Tusks seized at Nunukan checkpoint from Sabah?
Published on: Sunday, January 22, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Wildlife Department wants a thorough investigation carried out on five elephant tusks seized from a woman at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine station in Nunukan, North Kalimantan, Indonesia. This follows reports from Indonesia's news portal Kompas that a woman who claimed to be heading to Flores was halted by the country's immigration authorities in Nunukan for carrying the tusks. The report further said the woman was released after explaining that the items do not belong to her but she was just entrusted to carry them.
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The tusks were found hidden in the woman's bag as it passed through the Indonesian Customs X-ray machine with the Indonesian authorities valuing the items at RM33,000 (or Rp 100 million).The incident was said to have taken place at 2pm on Jan 13 when officials spotted longish items among the clothes in the bag, as the woman passed through Customs on her way to Flores.On questioning, she said the tusks were not hers and that she was sending it to Flores on behalf of another person who wanted to use it as a dowry for marriage.The official said that under existing laws, those who were found with tusks could be jailed for up to three years and fined Rp150 million.
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The same official said that if one is charged under Indonesia's conservation laws, the sentence could be even higher. The likelihood that the tusks could have originated from Sabah stems from the fact that Nunukan is the first port of call for vessels from Tawau.
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A local news portal suggested the tusks may have come from Sabah which last month witnessed the poaching deaths of two bull elephants, including one that had its tusks pointing inwards similar to the ancestral mammoth. Sabah Wildlife Department Director Augustine Tuuga said the origins of the tusks could only be ascertained if the Indonesian wildlife authorities questioned the woman further and a DNA analysis was carried out and compared to specimens of the animals killed in Sabah. "We don't know exactly where the tusks came from. Our hope is that the Indonesian authorities would carry out a thorough investigation on the case," he said. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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