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  Antara 22 Nov 06
First Lady receives return of 48 smuggled orangutans from Thailand

Antara 22 Nov 06
Foundation regrets five Indonesian apes still being detained in Thailand

Antara 21 Nov 06
Thailand to send 48 orangutan home to Indonesia

Bangkok (ANTARA News) - Thailand will send 48 endangered orangutans home to Indonesia this week, two months after their return was delayed by a military coup, a Thai forestry official said Monday.

The primates had been smuggled into Thailand and were seized at a Bangkok zoo two years ago. They would finally be sent home Wednesday, flying on a military aircraft to Jakarta airport, said Wattana Vetayaprasit, director of Thailand`s wildlife conservation division.

"The apes` return home has been delayed for some time because of the coup (on September 19), medical check-ups, as well as the process of obtaining import and export licences for endangered species," Wattana told AFP.

Following their seizure from the Bangkok zoo, an investigation was carried out to determine whether they were from Malaysia or Indonesia.

"Indonesia will take all 48 apes while they continue to undergo DNA tests to clearly identify their origins. Any of them proven to have originated in Malaysia will be sent there later," said Wattana.

After arriving in Indonesia, the orangutans would be kept at a rehabilitation center, before going to a zoo, he added.

The orangutans were supposed to leave for Indonesia in September, but their departure was delayed by the military coup when operations at the air base in Bangkok were suspended.

Orangutans, the only great ape to be found outside of Africa, are native to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia and to Borneo. Experts say only about 27,000 remain in the wild and populations are fast declining due to deforestation and trafficking, AFP reported.

Antara 22 Nov 06
First Lady receives return of 48 smuggled orangutans from Thailand

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian First Lady Ani Bambang Yudhoyono received the return of 48 smuggled orangutans from Thailand at the Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base here on Wednesday.

Thai Ambassador to Indonesia Atchara Seiputra handed over the orangutans to Ani Yudhoyono in the presence of the forestry minister and the Indonesian ambassador to Thailand, the Thai Embassy here said in a press release.

The return of orangutans followed long negotiations between the governments of the two countries with the help of local and international non governmental organizations, it said.

The 48 orangutans are part of those smuggled to Thailand three years ago. The apes were later flown to Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, using a Hercules long-bodied plane of the Indonesian Air Force. Before being released to their original habitats, the 48 orangutans will be quarantined at a rehabilitation center in Palangkaraya to undergo medical checkups.

The 48 orangutans were originally planned to be returned to Indonesia in September 2006. However, the tense political situation in Thailand in the wake of the 19 September military coup led to a delay in their return.

According to Profauna Indonesia, 54 Indonesian orangutans were seized by Thai authorities from the neighboring country`s Safari World. On April 21 this year, the two governments agreed to send back the animals to their original habitats in Indonesian forests.


Antara 22 Nov 06
Foundation regrets five Indonesian apes still being detained in Thailand

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) foundation has expressed regret that five Indonesian orangutans are still being kept at the Night Safari amusement center in Chiangmay, Thailand, although 48 other Indonesian apes were returned to Indonesia on Tuesday, a spokesperson said.

"The detention of the five Indonesian primates at the Night Safari park in Chiangmay is clearly a violation," BOS founder Willie Smith said here Wednesday.

The Thai government should send the five orangutans back to Indonesia immediately as both Indonesia and Thailand had already ratified the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ( Cites), he said.

Keeping the Indonesian orangutans at the Thai amusement park illegally had set a bad precedent for the protected primates` life, he said, adding that the Indonesian orangutans had been smuggled to Thailand for amusement parks when they were still in their infancy.

Previous reports said the 48 orangutans returned to Indonesia would be sent to an orangutan rehabilitation center in Nyaru Menteng area in Central Kalimantan before being released in the Kalimantan jungle.

The Thai government decided to return the Indonesian orangutans after conducting a comprehensive investigation and DNA tests on all orangutans at a theme park in Bangkok in July 2004.

Indonesian orangutans had reportedly also been traded illegally and smuggled to Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam.
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