500 people call on Irish Catholic Church to stop the slaughter
With the murder of Atamato Madrandele, Chief Warden of Upemba National Park, on 16th December, 2012 by Mai-Mai militia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, its time the Catholic Church stopped driving the trade in ivory.
29th January 2013
Thousands of elephants are brutally slaughtered each year so that their tusks can be carved into religious objects. The Catholic Church must stop it!
Nov. 8, 2012: Secretary Clinton delivers remarks at the Partnership Meeting on Wildlife Trafficking at the Department of State.
A thriving and devout Catholic market for ivory in the Philippines, one where the head of protocol for the country’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese gives smuggling tips and contact information for his favorite carvers. The ivory is used for elaborately carved religious icons that are integral to many Filipinos’ practice of their faith.
You can petition the Irish Catholic Church to STOP here...
Madrandele was killed as he was returning to the park's headquaters, according to the conservation group. Madrandele was 43.
"Atamato driving his motorcycle from Kiubo to Lusinga when he encountered an ambush by a group of MaiMai and was shot," said Upemba Conservation Project in a post on its Facebook page.
Gorilla.cd, the official website of Virunga National Park, confirmed Madrandele's murder in a post on its blog.
"We’ve just received the tragic news that Atama, who was our Sector Warden for the [Northern] Sector of Virunga until last year, was murdered by Mai Mai militias as he was returning on a motorbike back to his park headquarters at Upemba National Park."
The Upemba Conservation Project said the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) and the Zoologische Gesellschaft Frankfurt are bringing Madrandele's body back to Lubumbashi. A funeral will be held on Saturday. ICCN has called for an investigation into the ranger's murder.
Madrandele leaves behind a wife, a young daughter, and a son. Gorilla.cd is asking for contributions to provide for the family.
Mai-Mai rebels were linked to the brutal slaughter of six people this past June at the headquarters of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the town of Epulu. The militia also killed 14 okapi. The raid was reportedly linked to a crackdown on illegal elephant poaching and gold mining inside the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. In October, the Mai-Mai killed attacked a ranger patrol in Virunga National Park killing two park staff and one government soldier.
More than 120 rangers have been killed in the line of duty in Congo over the past decade due to the ongoing conflict in the eastern part of the country.
Source: Mongabay.com and National Geographic and Blood Ivory
How the Press are covering this issue around the world:
January 23, 2013: Catholic News Service: Spokesman says church condemns ivory hunters' slaughter of elephants - http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1300278.htm
National Catholic Reporter: http://ncronline.org/news/global/vatican-spokesman-says-church-condemns-ivory-hunters-slaughter-elephants
The Vatican Today-News.VA: Vatican press spokesman condem,s slaughter of elephants for ivory - http://www.news.va/en/news/vatican-press-spokesman-condemns-slaughter-of-elep
New York Times-the Price of Ivory: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/ivory/index.html
Blood and Ivory goes to the Vatican: http://bryanchristy.com/vatican-city-ivory-raids/
