rochelle Turnbull, says the orchids are very attractive to international traders as many self-pollinate and are very rare. The accused smugglers appeared in Manukau District Court on Monday. They were remanded without plea.
For information on Australian biosecurity please view here http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/quarantine.html
Plants that are most commonly smuggled are;
- Endangered tulips
- Narcissi
- Bluebells
- Snow drops
- Hyacinths
- Snakes head lily
- Lille’s (general)
- Spices and herbs
- Rhizomes
- Seeds
- Root stock
- Wild species (mostly illegal to excavate in most EU and International nations)
Some of the most invasive pests and diseases that can come with illegally imported stock / contraband
- Fire fly
- Green fly
- Black fly
- Fruit fly larvae
- Brown citrus aphid
- Citrus leaf minor
- Leaf minors (general)
- Oriental fruit flies
- Asian citrus Psyllid
- Small hive beetle
- Bromeliad weevil
- Cactus moth
- Mexican fruit fly
- Tropical soda apple – please read here http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/426
Damage to crops and other botanical species can be vast in scale and also life threatening;
Primary Industries Minister David Carter explained in June 2012 the new Biosecurity Recovery Framework will run alongside existing support for farmers who suffer from droughts and floods.
“The government recognises that biosecurity incursions can have economic, environmental and social impacts that can hit production businesses hard and take time to recover from,”
“The new framework will make recovery measures available to people seriously impacted by a disease or pest incursion.”
In 1978, the horror movie, “The Swarm,” hit the nation’s theatres, featuring vast hordes of killer bees that wreaked havoc in south Texas. Chock a block with big name stars — Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland, Michael Caine, Richard Widmark, Fred MacMurray, Richard Chamberlain, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens — the $21 million production (a lot of money in that era) was a colossal box office bomb, lasting only a couple of weeks in theatres. Although it was subsequently labelled one of the worst disaster movies ever, four decades later it enjoys something of cult status among horror movie buffs.
“It was a cheesy movie,” says Blake Layton, Mississippi State University Extension entomology professor, “but it was also somewhat prophetic in that we’ve seen Africanized honeybees, which were dubbed ‘killer bees,’ move into the southern U.S. and become established.”
While not nearly so dramatic on a human scale as in the old movie, many non-native pests, from fire ants to slithery, slimy worm-like creatures, have come into the U.S. and made themselves at home, often causing widespread economic damage and other disruptions to life and commerce, he said at a recent meeting of the Starkville, Miss., Ag Club.
“So, in reality, we can say ‘the swarm’ is still coming.”
Africanized honeybees, which are a sub-species of the common European honeybees, came into Texas in 1990 and have spread from there, Layton says.
“Their movement has been more westward than east, although they’re in south Louisiana, only two parishes away from Mississippi. They are much more aggressive than our native honeybees. When they do move into Mississippi, it will change the way we deal with honeybees.
“Even our ‘native’ honeybees aren’t native; they were brought here by settlers from Europe. The Indians called them ‘white man’s flies.’”
There are more than 1,700 significant insect pest species in the U.S., Layton says, and half or more have been introduced in one way or another.
“The boll weevil is a prime example of how a non-native pest can move in and wreak economic havoc,” he says. “It cost Mississippi farmers millions of dollars before it was finally eradicated. We’ve not had a boll weevil in the state in more than two years.”
Imported fire ants have spread across most of the lower Southeast and across south Texas and into parts of Oklahoma.
“Thus far, we’ve not been able to stop them,” Layton says, “and there’s nothing on the horizon that promises to halt their spread.”
Another species, Argentine ants, “have been here for a long time, but haven’t spread as fast as fire ants. South of Jackson, Miss., they’re quite abundant. They don’t sting or build visible mounds, and they’ll run off fire ants. The difference is that they will come inside houses and other buildings.”
Bio Insect Terrorism;
Following the 9/11 attacks the U.S. government assigned hundreds of agricultural scientists responsible for stopping invasive species at the border to anti-terrorism duties. The result has been that dozens of foreign insects and plant diseases managed to slip undetected into the United States
Experts now say that the problem has reached the point where the quality of the U.S. food supply is under threat. The economic damage is not in dispute: scientists say that the foreign pest explosion cost billions of dollars in crop damage and eradication efforts from California vineyards to Florida citrus groves.
Horrifying Biosecurity facts;
- Nineteen Mediterranean fruit fly infestations took hold in California, and the European grapevine moth triggered spraying and quarantines in California’s wine country.
- The Asian citrus psyllid, which can carry a disease that has decimated Florida orange groves, crossed the border from Mexico, threatening California’s $1.8 billion citrus industry.
- New Zealand’s light brown apple moth was detected in California, prompting the government in 2008 to bombard the Monterey Bay area with 1,600 pounds of pesticides. The spraying caused respiratory problems and killed birds. Officials spent $110 million to eradicate the moth, but the effort failed.
- The sweet orange scab, a fungal disease that infects citrus, appeared in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, leading the states to impose quarantines.
- Chili thrips, rice cutworms and the plant disease gladiolus rust also got into Florida, which experienced a 27 per cent increase in new pests and pathogens between 2003 and 2007.
- The erythrina gall wasp decimated Hawaii’s wiliwili trees, which bear seeds used to make leis.
- Forests from Minnesota to Washington State were also affected by beetles such as the emerald ash borer, many of which arrived in Chinese shipping pallets.
The number of pest cases intercepted at U.S. ports of entry fell from more than 81,200 in 2002 to fewer than 58,500 in 2006, before climbing back up in 2007, after complaints from the farm industry. The situation for 2012 is now completely out of control and it’s becoming worse with the illegal smuggling of plant, bulb, seed, and other non-native pests and diseases.
December 2012 - Investigators from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry discovered the Asian tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus) inside two glasshouses at a quarantine station on Melbourne’s outskirts.
The department says the mosquitoes can carry dengue fever. Spokesman Wayne Terpstra says they represent a potential risk to human health. “They are a known vector for what they call arboviruses, such as dengue fever,” he said. “So they do pose a health risk for humans if they were to establish.” The department says that no Asian tiger mosquitoes have been found outside the glasshouses.
The plants will be destroyed and the quarantine stations sprayed with insecticide. Officials say further investigations are underway to confirm all mosquitoes have been exterminated.
http://www.msmbb.org.my/apjmbb/html181/181ap.pdf
Should the plant/seed/bulb and other green stock smuggling not halt then we are/could be looking at a potentially dangerous situation here that would cause widespread famine, hunger, to cereal crop prices shooting out of the window because of stock having to be imported.
Animal parts smuggling is just as big on the black market than it is with plants, narcotics and fire arms with plant smuggling now being named as the new “animal parts trade” and it’s being primarily fuelled by the current trend hitting of internationally with regards to alternative traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Indian medicine. We are playing with fire and the general public are not taking this seriously.
Customs officers are doing all they can to seize the most potentially dangerous bio hazard stocks, but like I have explained it only takes one or more non-native insect species to enter the biosphere then we could be looking at dangerous consequences for all.
In November 2012 it was again reported;
A large tract of paddy crops has been damaged due to invasion of Leda (swarming caterpillar) insect which has ruined the economy of the thousands of farmers in the district here.
“Help from the administration, however, is yet to reach the villagers, more than three weeks after the first swarm of insects arrived here to ruin this year’s paddy. The insects are black in colour and measuring less than an inch in length. Most of the crops have been destroyed in the area by the insects. The farmers, who are hardly able to fight against the pests, now hope to reap less than one-eighth of their usual harvest. The first batch of pests arrived three weeks before,” said district Krusaka Sabha secretary Gayadhar Dhal.
About 8,000 hectares of paddy have been affected due to insect attack, alleged Dhal. However, the district agriculture officer said that only 487 hectares of paddy fields in the district were affected.
“After arriving, the pests first settle on the inner surface of the young leaves of the paddy plant. Usually, two insects share a single leaf. Each insect lay at least 50 eggs before being shaken off the leaf .The eggs are hatched within a week and the new-born insects stay back, drawing sustenance from the young, green leaves. When they leave, the leaf is dead and its colour is rendered pale white,” described an official.
A large patch under paddy crop in Bari, Dharmasala, Binjharpur and Badachana area turned white from their usual leafy green. The rich farmers tried to prevent the onslaught by spraying insecticides on the plants, but this only helped widening the rich-poor gulf. The pests, fleeing from the insecticides-applied areas, took position in the neighbouring fields, where the farmers could not afford to buy the costly chemicals and apply them, said the farmer leader.
The smaller farmers, therefore, lost all their saplings. One of them is Rakesh Samal, a resident of Bari. He has five acres of land and had invested Rs 5,000 this year for paddy cultivation. Last year, the land yielded sufficient profits for him. But this year, he is a worried man as he has lost all hopes of getting a good harvest. The condition of bigger farmers like Gatikrushna Rout of the same village is only slightly better. His family owns eight acres of land. Last year, each acre gave him 80 quintals of paddy. However, this year, after spending several hundred rupees on insecticides, he hopes to get, on an average, only 40 quintals from an acre, said Rout.
The villagers are sore at the lack of response from the administration. Several pleas have been made at the block development office but no official has turned up till date, the farmers complained.
The district agriculture officials have also been paying only lip-service towards their problems, alleged many farmers by not providing pesticides to the affected farmers.
When contacted, the district agriculture officer told this paper, “Twelve mobile groups of the agricultural office have been providing medicines to the farmers to save their paddy from the insects. A senior official from the Agricultural department visited some of the insect-affected paddy fields on Saturday and would give his report on the situation soon.” He added that, for the time being, the department has been freely distributing pesticides to the farmers to tackle the menace.
As angry as I am writing this it does not get any better, SOIL is also being smuggled not to mention tea leaves, tea plants, and now TOBACCO PLANTS to grow in European homes due to the crackdown on illegally imported tobacco that is costing the Inland Revenue department millions in lost revenue. The smugglers then go to real professional lengths and purchase the machinery from Asia or the Americas to then “process and make” their dangerous and potentially killer cigarettes. August 2012 http://www.customs.gov.sg/NR/rdonlyres/6185D945-DC37-4EA6-B5B7-3EC35CC8C60E/24314/PressReleaseonsmuggledsoilwebcopy.pdf soil smuggled “and this would have been used for one thing only (narcotics). This soil could off caused an entire nation to lose billions from foreign crop pests placing human and animal life in massive danger.
PLEASE DO NOT BRING PLANTS, SEEDS, FRUIT, OR OTHER PROHIBITED CONTRABAND INTO THE NATIONS THAT YOU ARE VISITING, PLEASE BE AWARE OF THE BIOHAZERDS IF YOU ARE UNSURE PLEASE CONTACT US ON;
info@international-animalrescue-foundation.org.uk
Dr J C Dimetri V.M.D, B.E.S, Ma, PhD , MEnvSc
Chief Executive Officer
The video above may be a little confusing with regards to the language barrier. What is actually ongoing is the illegal importation of Khat, Khat is used as a medicinal hallucinogenic that reaches many nations all over the world in non-plant form in a powder like substance. Customs just allowed this illegal import to enter from Ethiopia, that was in PLANT form carrying some masses of plant bio hazards. The potential for many pests and diseases to leak from this plant importation is colossal and what damage it has done to nation will never be known. What damage this is doing to other nations though is VERY well known as many people travel to distant or local nations with this drug that’s similar to Ecstasy with the drug in PLANT form that they the chew on to obtain the desired effects.
By illegally importing other plants and bulbs you could face mass criminal charges. These pests below the Soda Apple caused massive crop infestation in the USA wiping out billions in lost crops.
Try and smuggle into Australia then THINK AGAIN, Australia has one of the tightest border controls in the world.
Or you could be caught by “armed narcotic gangs” the choice is your’s but whatever you do please keep your botanical species in your own nations and DON’T bring them into others or you could be facing stiff penalties to even life imprisonment;
Environmentalism Chapter 18 - Ocean Pollution
How clean do you believe the oceans are? Well I would be lying if I actually said they are indeed crystal clean and even the deep crystal blue waters of the pacific, Indian and Mediterranean oceans that are teaming with thousands of aquatic life are polluted with many toxins and organisms that you cannot even see that are harmful to you, other aquatic marine life and to animals to botanical species on land from which the oceans often invade from coastal flooding and Tsunamis to ocean oil spills.
Just because the flags are up to on the beaches indicating that water toxicology tests have proven it’s safe to swim, these tests are only basic and are not necessarily all the time carried out by toxicologists to marine biologists.
One doesn’t have to be a conservationist to even a scientist to work out that the more earth’s population grows the more sewage and waste from our homes are produced and it’s now concerning many conservationists including ourselves International Animal Rescue Foundation © that have seen a vast impact of marine life wiped out just from what we call “liquid toxin” pollution.
Toxins from sewage plants are just the least of the oceans worries too, with super fuel tankers crossing sensitive areas of sensitive ocean biodiversity, along with floating drilling platforms and nuclear power plants emitting radioactive water to human sewage and debris waste, which is now reaching critical concern levels which one must act to prevent a large scale catastrophe such as the 2010 BP PLC Deep Sea Horizon leak that saw billions of dollar;s of damages caused to land, and thousands of fish, to avian life washed up dead on the oceans. BP PLC now has to pay in compensation $7.8bn to resolve economic and medical claims from more than 100,000 businesses and individuals hurt by the nation’s worst offshore oil spill. The settlement has no cap and the company could end up paying more or less.
In the early 1950’s to 1960’s ocean cleanliness was fairly top grade with pollution being low key to a degree, although still present and high in nations of which were mainly third world nations, and large industrial continents from America to Asia, pollution levels where not that high to what we are seeing today. As a conservationist too and I have to be truthful I wouldn’t allow my children to swim in half of “shoreline” oceans to date because I am more than aware of what lurks beneath and on top.
Taking a look at China the total sewage discharge per billion tons has not really changed at all, and from census we could find they all measure up to exactly the same with only the year of 1996 missing.
China’s total sewage per billion tons of discharge I have recorded below, I have picked China as this nation is the top polluter with India and America second although America is trying to halve it’s pollution its a slow laborious process.
- 1990 350 billion tons of sewage discharged into the ocean
- 1991 320 billion tons of sewage discharged in to the ocean
- 1992 360 billion tons of sewage discharged in to the ocean
- 1993 340 billion tons of sewage discharged in to the ocean
- 1994 370 billion tons of sewage discharged in to the ocean
- 1995 368 billion tons of sewage discharged in to the ocean
- 1996 ——————-NO RECORD———————————
- 1997 415 billion tons of sewage discharged in to the ocean
- 1998 400 billion tons of sewage discharged in to the ocean
- 1999 404 billion tons of sewage discharged in to the ocean
- 2000 403 billion tons of sewage discharged in to the ocean
- 2001 409 billion tons of sewage discharged in to the ocean
In 2001, more than 173 000 km2 of the Chinese coastal waters were of a quality less than Class I of the Sea Water Quality Standard of China (SWQS, GB3097-1997) (17–26). Very heavily polluted areas, worse than Class IV of SWQS, cover about 32 000 km2, and are mainly close to medium and large cities and estuaries with high population densities.
Very heavy pollution areas increased by 4000 km2 compared to the year 2000. Contamination from land runoff is the most significant contributor to coastal environmental pollution at present. The dominating pollutants are inorganic nitrogen, phosphate, oil hydrocarbons, organic matter, and heavy metals.
Although the volume of runoff from industrial effluent into coastal waters has been decreasing slightly since 1999, municipal sewage and other runoff from land show an increasing trend. In 2000, red tide events occurred 28 times involving an area of 10 000 km2, and 77 times in 2001 affecting 15 000 km2. If pollution from inorganic nitrogen is classified as slight, moderate, or very heavy, the 2001 figures for coastal ocean areas are about 25 000 km2, 14 490 km2, and 32 490 km2,respectively.
Red tide events are not though just occurring in China anymore, in 2012 Australia and Hungry saw red tide events that the media marked down as “a phenomena” just to keep the public satisfied that the waters where indeed OK (that’s misleading and also very dangerous) reporting of which the truth should have been told which I have added below.
“There are no really historical records of the volume and type of material that was spilled in the oceans before the establishment of an anti-dumping law. However, it is estimated that in 1968, 38 million tons of excavated material, 4.5 million tons of industrial waste, 4.5 million sewage sludge, 100 million tons of petroleum-based product (plastic), 2 to 4 tonnes of chemical waste, more than 1 million tons of heavy metals were released into the ocean. The U.S. archive shows that between 1946 and 1970 over 55,000 containers of radioactive waste were disposed in 3 sites of dumping of the Pacific Ocean. In addition, 34,000 tons of radioactive wastes were disposed in 3 sites of dumping of the U.S. east coast between 1951 and 1962. No law on dumping radioactive waste has been put into force before 1972.” - Source : Epa : united states environnemental agency
The total amount of industrial sewage from 11 provinces along the coast of China was 10.02 billion tonnes (t) in 1999, of which 3.67 billion t were directly discharged into the sea. Sewage quantities into Chinese seas were 0.56 billion t in Bohai, 0.71 billion t in the Yellow Sea, 1.48 billion t in ECS, and 0.92 billion t in the South China Sea. The ECS received 40.3% of total industrial effluent and as such was the largest recipient of industrial effluent in China.
Factual data taken from (Report of the state of the Environment for China 1990)
Reports for 2012 have quoted the following for the state of China and basic pollution performance which is listed below;
- Underground water in 57 per cent of monitoring sites across Chinese cities have been found polluted or extremely polluted, the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper run by Xinhua News Agency, reported on Monday, quoting figures from the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP). (please note this is for underground sources)
- 2012 - In the first half of last year, of the seven main water systems in China, only the Yangtze and Pearl rivers had good water quality, and the Haihe River in north China was heavily polluted, with the others all moderately polluted, according to the MEP. This is what caused most “red tides” to occur that I shall explain more briefly on.
- China has quoted “China recently unveiled the 2011-2015 guidelines on fighting water pollution in which it stated the goal that 60 per cent of the country’s major rivers and lakes should be clean enough to be sources of drinking water supply by the end of 2015. This International Animal Rescue Foundation finds very difficult to understand as of the colossal rise in air, land and sea pollutants that have risen from 2010-2012 making China the number one top polluter with India the second and the United States of America the third which we do find annoying considering America is within the one of the world renowned nations for high class technology, that can easily bring these levels down, the Obama administration though has failed drearily so far.
- China also likes to “hide their problems” on a classified report [unnamed] in 2012 the Chinese government demanded that the United States ceases all publication of air, land and sea pollutants which is more than worrying. Please view the statement “Last month, Chinese officials issued a general warning to foreign embassies, (but really aimed at the U.S.) to stop publishing reports about their country’s air, and sea quality.
- According to the Environmental Performance Index, a bi-annual report put out by Yale University and Columbia University that ranks countries based on a number of environmental factors, India ranked last out of 132 countries. Yet, China wasn’t far off, coming in at 128. Its overall index rank, which, along with air quality, included factors such as water, agriculture, and climate change, was 116. (India came in at 125).
- Government statistics from 2009 reveal that nearly 20 per cent of the length of China’s monitored rivers and lakes had pollution worse than Grade 5, making the water officially unfit for even irrigating crops, Reuters reported.
Why doesn’t China like a certain Twitter account reporting on this? Please view below
“Part of the reason the Chinese government is so irked at the U.S. reporting pollution data is that their pollution standards are more stringent which means pollution levels considered unhealthy in the U.S. are often classified as good by China”. (Do you really wish to visit China?)
Moving to Australia which to be honest is a fairly densely populated island being the second largest in the world with Greenland being the first at 840,000 square miles (2,175,590 km2).
The main problems that effect Australia’s coasts are poor water and sediment quality, land pollution is the main problem here within Australia that effects ecology, health and basic overall enjoyment of the Australian oceans to date. Action must be taken now to prevent land-based sources of sediment, nutrient and pesticide pollution from further damaging in-shore reefs, aquatic life and tourism enjoyment.
Oil spills and vessel discharges cause around 12% of coastal problems with relation to the entire island of Australia, and according to a study by the US National Research Council, 36% of oil comes down drains and rivers as waste and run-off from cities and industry so in reality most of the oceans problems with regards to coastal pollution are due to land based problems that need addressing or we are going to see a global ocean soon with nothing a living aquatic species within it.
However in many parts of the world, sewage flows untreated, or under-treated into the ocean. For example, 80% of urban sewage discharged into the Mediterranean Sea is untreated. Although this is less common in Australia, treated sewage is discharged into coastal and marine environments and, when sewage infrastructure fails, raw sewage can flow untreated into our marine environments.
Australia’s waters are not as clean as one thinks they are even if the flags are up and the waters are crystal clear and this is because of governmental legislation that is seeing sea waste dumped in the oceans rather than landfills “on average” Australia currently regulates the deliberate loading, dumping and incineration of waste at sea under the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981 and the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Amendment Act 1986. The waters surrounding Australia’s coastline are increasingly threatened by pollution from wastes dumped at sea. To reduce this threat, there are Australian Government laws that control dumping at sea, however these are not always being followed.
Permits from the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities are required for all sea dumping operations. Currently, about 30 permits are issued in Australia per year, mainly for the dumping of uncontaminated dredge spoil. Applications can be obtained from the Department or the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (if the dumping is to take place within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park). In our eyes there should be “NO” dumping at sea even if the waste is incinerated or non-toxic. We are trying to work to protect our aquatic biodiversity and although this incinerated waste breaks down by far much more quickly, it is still aiding to the pollution of our marine biodiversity.
International Animal Rescue Foundation © can fully understand the reasons “why” dumping at sea is undertaken, however to keep one’s land clear and green by dumping at sea is not solving the problem of “WASTE” and by simply following the three R’s (reduce, reuse, and recycle) there would be minimal dumping. Dumping incinerated waste of the coast line has it’s perks but we’ve noticed that the permit prices to carry out such waste removal have skyrocketed, and this can only mean one thing which is “the government are now concerned at the toxic levels of waste, harm to the great barrier reef’s and PH levels that are increasing alarmingly.
http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/pollution/dumping/index.html#compliance
Within India though where nearly 250 million people live within 50 km of India’s 8,000 km coastline, eighty-seven cities and towns located in these coastal areas together dump 5.5 billion litres of waste water into the sea every day. Less than a tenth of this water is treated, making the scale of pollution of our coastal ecosystems daunting and horrifyingly concerning with regards to protected aquatic species, and living reef beds.
Most of India’s 8,000-km-long coastal regions are low-lying and densely populated, with nearly 250 million people living within 50 km of the coast, many of them in the 130 cities and towns that together form the engine of India’s economy, including Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Goa, Surat, and Thiruvananthapuram. Between 20-60% of the population in these individual settlement zones live in slums where they pursue their livelihood, and this section is automatically located in areas most vulnerable to natural disasters areas that are already subject to periodic flooding.
At the same time, they are surrounded by a web of infrastructure that is becoming denser and more valuable every year transport and freight networks, road and rail corridors, industrial zones and parks, maritime and port facilities, petroleum industries and refineries, import-based industrial and commercial domains all located in coastal areas and competing for land and water with villages that have long depended on coastal resources for survival. That survival has always been relatively easy since coastal regions are home to a rich and varied biodiversity, they have had abundant rain-fed and groundwater resources, and they depended commercially on old trading centres. As the settlement mix changed, and as land use did too, India’s coastal talukas, tehsils and blocks either merged with a creeping mantle of urbanisation or warred with it. Either way, complex coastal ecosystems suffered.
Can you name this reptilian? it took me 5-6 attempts after removing with my eyes the debris pollution.
Municipal waste water constitutes the largest single source of coastal marine pollution. The Central Pollution Control Board estimates that 87 cities and towns located in India’s coastal areas in nine states together emit more than 5.5 billion litres of waste water per day, which is almost 80% of their total water supply (the estimate in million litres per day, or MLD, which is the measure that water resource and pollution control authorities use, is 5,560.99 MLD). This is a staggering volume of fluid, equivalent to a third of the total quantity of waste water generated by 644 Class I cities and Class II towns in the entire country.
It is also 2.5 times the volume of waste water (about 2.2 billion litres/day) that the same 87 cities generated two decades ago. Of the 5.5 billion litres/day — less than a tenth (521.51 MLD) — is treated to any level before being released into coastal waters. The three states of Maharashtra (45%), West Bengal (26%) and Tamil Nadu (9%) account for the bulk of waste water flushed into our coastal seas, while about 3.22 billion litres/day of waste water flow into the Arabian Sea and about 2.33 billion litres/day flow into the Bay of Bengal.
Toxins have risen within the sea from the 1960’s to date which is primarily due to “over population” and until this is properly conveyed across the globe to all humans then we will see more pollutants enter the ocean as of demand for agricultural and factory processed products to fossil fuels, and chemical radioactive energy.
Toxins that are located in today’s oceans are listed below.
- Plastic pollution
- Agricultural pollution such as phosphorus, nitrogen, mercury, lead, and carbon plus more.
- Oil, petroleum, methane, paint, radioactive poisons
- Human excrement
- Chemical weapons (Yes they are present in today’s oceans)
- Debris pollution
- Fishing pollution
- Thermal pollution, and eutrophication
These eight pollutants are found most commonly within the oceans to date and are causing massive biodiversity damage plus are harming ourselves that eat fish stock to.
Food chain;
Plankton, which is the tiny animals at the bottom of the food chain in the oceans, absorbs the chemicals as they feed. They do not break down easily, so the chemicals accumulate in these organisms, becoming more concentrated in their bodies than the surrounding water or soil. Plankton is eaten by small animals, and the contaminants become even more concentrated. It goes on as smaller animals are in turn eaten by larger animals, each link up the food chain becoming more heavily contaminated than the last.
Seals, for example can have contamination levels millions of times higher than the water in which they live. Polar bears, which feed on seals, can have contamination levels up to 3 billion times higher than their environment.
Fishermen themselves see this contamination first hand. Fish with horrible tumors are becoming the normal catch of the day, so to speak. How do you want your mercury today? Broiled, fried, poached or grilled. ‘Would you like fries with your gamma fish?’
Food chain contamination;
Humans become contaminated directly from chemical household products, eating heavily processed food laced with chemical preservatives or eating contaminated seafood and animal fats. Even those “Highly Touted” health foods such as Krill, Plankton, Seaweed, and Sea Salt have varying degrees of contamination. The FDA discovered that the famous “Coral Calcium” was heavily contaminated with lead, as well as other heavy metals, and only had an absorption rate of 8 - 10%.
Contrary to what you have been told, the evidence is mounting that many man-made chemicals can and will cause serious health problems. These problems include cancer, damage to the immune system, behavioural problems, and reduced fertility, just to name a few.
The bottom line is that you should stay away from anything that is produced from the ocean. Isn’t it bad enough that we get these contaminants first-hand on land, without absorbing even more chemicals and dangerous pollutants from food from the ocean?
Thermal pollution, and eutrophication;
Thermal pollution: Electrical generating plants along the ocean coastlines use the marine waters for cooling purposes which leads to heated water expelled into the marine environment. Few studies have been done on the effects of thermal pollution on the marine environment. Thermal pollution seems to only affect the communities immediately adjacent to the discharge. Thermal discharge is most noted in the tropical areas, where organisms are near their thermal maximum. For example, mangrove trees in a thermal heated bay no longer reproduce and no new seedlings can be found in the lagoon.
Eutrophication: The release of excess nutrients into coastal waters. Fertilizers used on land are washed into the ocean via rivers and streams. High nutrient concentrations cause phytoplankton blooms such as, red tides, various yellow and green foams, slimes, and slicks. Although algal blooms are natural, a higher frequency of their occurrence in the past twenty years indicates an unhealthy ecosystem. The toxicity of recent blooms is increasing, which can have a direct effect on the organisms that feed on them. Also, phytoplankton naturally contains DMS (dimethyl sulfide) which is released from dead phytoplankton into the atmosphere and can be changed to sulfuric acid to eventually contribute to acid rain.
Radioactive waste (plutonium and fries anyone?)
Radioactive waste: The world’s oceans have been a sink for radioactive waste from the production of nuclear weapons and electric power since 1944. Radioactive waste enters the ocean from nuclear weapon testing, the releasing or dumping of wastes from nuclear fuel cycle systems, and nuclear accidents. Dumping of high-level radioactive waste is no longer permitted in the ocean, but dumping of low-level wastes is still permitted. Low-level waste contains fewer radioactivities per gram than high-level waste. High-level wastes usually have longer half-lives. For example, one common high-level waste that is produced by spent nuclear fuel has a half-life of 24,100 years! It has been suggested that contained nuclear waste should be disposed in the deep sea, so little is known about the deep sea environment or the consequences of containment leakage and failure, that the effects could be devastating.
Recently though we have been viewing red seas or rivers that the media have named as “natural phenomena” it’s not a natural phenomenon at all what it is, is high pollution levels and if your living in an area where this has happened on my advice I really wouldn’t bother eating any “fish or crustaceans” from these areas at all.
Red tides (I) & (II)
Pollution (I)
Red tides or the red sea as it is better known is a mixture of some million cubic meters of corrosive sludge, there really is not much known about how it forms other than a change of climate patterns and algae formations to the dumping of toxic chemicals in the waters that have then accumulated through climatic interference into the a red type sea.
One such incident occurred in 2010 in near Ajka, Hungary that saw a dam filled with toxic chemicals burst its banks then flowing onto neighboring land. The tide once receded appeared to some as if the bottoms of the trees had been painted red. In fact it was the sludge of toxic chemicals that had formed and stuck to the trees causing not just botanical and agricultural damage but also much damage to the surrounding lands from which people in the area cannot plant on no more.
The toxic chemicals that were being held by the dam in Ajka held a mixture of bauxite ore that was the chemical properties that made up aluminium oxide or alumina, iron oxide was also present hence the reason why the “stain to the water was evident” as this is the colour of iron oxide, however it also contained a more dangerous chemical better known as alkaline sodium hydroxide used to dissolve aluminium oxide. These metals are used in everyday factory processing and to know that they have breached the clean water supplied to us and also entered into the marine world then this is highly concerning, and it’s happening more frequently around the world that many people are still unaware of. Other chemical that are entering are gypsum plaster, and as explained chemical fertilisers and these can all cause cancer.
When the red tide appears its fairly “unsafe in the water to humans” I use the word unsafe as it’s very toxic to aquatic life and stays embedded in the sea or river bead that can kill if ingested. However should there be flooding, tsunami, to high tide and it reaches land such as Hungary once it dries then it release a “toxic powder in to the air”. Everyone within the vicinity then has to be re-homed due to the dangers that it can cause to human health.
We must as a responsible human race now take responsibility for our oceans, rivers and lakes, if not then we are not just killing the species within, but those that wish to consume fish and shell fish are exposing themselves to highly dangerous chemicals that can and will kill.
Red Tides (Natural) (II)
Red tide is a common name for a phenomenon known as an algal bloom (large concentrations of aquatic microorganisms) when it is caused by a few species of dinoflagellates and the bloom takes on a red or brown color. Red tides are events in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column, resulting in coloration of the surface water. It is usually found in coastal areas.
(Please though don’t always listen to the press and media as they mostly obtain their scientific data incorrectly)
Dr J C Dimetri V.M.D, B.E.S, Ma, PhD, MEnvSc
info@international-animalrescue-foundation.org.uk
PLEASE DONATE BELOW - URGENT RHINOCEROS APPEAL POACHING NOW AT 2-3 A DAY FEBRUARY 2013 = 57 DEAD
WHY ARE THEY DYING? THE DEATHS ARE STILL ONGOING BAFFLING US ALL
Hungary 2010 TOTAL WIPE-OUT (Toxic red sludge)
Environmentalism - Chapter 17 Wonders of Mother Nature
Mother Nature has created such diverse species of mammalians, reptilians, aquatics, to arthropods (arachnids) and botanical species that are so complex and versatile we still as Homo sapiens do not fully know on understanding everything about such fascinating species of mammals to avian species and insects and fungi to even viruses that are all living around us, on us to within us.
I have picked out a number of species from the quoted above that I have documented on instead of writing up on the everyday issues of animal and environmental welfare, climate destruction to botany and governmental politics to just remind you of what surrounds us to date to no longer living on planet earth.
Keeping mostly out of politics in this draft and focusing on an array of viruses, plants mammals and fish to spiders and birds I would like this document to be used as a form of education but more importantly why we as homo sapiens should respect Mother Nature and what Mother has provided and shown to ourselves to learn rather than eat and destroy for our own greedy back pockets. I have documented on a handful of species of which I shall carry on beefing this particular document up with more facts and more species extant and extinct.
Some pictures to documentation will make you cringe but most I can assure you, you will enjoy and the more we learn the more we become aware of why we should respect what lives around and within, from the most potent and deadliest plant on earth, to bacteria that lives’ within our large and small intestines, and skin to the most fastest land, sea and air mammal or the most deadliest to largest and smallest species on earth. Enjoy - I shall continue updating this weekly.
Most toxic plant[s] on the planet;
Every plant no matter what species is poisonous in one way or the other from a simple English Daffodil that can cause acute dermatitis or gastroenteritis to skin burns, however there are some that you most likely have in your back yard and before I go any further on this, please “don’t dig them up and kill them” learn from them and respect their presence.
Ricinus communis – Castor oil plant.
The Ricinus communis I must say has to be one second of the most toxic and extremely harmful plants on the planet to date. Belonging to the monotypic genus it is better known as a “spurge” and with large palm shaped leaves similar to that of the Fatsia japonica.
The leaves are very large and within the rain forest can grow to around triple the size of your hand. Growing mainly in America, Asia and the European Union the Castor oil plant produces “beans” which are not true beans and (most certainly not edible).
Now you REALLY NEED to read this and please pay attention, the castor oil plant and the “false castor oil plant” are completely different, the false castor oil and the castor oil plant look similar however the false castor oil plant has non-glossed leaves yet the castor oil has dull looking green leaves of which both are mostly ever green.
Keeping to the “Castor oil plant” the seeds (beans) contain between 40% and 60% oil that is rich in triglycerides however it’s also rich in Ricin an extremely toxic substance that can and will kill, the seeds (beans) have to actually be processed to cause any real harm.
Ricin is present in low levels throughout the plant, but it’s largely concentrated in the seed coating. Seed poisonings are rare and usually involve children and pets, but they can be deadly. As few as three seeds, which are green with brown markings, could kill a child who swallows them easily.
Symptoms of castor bean poisoning include nausea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, internal bleeding, and kidney and circulation failure. Many people suffer from an allergic reaction to the dust from the seeds and may experience coughing, muscle aches and difficulty breathing. Exposure to the dust is most common in areas where the beans are processed for commercial use. In ancient times, the castor bean was used in ointments, and allegedly, Cleopatra applied the oil to the whites of her eyes to brighten them. Ricin is better explained within this link – http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/ricin/facts.asp
Castor oil is a mild-tasting vegetable oil that is used in many food additives, flavourings and in candy production. It’s also available to the consumer as a laxative and to induce labour (though no scientific evidence shows it’s successful in inducing labour although I really do advise as a botanist to please SEEK MEDICAL ADVICE and leave the plant’s seeds well alone) please don’t destroy the plant if you have children or pets, instead educate them on the plant and for more information you can email myself at info@international-animalrescue-foundation.org.uk or join our botanical group here on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/353161988048334/?fref=ts
There are many other plants that are toxic such as the deadly night shade Atropa belladonna to the common Yew Taxus Baccta, or the Monks Hood Lilly Aconitum selections or Foxglove better known as the Digitalis (used widely in cardiac pharmaceuticals which are very effective and potent).
Fastest aquatic species on the planet;
Well there seems to be much speculation on this however it’s time to blow the speculation out of the water. At a total speed recorded in all oceans that it swims the fastest swimming fish on earth is in fact the Sailfish better known as Istiophorus albicans bust must not be confused with the sword fish or marlin.
Easily reaching speeds of 0-69mph this fish is one hell of swimmer using its lateral line and sheer muscular power in its rear the billfish as it’s more commonly known can swim the one hundred meter Olympics in 4.8 seconds. The Istiophorus albicans is prized as a game fish due to its agility and sheer power in giving fishers (hunters) a challenge for their money.
Its sail is mostly kept folded down when swimming of which is seen to leap high out of the water and back in again when excited. The Bill can change its body colour when excited or under threat to. Some fishes that can reach speeds “near to the 69-70mph mark are the Marlin, Marlin’s common name is thought to derive from its resemblance to a sailor’s marlinspike. Marlin are incredibly fast swimmers, reaching speeds of about 68 mph. Predators include the white shark and shortfin mako. Other fishes are Bluefin tuna that are found throughout the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in subtropical and temperate waters.
They form schools while young; large schools are easily observed at night. The Bluefin is one of the largest tuna species. Killer whales and pilot whales feed on them most often.
The Bluefin is highly valued as a food for human consumption sold both fresh and frozen. Quality fish are especially favoured in Japan, where they are sold at the high price in fish markets. The Bluefin tuna is also a popular game fish, especially in the USA the Bluefin can reach a top speed of 0-46mph we rather see them NOT hunted though as of dwindling ocean stocks and the torture that they go through when line fishing.
Animal that consumes the most food;
I found this to be a difficult one to explain as one would believe that the based on the size of the “prey” or “fruit, nuts to other” in (size) or the “number of humans” would be the most with regards to consumption. Such as the male Lion Panthera leo that consumes by far more than that of the female when not in gestation or milking and easily finishing of a springbok or wildebeest however this simply goes on the (size of the animal[s]).
The Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus has to be the largest of all consumers and the largest of all living species on the face of the planet weighing in at a whopping one hundred and ninety seven tons with some species found to be weighing in at over 200 TONS. How much can it consume though? Well let’s take a look.
A simple adult can consume over 60 million krill a day based on “what ocean they are in” and maturity however the normal estimated feed its around 45-60 million krill, its most chosen food. This weighs in at a total feed size of exactly 3600 kg (8000 lb) of krill in a day “that’s one hell of a lot of fish” when you think that the average weight of a human is 194.7 pounds, so you can quite easily see the difference here. Humans though do consume by far more in the way of (food) however I am explaining the “individual species” and not the “entire species consumption of over 8.9 billion humans on planet earth to date”.
The Blue Whale at (adult) stage has to consume this much in species prey to keep its 1.5 million kilocalories up or it shall become underweight which then can effect behaviour thus beaching itself although there is little known on this particular behaviour and what the real reason is they beach.
Balaenoptera musculus can take in as much energy at 1.5 million kilocalories as it gives out or (expends) however with this feed amount they can conserve energy extremely easily by swimming slowly and storing krill in its mouth thus slow feeding similar to a IV therapy (slow release intravenous drip) quite amazing.
Other animals that are known to consume by far more than the average are Humming Birds Archilochus alexandri, that consume more than their body weight of insects and nectar a day along with Shrews Sorex araneus that consume three times their body weight in food a day.
How many “species of good virus live within the human body”;
I loved this question like the rest that have been asked by many members of the public that email us every day however this has to be the most intriguing to fascinating but one that I simply cannot answer in full as to actually count how many individual same species of good and bad viruses in the human body it would take an extremely unhealthy human and healthy human plus a good year to evaluate.
In total leaving the bad bacteria out there is a total species count that are “good bacteria” living within our bodies of seven good species although there are “more” these are primarily the most important players and I have listed them below.
LIVING AND THRIVING ORGANISMS
Throat – Species – Neisseria lactamicia = 4,154 species
Behind your ears - Species – Propionibacterium acnes = 2,359 species
Nostrils – Species – Staphylococcus epidermidis = 2,264 species
Tongue – Species – Streptococcus salivarius = 7,947 species
Inner elbows – Species – Corynebacterium simulans = 2,012 species
Vaginal opening – Species – Lactobacillus acidophilus = 2,062 species
Large intestine – Species – Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron = 33,627 species
Total species count of good virus microbe species = 55,425 (and that’s just good bacteria)
All species above are major players however like explained this is simply the “major players” as listed in a 2013 science biology journal. Within our bodies human cells are outnumbered ten to one by bacteria. Some eight million genes function in this invisible universe more than three hundred times the number in our own cells. Though some of our microbial tenants pose threats, we literally can’t live without most of them. They help digest our food, grade our immune system, and ward of deadly germs.
Belly Button?
Yes, microorganisms live on your skin, even though you can’t see them. After it takes a tour of your belly button, the swab gets wiped on a specially prepared dish, where the bacteria can grow. Then the researchers figure out what’s growing on you.
So far, the most common colonies are from Staphylococcus epidermidis and Micrococcus luteus. Have they found any rare, truly bizarre bacteria? Why, yes — in Dunn’s own belly button. It’s a bacterium called Enterococcus mundti and it was only recently discovered by scientists. “(It’s) found on me, soybeans, and silk moths. Go figure,” Dunn said.
It’s a tricky thing using those special plates — called agar plates — to grow bacteria. Some bacteria grow like crazy on the plates, so we know the most about those kinds, Dunn said.
Plenty of bacteria remain undiscovered. And we don’t know much about many of the bacteria that live on our bodies because we can’t grow them.
Dunn and his team are extracting bacterial genetic information from the belly buttons, and by literally reading it, they know which species of bacteria live on the skin. “When it is done, we will undoubtedly find some very rare species, some of them probably new to science,” Dunn said.
Are you picking your nose?
There are many far-fetched ways to die in this world. Picking your nose is one of them. Yes, it’s true. You really can die from picking your nose. Simply put, there is a bone in the nose called the ethmoid bone.
This bone separates the nose from the brain. Though you would more than likely need a really long fingernail, or other long object to get up there, it is indeed possible to do so and it “does happen”. As a matter of fact, if you accidentally poked through this bone, brain fluid could be leaked-causing meningitis, which definitely is a killer.
So you see, picking one’s nose seems harmless. And in most cases, it is. Sitting at that stoplight, in the private comfort of your vehicle, does not give you anonymity.
But for some reason, it’s the most popular place for people to dive into their nasal cavities. In these instances where you feel compelled to see what’s up there, it’s best to wait until getting to a restroom.
Make sure that before touching any “open” areas of the face (ie. eyes, nose, and mouth) -that you wash your hands thoroughly, as this is how viruses are most frequently spread.
Most deadly predator on earth;
Let’s face up to some actual real evidence here leaving out the “facts” first. The Homo sapiens are the most deadliest predator that can kill anything, destroy through negligence and harm without even touching, yes “we are the most deadliest from (evidence)” however this is about FACTS and the most deadliest predator as much as you think we are YOUR VERY WRONG.
The most deadly predator actually lies within every nation on earth, Lion? Bush Elephant? Cape buffalo? Well they are dangerous and very unpredictable but they are nowhere near as dangerous as this “microbe”.
Clostridium Botulinum is the most toxic animal on the face of the planet and it is a killer and has killed many thousands of people and still kills today.
Clostridium botulinum is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium that produces several toxins. The best known are its neurotoxins, subdivided in types A-G, that cause the flaccid muscular paralysis seen in botulism. They are also the main paralytic agent in botox. C. botulinum is an anaerobic spore-former, which produces oval, subterminal endospores and is commonly found in soil.
One teaspoon of this bacterium, properly distributed, could kill every single human being in the United States. About 9 lbs (4 kgs) could kill every human in the world. Like the venom of botulinum it is a neurotoxin, stopping communication between the brain and the muscles, resulting in paralysis of the diaphragm, then asphyxia = immediate and extremely painful death.
Botulinum is found in the soil of every continent and ecosystem on Earth, from the Sahara Desert to Antarctica. It is found in soil brought up from the ocean floor. It requires absolutely perfect conditions in order to become active and thus dangerous. You would not be able to contract the toxin by eating dirt, since your digestive juices are too acidic to allow the bacterium to grow and produce the toxin.
But the spores are extraordinarily difficult to kill, able to survive in boiling water for 10 minutes if you were to can food without boiling it (cold canning), airborne spores may enter the oxygen-free environment of the food and grow very quickly. Upon eating the food, the toxins would be present in your body immediately, and eating only a nibble of a green bean is more than sufficient to kill you within a day. No animal is known to have immunity to botulinum. A mere 1 nanogram per kilogram dose will kill any living organism on the planet.
An elephant weighing 5,454 kgs (12,000 lbs) (4 tons) would die in less than 3 days after consuming 5,454 ngs of botulinum toxin. This is equal to 0.005454 milligrams. Still believe that we are the most dangerous organisms on earth? Should some bright spark decide on processing botulinum and then placing that in a simple weapon that explodes then (the entire continent that it explodes in are doomed) and humans would die an extremely painful and horrifying death. There are certain individuals that have this deadly bacteria stored of which we are not advertising, it’s locked in secure chambers, deep underground, and the doors of the chambers require 5 alternative passwords and five people that are changed every day to access this most destructive and most deadliest bacteria.
From investigations on botulinum we are more than aware of whom has this bacteria in certain “forms” and what the bacteria is placed in, it’s also known the locations, and why certain individuals are very nervous when it comes to civil disobedience in countries such as the U.A.E
However with regard to animals the cape buffalo is by far the most dangerous game animal on Earth. It is sufficiently thick-skinned to require an elephant rifle, and is the animal most responsible for the introduction of double-barreled rifles. A double-barreled rifle offers the hunter an immediate follow-up shot to finish a wounded animal, and cape buffaloes can be counted on to withstand the first shot, even if they are struck in the heart, and still charge. The .585 Nyati caliber was invented for use against this animal. Nyati is Swahili for Cape buffalo.
You may think touring Africa’s grasslands in a safari jeep is safe, and were it not for the Cape buffalo, you would be fairly correct. They may charge without any provocation at all, and they overturn jeeps, trucks, and vans by ramming them headfirst. A 2,000 lb male can run 40 miles an hour for more than 100 meters. Some professional hunting guides refuse to hunt them, for fear the paying hunter will miss. The Cape buffalo gores and tramples to death over 200 people every year, more kills, possibly, than any other African animal. Please NOTE that International Animal Rescue Foundation is against ALL HUNTING.
What species has the best eyesight?
Again there is much speculation over this with one saying the Eagle, the other stating the wild cat, FACT the animal that has the strongest and most powerful eyesight is Great horned owl, Bubo virginianus better known as the Tiger Owl.
The Great horned owl’s spectacular binocular vision, allows them to pinpoint prey and see in low light. The eyes of a Great Horned Owl are nearly as large as those of a human being and are immobile within their circular bone sockets. As a result, instead of turning its eyes, an owl must turn its whole head, the neck capable of rotating a full 270 degrees, in order to see in various directions without moving its entire body.
Owls hunt mainly by watching from a snag, pole or other high perch, sometimes completely concealed by the dusky night and/or partially hidden by foliage. From such vantage points, owls dive down to the ground, often with wings folded, to ambush their prey. If you placed a newspaper on a chair, a Great Horned Owl could make out every word on that paper from 50 yards away.
However – Interesting point here as the Great horned owl is not the only animal with the best eye sight, the Mantis Shrimp, can see in a broad spectrum of light that includes infrared and ultraviolet of which has the most powerful eyesight within the aquatic world.
Largest prehistoric animal;
Again this the closest that one could come to as there are still exploration teams working on sites around the world and also items that are “foot prints” and also prehistoric 40 million year old items under examination that one still has yet to clearly identify.
The largest though that is recorded is by far the sea monster Basilosaurus, King Lizard and this was one hell of a mammal (type) species that is located in many museums around the world from 40-60 million year old fossil remains.
The King Lizard lived around 40 to 34 million years ago in the Late Eocene. First discovered in Louisiana, America it was thought that this “species” (type) was a form of reptilian of which one is still unsure on.
Basilosaurus was highly elongated. It accomplished this through an unparalleled elongation of its vertebrae, and has been described as being the closest a whale ever came to a snake. The skeletal anatomy of the tail suggests that a small fluke was probably present, which would have only aided vertical motion. Most reconstructions show a small, speculative dorsal fin similar to a rorqual whale’s, but other reconstructions show a dorsal ridge. The whale also possessed small, 0.6 meter (2 ft) hind limbs, which clearly could not aid locomotion on a 15–22 meter (50–72 foot) animal.
In 1845, “Dr.” Albert Koch heard stories of giant bones in Alabama, and went down to cobble together a full skeleton. He eventually created a huge 114-foot (35 m) skeleton of a “sea serpent” he called “Hydrarchos”, which he displayed in New York City, and later Europe. It was eventually shown to have come from 5 different individuals, some of which were not Basilosaurus. The remains were eventually destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire.
Strongest animal;
One would believe that the Elephant or Rhinoceros was the strongest animal, wrong again. The world’s strongest animal is Archegozetes longisetosus.
The African elephant is by far the strongest living animal but it can only lift 25% of its bodyweight. The tropical species Archegozetes longisetosus is one of the strongest animals in the world, relative to its mass (100 μg). It lifts up to 1182 times its own weight. It’s an equivalent of a human lifting 212000 pounds.
On the other hand, Rhinoceros beetle can carry 850 times its own weight. To put that into perspective that would be like one of us lifting a 65 ton armoured tank.
We should also consider the strength of the jaws. The saltwater crocodile is a fearsome chomper who can inflict a bone-crunching bite that is around 3-4 times stronger than a lion. To give you a rough idea, the force of this bite would be a bit like having a car fall on top of you.
For a more scientific look in to this amazing creature let’s take a look.
The holding and pulling forces generated by claws of the microarthropod Archegozetes longisetosus (Chelicerata, Acari, Oribatida) on three substrates with different roughness (R(a)=0.05 microm, 1 microm, 30 microm).
Holding forces were measured perpendicular to the substrate using a strain gage force transducer; pulling forces were measured parallel to the substrate using an analytical scale. We found a significant positive correlation of surface roughness and the forces generated.
Mites produced holding forces on horizontal rough surfaces (R(a)=30 microm) of up to 1180 times their weight; on vertical rough surfaces (R(a)=30 microm) they can pull with 530 times their weight, effectively involving only two pairs of legs.
The relative forces are five times higher than theoretically expected for organisms of this size (<1 mm, 100 microg) and higher than any relative forces reported for insect claws. Muscles involved in claw action produced stresses up to 1170 kN m(-2), a value that is only excelled by decapod crustacean claw closer muscles. Ours is the first study of performance by chelicerate apoteles and claws and also the first to measure forces generated by any microarthropod.
Slowest animal in the world;
There are 3 animals known to be the slowest animals in the world. Sloths move only when necessary and even then very slowly. On the ground the maximum speed of the three-toed sloth is 2 m or 6.5 feet per minute or 0.15 mile per hour.
A garden snail’s speed is 0.03 mph (yes a snail is an animal and not an insect). Due to its slowness, the snail has traditionally been seen as a symbol of laziness. In Judeo-Christian culture, it has often been viewed as a manifestation of the deadly sin of sloth. A giant tortoise’s speed is 0.17.
International Animal Rescue Foundations – pick of the month is Scarabaeus
Never underestimate the powers of Mother Nature’s insects as they sure do teach us many facts of life helping us to understand previous living and exploration times to bettering technology.
Animal of the month is; Scarabaeus (Arthropoda)
Dung Beetles - Scarabaeus viettei (one of a type)
Dung Beetles are actually very unique and don’t just muck in with dung as one may believe they do.
The Scarabaeus viettei (one of a type of species from the Scarabaeidae super family) has been noted has been noted as using “polarized light” of which they use the “milky way” to navigate.
A recent study in 2003 showed that Beetle’s use polarized light from the moon to help them move in a straight line (now that’s pretty amazing) but the researchers where surprised to find that insects could actually stay on course even on a moonless night (how bizarre).
To see what else was going on researchers then timed the beetles crawling from the centre of a cylindrical drum to the edge. The drum was open topped so the insects could use the night sky to orientate themselves on a moonless night, the insects took twice as long as they did under a full moon with a cap on that hid the night sky from their view of which they needed six times longer implying that the stars where involved.
Researchers then moved to a planetarium. By switching stars on and of researchers identified the guiding light as the Milky Way. It had been assumed that the insects could not navigate in this way because their eyes cannot make out individual stars. But using the Milky Way does away with such resolution. How strange but factual to know that even the smallest of living species on our planet use such powerful yet small senses that we humans cannot.
Humans can use more or less the same type of star guidance, however we are simply talking about a Beetle that’s by far a lot smaller than the average 5ft 9” human. Just goes to show how important our species of flora and fauna are too us along with combating an array of technological problems.
Was this study carried out by ancient Romans or Egyptians that used the North Star and formations to guide them home? Who knows, what we do know is that we still have a lot to learn from our tiny creatures.
Dr J C Dimetri V.M.D, B.E.S, Ma, PhD , MEnvSc
INTERNATIONAL ANIMAL RESCUE FOUNDATION
PLEASE DONATE TO OUR CURRENT RESCUE
The video below is an old documentary however there are still NO security measures in place to stop people from purchasing small vile’s of seriously dangerous biological agents or in a more simple terminology “GERMS” that have killed millions of people in the past that terrorists and unit cells now wish to obtain and ARE obtaining.
Another highly dangerous biological weapon is the Spanish Flu (Influenza) 1918 http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pandemics/2012/12/spanish_flu_mystery_why_don_t_scientists_understand_the_1918_flu_even_after.html
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Environmentalism Chapter 16 SPECIAL REPORT - Gorilla Murders
Our international populations of Gorilla species are rapidly becoming more endangered due to increasing human insurgent warfare in Africa where populations of critically endangered species of Gorilla mostly resides.
The Gorilla better known generically as Gorilla gorilla/Sp Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla spp), eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei spp) is a member of the Hominidae family both of which are classed as “critically endangered” with little awareness within the media and press of their current status and possible extinction wipe-out within the Congo region of Africa where they predominantly reside. There are a total of “four generically identified species” Western lowland gorilla (G. g. gorilla),Cross River gorilla (G. g. diehli), and Mountain gorilla (G. b. beringei) Eastern lowland or Grauer’s gorilla (G. b. graueri).
Hominidae refers to the taxonomic family of primates, including four extant genera chimpanzees and bonobos that share 98.7% of our Deoxyribonucleic acid more commonly referred to as DNA, The term “hominid” is also used in the more restricted sense as hominins or “humans and relatives of humans closer than chimpanzees, however all Hominidae species other than that of the Homiosapian is extinct. The Homiosapian refers to someone who is a cross between a homie and a homosapian (human being). Ancestors of the Hominidae family had already speciated from those of the Hylobatidae family, perhaps 15 million to 20 million years ago.
Most if not all Gorilla species are found in central, eastern and northern Africa, of which may sound incredibly dense to one with regards to populations however this is not the case and both species of the Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla spp), eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei spp) are in colossal danger from paramilitary extremists mainly M23, and the primate pet trade to bush meat trade to zoological trade in Northern Nigeria of which is still under investigation via imports and exports of Gorilla species.
Gorilla families live more or less the same way as ourselves in groups although a little larger and non-destructive which there family sizes consist of mainly ten to fifty individuals, there are a smaller population located in the high-Altitude rainforests of Montane deep within Borneo at this location http://goo.gl/maps/j81lM
Wildlife researchers said back in 2008 that they’ve discovered 125,000 western lowland gorillas deep in the forests of the Republic of Congo, calling it a major increase in the animal’s estimated population.
The Wildlife Conservation Society, based at New York’s Bronx Zoo, and the Republic of Congo said their census counted the newly discovered gorillas in two areas of the northern part of the country covering 18,000 square miles.
Previous estimates, dating to the 1980s, put the number of western lowland gorillas at less than 100,000. But the animal’s numbers were believed to have fallen by at least 50 per cent since then due to hunting and disease, researchers said. The newly discovered gorilla population now puts their estimated numbers at between 175,000 to 225,000, however this has dramatically changed since the M23 brigade and the civil war took off that’s spanned almost the entire nation of Uganda and the Congo region decreasing numbers vastly.
The population from the nearest census that we could find now stands at this;
- The western lowland gorilla is the most widespread, possibly numbering 100,000.
- The Cross River gorilla is currently the world’s rarest great ape, with a population of only around 250-300 restricted to a small area of highland forest on the border of Cameroon and Nigeria.
- Eastern lowland gorilla population is stated to be at a mere 17,000 individuals.
- The total population of mountain gorillas is around 786 individuals, split into two separate groups.
The main threats stand so far at the following;
- Civil war and unrest in the Virunga National Park in Democratic Republic of the Congo located at this geographical point - http://goo.gl/maps/brULh
- Habitat loss as of their natural omnivorous feeding habitat is being destroyed, Gorillas are mainly herbivorous (vegetarian) and spend almost half of the day feeding on stems, bamboo shoots, and a variety of fruits, supplemented with bark and invertebrates.
- Endangerment and – Breeding, Females become sexually mature at 7-8 years old, but do not start to breed until several years later. Males mature later than females, with few breeding before the age of 15 years, so with the wars currently raging this area of which one can view a small transcript here then life cycle reproduction is being massively reduced. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_HxA-SiJWU
- Illegal wildlife animal parts trade that’s now numbered at the same price as that of narcotics and TCM/TIM Traditional Chinese Medicine / Traditional Indian Medicine.
- Bush meat is a big player in Africa although not heard of much in Borneo, sadly Gorillas are being poached for their meat that is incredibly unhygienic for humans to consume and can cause many infectious diseases. Like the TCM/TIM trade consuming meat in the African bush meat trade is speculated to increase many physiological senses which is untrue.
- Gorillas are predominantly very large and can be very aggressive especially males, however they are sought after for the exotic pet trade.
- Since the early 1990s, outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever have caused large-scale die-offs of great apes. The 1994 outbreak in Minkébé (northern Gabon) wiped out the entire population of what used to be the second largest protected population of gorillas and chimpanzees in the world. Between 2002 and 2003 the virus claimed many human lives in the north of the Republic of Congo and at two study sites in and around Odzala National Park, 95 per cent of the 600 identified gorillas died likely as a result of Ebola. There seems to be a pattern in the way the outbreaks have occurred across the region, making it likely that they were not isolated events but part of a wave that may still be spreading across the region.
- Borneo – Yes again we seem to be mentioning these same two issues and that’s palm oil and the pulp and paper trade. Orang-utans that are not “related” but share almost the same characteristics and genetics of around 99.4% are being wiped out at around 5,000 a year for palm oil/pulp and paper trade, well sadly so are the Montane ranged Gorillas plus the critically endangered Pygmy Elephant that now stands at well under 1,500 due to the recent poisoning by palm oil plantation managers within the last month of December 2012 and this month January 2013.
Located mainly in the Dzanga Sangha Protected Area complex in the Central African Republic, neighboring Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo, and Lobeke National Park in Cameroon Gorillas are also facing another threat which I mentioned earlier and now needs extreme awareness on a global international scale, so if you are reading this please share to your friends and also your family because “awareness” raises support and “support” will help other conservation teams move in to help protect these critically endangered species if governmental help can be gained to protect environmentalists.
International Animal Rescue Foundation © has been undertaking a lot of conservation and botanical work in Africa within the past three years. Most work has been on understating the country and setting a foot foundation within the nation thus then working on areas of conversational interest to preserve and conserve our flora and fauna.
Although keeping within mainly South Africa, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Uganda, Chad, Angola and the island of Madagascar we need to push further in to Africa and now move in to states of Nigeria and Sudan along with Niger and Morocco this is to further more expertise of the animal parts trade, community relations, and to conserve aquatic and reptilian and botanical species plus now seeking the seriousness of poaching and the zoological trade too that see’s many zoo’s in central and northern Africa to coastal regions of Madagascar, Morocco, and Angola to Nigeria that are illegally importing and exporting primates of which includes the Mountain and Silver back Gorillas based on intelligence and interviews with individuals that have lived and worked within these regions.
The impacts of the Gorilla we as an International “conservation team” know little about in terms of (practical work) although we possess masses of extensive theory experience from studying and field work we now see as a conservation team the Gorillas and other flora and fauna within this area of Africa to be in serious threat or nearing extinction unless evasive and immediate action is undertaken along with building rapport and relations with “African” conservation team players that we never normally would do within the nation of Africa.
Impossible is not a term within our vocabulary and although we are more than aware of the copious civil and militant extremist unrest within the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda we have to face these threats taking the bull by the horns, working alongside others to preserve and conserve our Gorilla populations but not ignoring the populated Borneo region too.
Projects that are being undertaken at this moment that are of the most important within this wildlife sector are listed below;
- Strengthening protected areas that harbor western lowland gorillas and other threatened species in the Republic of Congo.
- Supporting the gorilla tracking program in the Dzanga Sangha Protected Area complex.
- Promoting sustainable development of the Dzanga Sangha Protected Area complex, including through developing ecotourism and a multiple-use reserve, where human activities and forest exploitation are controlled.
Projects that we are going to implement are;
- Building ranger and anti-poaching personnel up within Africa and Borneo to preserve the critically endangered species of Gorilla populations
- Public education and awareness of bush meat and the exotic pet trade
- Informer networks of syndicate crime
- Awareness of the Ebola disease and pushing for vaccines of gorillas to keep safe the populations
- Global Positioning System (GPS) tagging and tracking / air and land surveillance
- Preserving areas of populations in parks and the wild through education and international awareness (pushing for celebrity awareness)
- Monitoring the situations within Borneo of which we have yet to still travel back too, this could take up to 1-2 years however with the organisation now wanting to go to charity “status” the monies raised that have to be over £5000 UKP will help us dearly to place into motion the theory experience in gaining knowledge to practical of these species and other conservation teams and the RSPO to preserve the Gorilla’s natural habitat.
Current threats in Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, and Democratic republic of Congo are serious and with vast corruption plus civil war still on-going now since the beginning of 1990 this unfortunately see’s the Gorilla facing some serious population decline.
The Virunga National Park where large populations of Gorilla’s are is under threat and “ honor killings of the Gorilla are being carried out” not for poaching, or bush meat but by the M23 rebels that are only murdering single or whole families of the Gorilla species to create a “fear factor” which is better explained in the forty five minute video below.
Apologies for “quality” however the original video as seen below was removed from viewing in the European Union by National Geographic although we could still view the video others viewing the page would not so we have picked up on the same production that’s been recorded.
Historical Human Rights information on current crisis;
M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are responsible for widespread war crimes, including summary executions, rapes, and forced recruitment. Thirty-three of those executed were young men and boys who tried to escape the rebels’ ranks.
Rwandan officials may be complicit in war crimes through their continued military assistance to M23 forces, Human Rights Watch said. The Rwandan army has deployed its troops to eastern Congo to directly support the M23 rebels in military operations.
Human Rights Watch based its findings on interviews with 190 Congolese and Rwandan victims, family members, witnesses, local authorities, and current or former M23 fighters between May and September.
“The M23 rebels are committing a horrific trail of new atrocities in eastern Congo,” said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “M23 commanders should be held accountable for these crimes, and the Rwandan officials supporting these abusive commanders could face justice for aiding and abetting the crimes.”
The M23 armed group consists of soldiers who participated in a mutiny from the Congolese national army in April and May 2012. The group’s senior commanders have a well-known history of serious abuses against civilians. In June the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, identified five of the M23’s leaders as “among the worst perpetrators of human rights violations in the DRC, or in the world.” They include Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted on two arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ituri district, and Col. Sultani Makenga, who is implicated in the recruitment of children and several massacres in eastern Congo.
Based on its research, Human Rights Watch documented the forced recruitment of at least 137 young men and boys in Rutshuru territory, eastern Congo, by M23 rebels since July. Most were abducted from their homes, in the market, or while walking to their farms. At least seven were under age 15.
Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that at least 33 new recruits and other M23 fighters were summarily executed when they attempted to flee. Some were tied up and shot in front of other recruits as an example of the punishment they could receive.
One young recruit told Human Rights Watch, “When we were with the M23, they said [we had a choice] and could stay with them or we could die. Lots of people tried to escape. Some were found and then that was immediately their death.”
Since June, M23 fighters have deliberately killed at least 15 civilians in areas under their control, some because they were perceived to be against the rebels, Human Rights Watch said. The fighters also raped at least 46 women and girls. The youngest rape victim was eight years old. M23 fighters shot dead a 25-year-old woman who was three months pregnant because she resisted being raped. Two other women died from the wounds inflicted on them when they were raped by M23 fighters.
M23 rebels have committed abuses against civilians with horrific brutality, Human Rights Watch said. Just after midnight on July 7, 2012, M23 fighters attacked a family in the village of Chengerero. A 32-year-old woman told Human Rights Watch that the M23 fighters broke down their door, beat her 15-year-old son to death, and abducted her husband. Before leaving, the M23 fighters gang-raped her, poured fuel between her legs, and set the fuel on fire. A neighbor came to the woman’s aid after the M23 fighters left. The whereabouts of the woman’s husband remain unknown.
Local leaders, customary chiefs, journalists, human rights activists and others who spoke out against the M23’s abuses – or are known to have denounced the rebel commanders’ previous abuses – have been targeted. Many received death threats and have fled to Congolese government-controlled areas.
M23 leaders deny that they or their forces have committed any crimes. In an interview with Human Rights Watch on August 8, Col. Makenga, one of the M23’s leaders, denied allegations of forced recruitment and summary executions, claiming those who joined their ranks did so voluntarily. “We recruit our brothers, not by force, but because they want to help their big brothers…. That’s their decision,” he said. “They are our little brothers, so we can’t kill them.” He described the repeated reports of forced recruitment by his forces as Congolese government propaganda.
Rwandan military officials have also continued to recruit by force or under false pretenses young men and boys, including under the age of 15, in Rwanda to augment the M23’s ranks. Recruitment of children under age 15 is a war crime and contravenes Rwandan law.
On June 4, Human Rights Watch reported that between 200 and 300 Rwandans were recruited in Rwanda in April and May and taken across the border to fight alongside M23 forces. Human Rights Watch has since gathered further evidence of forced recruitment in Rwanda in June, July, and August with several hundred more recruited. Based on interviews with witnesses and victims, Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 600 young men and boys have been forcibly or otherwise unlawfully recruited in Rwanda to join the M23, and possibly many more. These recruits outnumber those recruited for the M23 in Congo.
Congolese and Rwandans, including local authorities, who live near the Rwanda-Congo border told Human Rights Watch that they saw frequent troop movements of Rwandan soldiers in and out of Congo in June, July, and August in apparent support of M23 rebels. They said that Rwandan army soldiers frequently used the footpath near Njerima hill in Rwanda, close to Karisimbi volcano, to cross the border.
In addition to deploying reinforcements and recruits to support military operations, Rwandan military officials have been providing important military support to the M23 rebels, including weapons, ammunition, and training, Human Rights Watch said. This makes Rwanda a party to the conflict.
“The Rwandan government’s repeated denials that its military officials provide support for the abusive M23 rebels beggars belief,” Van Woudenberg said. “The United Nations Security Council
should sanction M23 leaders, as well as Rwandan officials who are helping them, for serious rights abuses.”
The armed conflict in eastern Congo is bound by international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, including Common Article 3 and Protocol II to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prohibit summary executions, rape, forced recruitment, and other abuses. Serious laws-of-war violations committed deliberately or recklessly are war crimes. Commanders may be criminally responsible for war crimes by their forces if they knew or should have known about such crimes and failed to prevent them or punish those responsible.
A United Nations Group of Experts that monitors the arms embargo and sanctions violations in Congo independently presented compelling evidence of Rwandan support to the M23 rebels. Its findings were published in a 48-page addendum to the Group’s interim report in June 2012. The Rwandan government has denied these allegations. The UN sanctions committee should immediately seek additional information on M23 leaders and Rwandan military officers named by the Group of Experts with a view to adopting targeted sanctions against them, Human Rights Watch said.
In July and August, five donor governments – the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden – announced the suspension or delay of assistance to Rwanda in light of the evidence presented by the Group of Experts. Although Rwandan military support for the M23, and M23 abuses have continued unabated, on September 4 the United Kingdom Department for International Development announced it would disburse around half the assistance it had withheld.
The renewed hostilities by the M23, the Congolese army, and various other armed groups have resulted in the displacement of over 220,000 civilians who have fled their homes to seek safety elsewhere in Congo or across the border in Uganda and Rwanda.
“Congolese civilians have endured the brunt of wartime abuses,” Van Woudenberg said. “The UN and its member states should urgently step up their efforts to protect civilians, and donor governments providing aid or military assistance to Rwanda should urgently review their programs to ensure they are not fueling serious human rights abuses.”
Background on the M23 and Its Leadership
The soldiers who took part in a mutiny from the Congolese army between late March and May and formed the M23 group were previously members of the National Congress for the Defense of the
People (CNDP), a former Rwanda-backed rebel group that integrated into the Congolese army in January 2009.
General Ntaganda led the mutiny following Congolese government attempts to weaken his control and increased calls for his arrest and surrender to the ICC, in accordance with Congo’s legal obligations to cooperate with the court. He was joined by an estimated 300 to 600 troops in Masisi territory, North Kivu province. Ntaganda’s forces were defeated by the Congolese army, which pushed the rebels out of Masisi in early May. Around the same time, Col. Makenga, a former colleague of Ntaganda in the CNDP, announced he was beginning a separate mutiny in Rutshuru territory. In the days that followed, Ntaganda and his forces joined Makenga.
The new armed group called itself the M23. The soldiers claimed their mutiny was to protest the Congolese government’s failure to fully implement the March 23, 2009, peace agreement (hence the name M23), which had integrated them into the Congolese army.
Some of the M23’s senior commanders have well-known histories of serious abuses, committed over the past decade in eastern Congo as they moved from one armed group to another, including ethnic massacres, recruitment of children, mass rape, killings, abductions, and torture. Before the mutinies, at least five of the current M23 leaders were on a UN blacklist of people with whom they would not collaborate due to their human rights records.
Ntaganda has been wanted by the ICC since 2006 for recruiting and using child soldiers in Ituri district in northeastern Congo in 2002 and 2003. In July, the court issued a second warrant against him for war crimes and crimes against humanity, namely murder, persecution based on ethnic grounds, rape, sexual slavery, and pillaging, also in connection with his activities in Ituri. On September 4, the ICC renewed its request to the Congolese government to arrest Ntaganda immediately and transfer him to The Hague. Human Rights Watch has documented numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity by troops under Ntaganda’s command since he moved from Ituri to North Kivu in 2006.
According to research by UN human rights investigators and Human Rights Watch, Col. Makenga is responsible for recruiting children and for several massacres in eastern Congo; Col. Innocent Zimurinda is responsible for ethnic massacres at Kiwanja, Shalio, and Buramba, as well as rape, torture, and child recruitment; Col. Baudouin Ngaruye is responsible for a massacre at Shalio, child recruitment, rape, and other attacks on civilians; and Col. Innocent Kayna is responsible for ethnic massacres in Ituri and child recruitment.
Ntaganda and Zimurinda are also both on a UN Security Council sanctions list. Under the UN sanctions, all UN member states, including Rwanda, are obligated to “take the necessary measures to prevent the entry into or transit through their territories of all persons” on the sanctions list. Both Ntaganda and Zimurinda have traveled to Rwanda since April, former M23 fighters who accompanied Ntaganda and people present during meetings Zimurinda attended in Rwanda told Human Rights Watch.
Publicly, the M23 maintains that Ntaganda is not part of its movement. However, several dozen former and current M23 fighters and others close to the M23’s leadership told Human Rights Watch that Ntaganda has played a key command and leadership role among the M23 rebels, operating from the Runyoni area, and that he participated regularly in meetings with the M23’s high command and Rwandan army officers.
The same people also told Human Rights Watch that there were tensions between Ntaganda and Makenga due to past differences over Ntaganda’s 2009 putsch against the CNDP’s then-leader Laurent Nkunda. But these differences, they said, have been put aside to focus on the rebellion against the Congolese army. As one M23 fighter explained to Human Rights Watch, “Many of us have bad memories of Ntaganda…but we need to prioritize the war against the FARDC [the Congolese army] first. The war against Ntaganda will come later.”
Since July, Ntaganda appears to have been keeping a lower profile and, according to M23 defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch, is closely protected by dozens of bodyguards.
Killings and Rape by M23 Forces
Human Rights Watch investigations found that M23 fighters deliberately killed at least 15 civilians, wounded 14 others, and raped at least 46 women and girls in areas under their control in June, July, and August. At least 13 of the rape victims were children. Some were attacked because they resisted forced recruitment or refused to contribute food rations to the M23. Others were targeted because they were perceived to be against the M23, or had fled to government-controlled areas and tried to return home in search of food.
In June, for example, M23 fighters killed a 50-year-old Hutu man, Nsabimana Rwabinumwe, who had fled when the M23 arrived in his village but came back to look for food at his farm. A friend who buried him told Human Rights Watch, “They [M23 fighters] used a hoe and beat him on the back of the head. …When you leave the areas controlled by the government and then come back, they punish you. …They killed [my friend] because he had been in the government area.”
In early August, an elderly couple who lived near Runyoni left their home to flee to government-controlled areas when a group of M23 fighters stopped them. The M23 fighters grabbed the woman and tore off her clothes. Her husband tried to protect her, but some of the fighters started beating the 60-year-old man with their rifles, while others gang-raped his wife. The man lost consciousness when he saw his wife being raped. He was later taken to a hospital, where he told relatives, “I want to die. I have no desire to live after what I have seen. It is only animals who could have done this.” Two weeks later he died of his wounds.
A 15-year-old girl from Muchanga told Human Rights Watch that she had gone to their farm with her mother and younger sister on July 10 when an M23 fighter approached them and demanded money. They gave him the money they had with them which they were saving to pay school fees, and then the fighter told them to get down on the ground. “He started by letting my mother and little sister go and telling them to run quickly. I was left alone with the fighter. He took me 500 meters from the farm and then he raped me.”
On August 24, two M23 fighters raped a 12-year-old girl. They broke into her home, threatened her mother and aunt, and told the young girl to go outside. Some meters from the house, near the family’s latrine, they gang-raped her. “[She] was in a lot of pain, she cried out loudly, but these criminals had no heart or pity for anyone,” a witness told Human Rights Watch. “They continued to rape her until they were satisfied.”
In addition to the 15 civilians deliberately killed by the M23, at least another 25 civilians were killed in July during combat between the M23 and their supporters against Congolese army soldiers and UN peacekeepers. At least 36 other civilians were wounded. In a number of cases neither the M23 nor the Congolese army made sufficient efforts to avoid civilian deaths or to permit civilians to flee the combat zone safely.
Rwandan Support to the M23
In July, several hundred Rwandan army soldiers, possibly more, were deployed to eastern Congo to assist the M23 take the strategic border post town of Bunagana, Rumangabo military base, the towns of Rutshuru, Kiwanja, and Rugari, and surrounding areas. Local residents and M23 defectors reported earlier Rwandan army deployments in which Rwandan soldiers came for short periods to support the M23 in key battles, withdrew, and then returned when needed. A UN peacekeeping officer in North Kivu corroborated regular surges of support for M23. He told Human Rights Watch, “Whenever [the M23] make a big push, they have additional strength.”
Local residents and escaped M23 fighters told Human Rights Watch that on July 5 and 6, during an attack on Bunagana, several hundred Rwandan army soldiers from Gen. Emmanuel Ruvusha’s division based in Gisenyi (northwestern Rwanda) were deployed to the area to reinforce the M23. Defectors told Human Rights Watch they recognized the division’s officers. M23 rebels coordinated their offensive with the Rwandan forces against the Congolese army, who were supported by UN peacekeepers.
UN peacekeepers present during the attack told Human Rights Watch that the forces that attacked Bunagana were well-equipped and spoke English, and that their behavior was markedly different from that of Congolese soldiers, leading them to conclude that the attacking forces included Rwandan soldiers.
Many Rwandan army soldiers deployed to support the M23 passed directly from Rwanda into Congo, using various footpaths, including near Njerima and Kanyanje. Others reportedly passed through Ugandan territory to enter Congo, including via a path on the Ugandan side of Sabyinyo volcano. M23 defectors and local residents told Human Rights Watch that Rwandan soldiers used Ugandan territory and Ugandan vehicles to enter Congo.
Congolese and Rwandans, including local authorities who live near the Rwanda-Congo border, also told Human Rights Watch that they saw significant numbers of Rwandan soldiers crossing from Rwanda into Congo in June, July, and August. They had also seen Rwandan soldiers later returning to Rwanda from Congo.
In early July, just before the M23 rebels attacked Bunagana with support from Rwandan troops, a Congolese farmer from Hehu hill, near Kibumba, was visiting a friend in Kasizi, Rwanda, when he was taken by Rwandan soldiers and forced to carry boxes of ammunition.
He told Human Rights Watch that he had counted seven army trucks filled with Rwandan soldiers, weapons, and ammunition. “The soldiers took me, my friend, and other civilians… and forced us to carry boxes of ammunition to Njerima [near the Congo border]. I was forced to do three trips and then I managed to get away. The soldiers were well-armed and wearing military uniforms… I asked one of the soldiers walking next to me where we were going. He replied that they were going to fight in Congo.”
In late July, people in Congo near Kasizi again reported seeing large numbers of Rwandan army soldiers passing into Congo from Rwanda. On August 3, two Rwandans, including a local village chief, told Human Rights Watch that they saw a large group of Rwandan army soldiers crossing from Rwanda into Congo, on a footpath near Karisimbi volcano.
Some people noticed Rwandan soldiers coming out of Congo. A journalist who traveled from Ruhengeri to Kinigi in early August told Human Rights Watch he saw two groups of at least 100 soldiers walking from the direction of the Congolese border toward the main road between Ruhengeri and Kinigi in Rwanda. He described the soldiers as “visibly tired and dirty” and said “some were limping, their boots were muddy, and they were clearly very tired.”
Rwandan forces in Congo appear to have coordinated their actions with the M23, often playing commanding roles, local residents and M23 defectors told Human Rights Watch. One former M23 combatant told Human Rights Watch he saw a Rwandan General, Emmanuel Ruvusha, on Tshanzu hill, one of the M23’s main bases, during the fighting in Bunagana, apparently commanding and overseeing military operations.
Another defector who commanded a unit of M23 fighters said he received his orders from Rwandan army officers during the attack on Bunagana. Other M23 defectors were also able to identify Rwandan officers by name that had been at M23 positions in Congo. They claimed that these officers had directed, or helped to direct, military operations, provided weapons, or supervised the training of new recruits.
Many of the M23 defectors and escaped recruits from both Congo and Rwanda interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that their training had been conducted by Rwandan army soldiers at training camps in Bukima, Tshanzu, and Rumangabo, in Rutshuru territory, Congo.
A Rwandan M23 defector who used to be an officer in the CNDP told Human Rights Watch he recognized the Rwandan army officers training the new M23 recruits because he himself had been trained by them in Rwanda while he was with the CNDP. “I knew them well because I had taken their courses in Rwanda,” he said. “I recognized them.”
Human Rights Watch tried to contact the Rwandan military spokesperson for a response to the above allegations without success.
In an interview with Belgian newspaper Le Soir on August 29, the Rwandan defense minister, James Kabarebe, denied that the Rwandan army supported the M23. “Everyone knows that Rwanda does not have a single soldier amongst the M23 and does not give it any support.” When asked if uncontrolled Rwandan soldiers could be acting in support of the M23, he said that the Rwandan
army was “solid, well-organized, well-commanded, well-disciplined” and that there could not be any “uncontrolled elements” within it.
Forced Recruitment in Congo by the M23
Since early July, M23 rebels have stepped up recruitment activities in Rutshuru territory, eastern Congo, after the group took control of the areas around Bunagana and later Rutshuru, Kiwanja, Rumangabo, and Rugari. M23 commanders held meetings in villages and towns under their military control to convince the population to support their activities by providing recruits and food rations. When few joined voluntarily, M23 combatants quickly began to take young men and boys by force.
Human Rights Watch research found that at least 137 young men and boys were forcibly recruited in Rutshuru territory between early July and late August, including at least 20 children under 18, seven of whom were under age 15.
These are in addition to the 149 young men and boys recruited in Masisi territory in April, as reported by Human Rights Watch on May 16. The total number of young men and boys forcibly recruited by the M23 in Congo, known to Human Rights Watch, stands at 286; of whom at least 68 were children under 18, 24 of them under 15.
New recruits were taken to military training centers set up by the M23 in Bukima, Tshanzu, Runyoni, and Rumangabo. Recruits who managed to escape told Human Rights Watch that they were given military uniforms and taught how to use a rifle and other basic military tactics. The recruits also told Human Rights Watch that Rwandan army officers frequently led the training.
The forced recruitment created a climate of fear, leading many young men and boys to flee to government-controlled areas or across the border to Uganda or Rwanda.
On July 16 and 17, M23 fighters forcibly recruited at least 60 young men and boys from the Rugari and Kisigari areas. They told the recruits that they needed help transporting their belongings, collecting firewood and drawing water, and said they would be released afterward. Instead the young men and boys were taken to military training centers at Bukima and Tshanzu and briefly given military training.
One 20-year-old man who was forcibly recruited in the Kisigari area along with three other young men on July 21 later managed to escape. He told Human Rights Watch that he and the others were
taken to a training camp at Bukima. “There, we spent an entire night in a hole with water up to our hips, like a pool,” he said. “The M23 soldiers told us that that was the start of the military training, to teach us how to get used to the cold.”
A 19-year-old Congolese youth was abducted on July 23 in Bugina on his way home from his fields. Witnesses said three M23 fighters forced him to carry their belongings, then inducted him into their rebel group. His family saw him in Rutshuru on July 25 in military uniform with a rifle, fighting alongside the M23 against the Congolese army.
One man who had gone to visit a relative in Tshanzu who had joined the M23 told Human Rights Watch that during his visit he saw a group of 70 to 80 new recruits undergoing training. The man recognized four of the recruits as children from his home village who were still in primary school and were around 13 or 14. The man told Human Rights Watch that many others of roughly the same age were among the recruits.
Any recruitment by armed groups of children under 18 is prohibited by the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts, ratified by Congo and Rwanda. Under the ICC treaty, the recruitment of children under 15 is a war crime.
Rwandan Recruitment for the M23
Rwandan military authorities continued recruiting for the M23 in Rwanda between June and August, as they had in previous months, either by force or under false pretenses. Information collected by Human Rights Watch indicates that an estimated 600 were recruited in these circumstances in Rwanda. These recruits outnumber those recruited by the M23 in Congo. They included young Rwandan men and boys with no previous military experience and Congolese Tutsi refugees living in refugee or transit camps in Rwanda. Others targeted for recruitment included demobilized soldiers from the Rwandan army, the CNDP, and demobilized fighters from the FDLR who had returned to Rwanda. The FDLR are a largely Rwandan Hutu militia group operating in Congo, some of whose members participated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
According to recruits interviewed by Human Rights Watch who were able to escape and reports from other sources, Rwandan authorities recruited dozens of young men and boys from camps for Congolese refugees in Kibuye and Byumba, as well as the Nkamira Transit Center. Many were forcibly taken from the camps at night by men in civilian clothes who drove them to the Rwandan military camp at Kinigi. There they were given uniforms, weapons, ammunition, and other materials to transport, and were escorted by Rwandan army soldiers to Congo. Others joined voluntarily, after being told that supporting the M23 would help their families return to Congo.
A Tutsi student, 22, who studied near Kitchanga, in Congo, told Human Rights Watch that he had fled to the Nkamira Transit Center in Rwanda in May to escape forced recruitment in Congo. Two weeks later, he was taken by force from the transit camp along with 13 other young men. He said men in civilian clothes assembled them and forced them into a vehicle with tinted windows.They were taken to Ruhengeri, given salt to carry and forced to march to the Congolese border, escorted by Rwandan army soldiers.
At the border, the group was met by M23 fighters, who escorted them to Runyoni, where they were given military training within days of arriving. “They [the M23] would beat us,” the student said. “They told us we had to eliminate our ‘sense of being a civilian.’ They said we were going to take North Kivu.”
In another case at Nkamira Transit Center, an 18-year-old Rwandan youth went to visit his sister at the camp on June 6. He said that the same night, he was picked up by civilian-clothed men who rounded up 28 young men in the camp and brought them in three vehicles to the Rwandan military camp in Kinigi. The young men were each given fuel canisters to carry and were escorted on foot toward the M23 military position in Runyoni, Congo, accompanied by Rwandan army soldiers.
Rwandan military authorities also mobilized local authorities to help with the recruitment. In Rwerere, Rwanda, near the Kasizi village border crossing with Congo, Rwandan military authorities called local leaders to a meeting on June 27 and told them that each leader with responsibility for 10 houses (known as the nyumbakumi) should find five recruits to send to Congo to support the M23. Two people who were at the meeting and were later interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they were instructed to “give priority to young demobilized soldiers” and to tell the youth that they should go to Congo “to secure Rwanda because the Congolese government was supporting the FDLR.”
According to the same local leaders, on July 4 over 300 new recruits mobilized by the local authorities were taken to Kabumba, close to the border with Congo. They were then escorted by Rwandan army soldiers across the Congolese border to Runyoni to join the M23.
Another nyumbakumi from the area in Rwanda bordering Congo near Kasizi told Human Rights Watch that in a meeting on August 24, Rwandan civilian and military authorities again called on local leaders to recruit youth to join the M23. They told them that “all of the Kivus should come back to Rwanda because it is ours” and that they should collect money from their populations to pay the youth and encourage them to join.
An M23 combatant who spoke to Human Rights Watch was candid about the recruitment in Rwanda. “We have a small number of soldiers, and Rwanda has many,” he said. “We recruit everywhere in Rwanda. We look especially for those with families in Congo, former CNDP fighters, or demobilized soldiers. The street children are also very susceptible to recruitment.”
Rwandan military and civilian officials who recruit children under the age of 15 for the M23 are responsible for war crimes. Recruitment of children under the age of 18 for military service is also prohibited under Rwandan law.
Summary Executions and Mistreatment of Recruits
The M23 has treated its new recruits harshly. Beatings and cruel or degrading treatment were regular occurrences. Human Rights Watch research found that at least 33 M23 rebels and recruits who attempted to escape and were captured were summarily executed.
A Rwandan man, 18, who escaped after being forcibly recruited in Rwanda told Human Rights Watch that he witnessed the execution of a 16-year-old boy from his M23 unit who had tried to flee in June. The boy was captured and beaten to death by M23 fighters in front of other recruits. An M23 commander who ordered his killing then allegedly told the other recruits, “He wanted to abandon us,” as an explanation for why the boy had been killed.
A Congolese Hutu man, 28, who was forcibly recruited in Karuba, Masisi, in early May, told Human Rights Watch that because he resisted becoming a fighter, the M23 detained him in a makeshift prison in a hole in the ground at the M23 military camp in Runyoni, along with 25 other Hutu recruits who were being punished for disobedience. A Rwandan recruit told Human Rights Watch: “We were mistreated at the [Runyoni] camp. …They often beat people so badly that they couldn’t recover and got sick. …I wanted to flee.”
Within days of being recruited, many young men and boys were sent into battle. With little or no military training or experience, the new recruits are frequently among the first killed. A 17-year-old Rwandan boy who was recruited in June in Ruhengeri, Rwanda, told Human Rights Watch, “There are lots of children with [General] Ntaganda now, and they send us to the front lines so we’re the first to die. It’s as if they take us to kill us.”
One man from Rugari, Congo, told Human Rights Watch that his 15-year-old nephew was forcibly recruited in mid-July by the M23 while walking to his fields. Days later, the boy was killed in a battle on a hill near Rugari. After the battle, the M23 rebels forced a group of civilians, including the boy’s uncle, to bury the dead. “I saw my [nephew] there, dead, with a bullet in his chest,” the uncle said. The uncle participated in the burial of at least 60 bodies that day. Many appeared to be children.
Intimidation and Threats Against Human Rights Activists, Journalists, Local Leaders
Local leaders, customary chiefs, journalists, human rights activists and others who spoke out against the M23’s abuses or are known to have denounced the rebel commanders’ previous abuses have been targeted. Many received death threats and have fled to government-controlled areas.
The M23 took over community radio stations in Rutshuru territory shortly after they took control of villages and towns in July, threatening radio operators and journalists and forcing them to hand over equipment. One radio operator interviewed by Human Rights Watch said he was threatened by a senior M23 official, who told him that if he refused to let the M23 use his radio, they would kill him.
In late July, the M23 established local security committees in Kiwanja, Rutshuru, and Rubare. M23 leaders assert the committees are to serve as liaisons with local communities about security matters. However, a member of one of the committees told a civil society activist from the area that the main aims of the committees include recruiting youth to join the M23 and reporting to the M23 hierarchy those who oppose the movement.
Local customary chiefs who have not shown their loyalty to the M23 have also been targeted and some have fled to government-controlled areas.
The Rumangabo locality chief, Manishimwe Rwahinage, was detained by the M23 on July 17. M23 leaders told Human Rights Watch he had been taken into custody for collaborating with the FDLR and they were “trying to change him.” He was released on August 11, after civilians from his locality paid US$150. On September 5, Rwahinage was shot and killed in Rumangabo, not far from an M23 military post. M23 leaders said that the FDLR may have been responsible, while those close to Rwahinage believe he was killed by M23 fighters. Further investigation is required to determine responsibility for his death.
Human rights activists in Goma said they received threatening phone calls and text messages from people suspected of being M23 members. On July 26, one activist received the following message: “We are now at the gates of Goma. Speak one more time [and] we will cut your mouth. Spread this message to your other colleagues, sons of dogs. We will end your life.”
Forced Labor, Looting, and Extortion by the M23
M23 combatants have forced civilians to work for them, in some cases under threat of death.
On July 26, M23 fighters forced a primary school teacher, 32, from Gisiza locality to transport boxes of ammunition from Kabaya to the Rumangabo military camp. When the teacher tried to return home, he was shot in the back and injured by M23 fighters.
A local chief from the village of Kigarama, near Rugari, who had fled to Kanyaruchinya, told Human Rights Watch that on August 3 he went back to his farm to look for food. The next day M23 forces arrived and forced him to bring his pig to their camp, where it was slaughtered to feed fighters. For the next six days, the chief was forced to dig trenches, milk cows, and collect beans. He was also forced to find young women to bring to the M23 camp; he brought three, ages 15, 20, and 25. Their fate is not known.
Numerous other civilians told Human Rights Watch that they were forced to hand over their harvests, money, and other goods to M23 fighters. A man from Rugari told Human Rights Watch that M23 commanders held a meeting in mid-July at which every family was ordered to provide the M23 five kilograms of beans within a week. The M23 also carried out door-to-door looting raids, attacking those who resisted. On August 24, M23 fighters went to the homes of five traders in Rugari, attacked them with machetes and knives, and forced them to hand over money.
As of early September, the M23 controlled three main supply routes through Rutshuru to Rwindi, Bunagana, and Goma, and was imposing heavy “taxes” on all vehicles passing through their territory.
Pressure on Former CNDP Members by Rwandan Military Officials
Senior Rwandan military officials have sought to influence former CNDP members and their families, in both Congo and Rwanda, to support or join the M23. Several former CNDP military officers and political leaders told Human Rights Watch that they were under intense pressure from Rwandan officials to join the M23. The tactics included death threats and intimidation.
Senator Edouard Mwangachuchu, the president of the CNDP political party, who had publicly denounced the M23 mutiny, told Human Rights Watch that in early May, he received a phone call from the Rwandan defense minister, Gen. James Kabarebe, instructing him to support the M23 and demanding that the CNDP political party withdraw from its political alliance with the Congolese ruling coalition of President Joseph Kabila. The senator said that when he refused, Kaberebe told him to “shut up,” and said “a lightning bolt will strike you.” A few days later, other CNDP political party members declared they had ousted Mwangachuchu as party president and pulled the CNDP out of Kabila’s political coalition.
The Rwandan government, in its official response to the UN Group of Experts, said that the phone calls between Rwandan officials and Congolese individuals had “deliberately been taken out of context” and that those made by Kabarebe were “aimed at avoiding a return to violence and [to] promote political dialogue.”
Congolese Tutsi civilians, including businessmen and civilian leaders, also said they were under intense pressure to support the M23. Some have done so voluntarily, but others have refused and faced threats or intimidation. “It’s as if they [the Rwandans] have a knife to our throats,” one Congolese Tutsi businessman said.
Abuses by Other Armed Groups in Eastern Congo
Since the start of the M23 rebellion, the FDLR and other Congolese armed groups, including the Raia Mutomboki militia, have also increased their military activities, expanding their areas of control and killing hundreds of civilians in other parts of North Kivu and South Kivu, according to the UN and local human rights activists. These militias appear to have taken advantage of rising ethnic tensions and the security vacuum created by the Congolese army’s focus on the M23 rebels.
Rangers seeking and shutting down another plant via the illegal trade in Charcoal that’s funding the war. Every plantation that they locate the rangers are then punished by the rebels that then attack the Gorillas and later massacre them
Some of the militias, such as the Mai Mai Sheka – whose leader, Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, is sought on a Congolese arrest warrant for crimes against humanity for mass rape – have also received support from Rwandan military officials or M23 leaders to conduct military operations against the Congolese army or the FDLR, according to UN officials and the UN Group of Experts.
Some of the most intense fighting has been between the Congolese armed group Raia Mutomboki (meaning “outraged citizens” in Swahili) and the FDLR. Residents and local human rights activists in Masisi, Walikale, Kalehe, and Shabunda territories of North and South Kivu provinces say that hundreds of civilians have been attacked during the fighting this year as each side accused the local population of supporting its enemies.On August 29, Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, condemned the killings and massacres perpetrated by both groups. “The sheer viciousness of
these murders is beyond comprehension,” she said in a statement. “In some cases, the attacks against civilians may constitute crimes against humanity.”
The M23 has sought to ally with some of the armed groups active in eastern Congo, providing them with either periodic or sustained support, including weapons and ammunition, and on occasion organizing coordinated attacks.
For example, in early September, Mai Mai Sheka combatants attacked and took control of Pinga, a town bordering Masisi and Walikale territories, with the support of the M23, according to UN officials.
M23 leaders and Rwandan officials who provided weapons, ammunition, and other support to Congolese armed groups, either directly or indirectly, may be complicit in violations of the laws of war committed by these groups.
Abuses by Congolese Armed Forces
During operations against the M23 rebels, Congolese armed forces have also committed abuses against civilians in Rutshuru territory and Goma, including arbitrary arrests of ethnic Tutsi assumed to be M23 supporters, in addition to the mistreatment of detainees, at least one of whom was killed.
Some of those detained by Congolese soldiers had no apparent connections to the M23, but may have been targeted because they were Rwandan or were from the Tutsi ethnic group.
Between late May and early July, for example, Congolese soldiers detained five Rwandan children, ages 12 to 17, in separate incidents in Kibumba and Goma, at the border with Rwanda. The children were taken to the military prison at the headquarters of the 802nd Regiment at Camp Katindo, in Goma. The guards told the other prisoners, mostly army soldiers, to beat the children. One boy, 17, told Human Rights Watch that the other prisoners said, “Since you are Rwandan, we’re going to beat you to death.” At night, the children were beaten and hung from the ceiling for hours “like monkeys.” They were deprived of food and were not told of any charges or questioned by magistrates.
By mid-July, one of the children, Daniel Masengesho, about 16, became very ill. “We told the prison guard that he was very sick and would die here,” one of the boys told Human Rights Watch. “The guard responded, ‘Shut up. He is a Rwandan. Let him die slowly.’” The boys repeatedly asked the guards to take him to the hospital, but they refused. On July 23, Masengesho died. The next day, the army took the four other boys by motorcycle to the Rwandan border. Congolese immigration authorities questioned them after seeing their weak state, gave them food, and brought them to the hospital in Goma for medical treatment.
Congolese authorities responded promptly, and within days arrested Maj. Tharcisse Banuesize Chiragaga, the Congolese army officer responsible for detaining the five children. On August 17, a military court convicted him and sentenced him to five years in prison for arbitrary arrest, torture, falsification of documents, and illegal detention leading to the death of one detainee.
Although Congolese officials tried to return the boys to Rwanda, Rwandan government officials have refused to accept them, saying they are unable to confirm that they were Rwandan citizens. This has also occurred with Rwandan defectors from the M23, who continue to be held in Congolese military prisons or in the custody of UN peacekeepers.
As the Congolese army soldiers retreated north from their positions in Kiwanja, Rutshuru territory, on July 25, following an M23 offensive, the soldiers took a number of detainees with them. Human Rights Watch received several reports that four people in their custody may have been killed by soldiers near the Congolese military position at “Pont Mabenga.” Congolese judicial officials should urgently investigate this incident, Human Rights Watch said.
INTERNATIONAL ANIMAL RESCUE FOUNDATION IS APPEALING TO ANYONE THAT KNOW’S OF THIS MAN’S GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION TO CONTACT US ANONYMOUSLY “PIC RIGHT” - THIS INDIVIDUAL IS WANTED AND MUST BE ARRESTED
Congolese soldiers were also responsible for widespread looting. In Rutshuru and Kiwanja on July 8 and 25, Congolese army soldiers looted homes and forced dozens of civilians to transport their belongings as they retreated in the face of M23 rebel offensives.
The Virunga national park at this moment we are still unsure of if environmentalists can move in to secure the area however what we are aware of is that many rangers left the National Park in fear of their lives. This has then prompted concerns for the Gorillas there and at the main Virunga Gorilla rehabilitation centre of which is still in danger should armed militants decide on moving back to the Goma area of which they captured pilfering, murdering and raping many women and children.
The situation flared rapidly in December 2012 which we reported on within our African affairs page here https://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Animal-Rescue-Foundation-World-Action-South-Africa/199685603444685 the reports can be seen if you scroll down to December 2012.
The M23 rebel’s commander a vicious and ruthless bloody mercenary hell bent on power and control stated on November 29th 2012“My soldiers began to retreat from Masisi yesterday. We will go via Goma and then after that we will retreat to 20 kilometres (12 miles) past Goma toward Rutshuru,” Makenga told The Associated Press. “I think that by Friday we will be able to complete this.”
M23 rebel’s may have retreated for now of which they are being supported by the Rwandan government however not all of them have left the area and have opted for wearing civilian clothing hiding within the hills. To make matters even more worrying for ourselves and other international and inland conservations “Gorilla families” have been reported as vanishing with some ten critically endangered Gorillas found dead with gunshot wounds, and this is not the first time such an emotional discovery by the remaining heavily armed rangers have located in this national park.
In 2009 the war against “rebels and rangers” took a nasty and very upsetting turn that saw the very man whom is trying to keep the rebels out of the park arrested and charged for the deaths of Gorillas that was one hundred per cent corruption related all for the bloody charcoal trade.
SHOCKING;
The report that went viral on August 2009 stated the rangers the very people that where protecting the Gorillas and their natural habitat where to blame for the killings of the Gorillas of which where discovered lying like human corpses, some with their hands on their hearts where they had been shot and others curled up like babies in the foetus position that indicated aggressive and systematic bloody brutal and barbaric abuse had taken place just as a “warning”.
Press and media had reported the rangers where working with the militants which was completely untrue, the rangers had nothing to do with the murders of which it is seen in “the rangers eyes” as a brother and sister lost, a member of their family, mother or father. Why would anyone though kill such stunning and magnificent creatures? Sadly for power and control over land that the militants want.
The killings of the gorilla’s reported here http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/rangers-v-rebels-fight-to-save-rare-gorillas-1767926.html were traced back to the corrupt circle protecting the charcoal trade, which produces 120,000 sacks of charred forest wood every month. Investigators found that rangers and their associates in the armed militias murdered the animals as a warning to their protectors not to interfere. To think that charcoal is the main reason why Gorillas that have lived on earth for some million + years are being slaughtered to hit the emotion senses of those trying to protect the animals and to back off from the jungles is quite worrying and we are 90% certain that the rebels are going to come back as they previously have done at the beginning of 2000 then 2008-09 and now deep in the hills they are back with rangers and rebels fighting for the rights of two separate issues.
The M23 rebel group is made up of hundreds of soldiers who deserted the Congolese army in April. Since then they have occupied numerous villages and towns in mineral-rich eastern Congo, culminating in the seizing of the crucial, provincial capital of Goma. Although they claim to be fighting because the Congolese government has not upheld their end of a March 23, 2009 peace deal, an in-depth report by the United Nations Group of Experts says that M23 is a Rwandan proxy fighting in order to control eastern Congo’s lucrative mines.
Where there is money there is happiness as they say and with Congo’s lucrative mines then these blood thirsty militants are not going to stop at anything or anyone. It was also reported in November the Prime Minister Rt Honourable David Cameroon has ceased all imports of aid going into the Congo as the militants where stealing the aid and either selling it at copious prices or keeping it for themselves to fuel their rage. http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/30/world/africa/congo-uk-rwanda-rebels/index.html
It’s estimated that 210 Gorillas are living in the Virunga National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site quoted on the 27th May 2012 of which we have seen an entire family of ten individuals wiped out already. The forest (national park) the holds what the defectors of the Congolese army require to fund their mass killings and power taking that’s displaced at least 40,000 people since the beginning of April 2012 and that’s simply trees which the militants forces hack down then burn to turn into charcoal thus selling to then fund their mass genocide.
Tourism was up in the area of the park that rocketed from zero to 3,000 people a year, however that’s now fallen leaving the park ill maintained and the rangers fighting a war with funding that’s left the Gorillas in serious harms length. However as quoted above in this are the rangers see the Gorillas as their family and some rangers heavily armed to the teeth have stayed although it’s not enough.
I have highlighted the important concerns that the Gorilla’s face however habitual loss is the main concern along with Ebola that is wiping the gorilla species out rapidly.
- The park’s dense forest is rapidly being depleted of its trees to satisfy the almost insatiable demand here for charcoal, which is used for cooking and heating by the millions of people living in this troubled region. The lucrative charcoal trade is not only wreaking havoc on the park but also on its most famous inhabitants, the rare mountain gorillas.
- “The gorillas have become a hindrance for the charcoal trade,” said Emmanuel de Merode, director of Wildlife Direct, a conservation group based in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya that supports the park rangers working in Virunga.
- The park has been torn apart over the years by a procession of armed groups—from ragtag rebel militias to foreign armies—fighting over its natural riches which are now placing the 700 mountain rare Gorialla species in serious danger.
WORRYING;
Report recently released stated -
The charcoal is mostly made inside the forest by small-scale producers, Virunga rangers say. After a tree is cut down, the large branches are used to build a makeshift dome, which is covered with mud and set on fire. The mud makes the wood burn more strongly and form charcoal, a process that takes a couple of days.
The producers are organized into local associations, which de Merode and other sources working in the area claim are controlled by Congolese military officials. The officials exact a tax on both the charcoal’s production and its transportation, the sources claim.
A strong military presence is clearly visible in and around Virunga National Park, with soldiers manning frequent roadblocks and mingling with villagers. The soldiers have reportedly not received paychecks in years, and rangers say some may turn to the charcoal trade and other illegal activities to support themselves and their families.
“The military is put in the park because of the armed bandits that operate there, but they’re not paid, so they start making charcoal instead,” said Virunga ranger Paulin Ngobobo, in his office in Goma. Ngobobo has been in charge of Virunga’s southern sector, where the gorillas live, for just over a year.
“We’ll get a report from a military commander saying we cannot patrol the park for a certain time because of military maneuvers, but what they’re actually doing is cutting down trees and poaching,” he said. A military official in Kinshasa, who did not want to be identified, admitted that military personnel in eastern Congo operate in large part independently from the government.
Other political observers say they believe the involvement in the charcoal trade by military officials stationed in eastern Congo is probably done without Kinshasa’s approval.
RANGERS ATTACKED;
Report recently released stated -
Confronting the people in the trade is a dangerous business, as Ngobobo has repeatedly learned. Earlier this year, while lecturing villagers about the threats of the charcoal industry to Virunga, Ngobobo was arrested by military officials, stripped of his shirt, and flogged in front of the crowd, he said. In addition to such alleged reprisals, Ngobobo also faces challenges in convincing local villagers to shun the charcoal business.
“Everyone is making money off this trade,” he said. “The population is very poor. It’s impossible for them to see the value of the park. They see it as another obstacle.” Ngobobo also has to battle what he says are some corrupt officials within the park service, who are allegedly involved in the charcoal trade as well.
It’s a problem Ngobobo refers to as “internal poaching.” “Most of the park officials risk their lives to protect the park, [but] there are some people in the park service who are in collaboration with the military and the poachers,” he said. Shortly after Ngobobo posted an article on WildlifeDirect’s blog on the illegal charcoal trade, he was arrested and placed in the custody of a military tribunal in Goma for two days on charges of negligence.
According to court documents, Ngobobo has been accused of neglect in the death of a Chinese tourist who fell into a nearby volcano. He is also charged with furnishing false information about the charcoal trade and obstructing the investigation into the gorilla killings. Ngobobo says the charges are politically motivated, brought against him by officials involved in the charcoal trade who want to see him removed.
In a telephone interview with National Geographic News, Ngobobo’s former supervisor, Honore Mashagiru, dismissed those allegations. “People say things, but where the proof is?” he said. “It’s not true. It’s not true.” Mashagiru said Ngobobo has become the target of the charcoal traders because “he has not communicated well with the community about the issue.” Ngobobo is still facing court charges and must report daily to the tribunal.
Meanwhile, Norbert Mushenzi, a park service director who has been in charge of the northern sector of Virunga, has been assigned to Ngobobo’s post to protect the gorillas. In recent days, Mushenzi, who also has a history of speaking out against the charcoal traders, and his rangers have detained about 50 women whom they caught making charcoal in the park.
The Gorillas natural habitat is being destroyed due to “war” and “poverty caused by war” of which the militants and the poor are destroying large habitual areas of forest then burning this, these areas are where the Gorillas reside and should the rangers try to protect these areas which in turn is “fuelling the war” as charcoal is financing illegal arms deals from China and the United States then the Gorillas are killed on the order of the narcissistic deranged General Bosco Ntaganda nicknamed the “terminator”.
INTERNATIONAL ANIMAL RESCUE FOUNDATION IS APPEALING TO ANYONE THAT KNOWS THIS LEADER TO PLEASE GIVE HIS LOCATION AND DETAILS TO OURSELVES OR INTERPOL. BOTH MEN PICTURED ABOVE AND TOP ARE WANTED
PLEASE NOTE;
We are going to continue to report on this CONSERVATION CRIME until these two leaders are captured or taken out International Animal Rescue Foundation is offering a $34,000 reward for the exact location, wear bouts, to any information that will pinpoint these “individuals” for immediate arrest by international and European intelligence agencies.
All information will be held anonymously and reward money shall be paid to you on receipt of banking details and the arrest of these two criminals, if at the end of 6 months there is no credible intelligence then the reward money shall be increased “BY” $60,000 = $94,000 we will access and share all information to law enforcement in the United States and the European Union.
Email the CICU (Conservation Investigations Crime Unit) at;
externalaffairs@international-animalrescue-foundation.org.uk
Please note that the CICU will not contact you back unless your information is credible, should information be credible then you will be contacted via other sources of communication.
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The killings of innocent women, children flora and fauna must cease NOW!.
BEFORE YOU BELIEVE IN PROTECTING ANY OF THESE MEN PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE EXTRACT BELOW;
At a remote hospital in Rwanguba, Rutshuru, a nine-year-old girl lies in a small concrete room. She was raped while trying to flee the fighting. Others are being treated for bullet wounds. Lt Col Kazarama, confirmed “many” civilian deaths, as is often the case in the DR Congo.
speakupforthevoiceless
