/ 11 February 2001

PAKISTANI PEACEKEEPER HELD OVER SMUGGLING

KENYAN security forces have seized ivory worth hundreds of thousands of shillings and arrested a senior Pakistani army officer, the state-owned KBC radio reported on Saturday. The radio said that Lieutenant-Colonel Masud Mohamed, a liaison officer attached to the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, was arrested on Thursday at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as he prepared to smuggle out the ivory to Dubai. The radio quoted airport police chief Christopher Isoe as saying that “detectives manning a luggage-screening machine detected strange substances in Mohamed’s luggage and upon inspection recovered four elephant tusks and several ivory carvings and leopard skins.” Isoe said the detectives faced resistance from the Pakistani soldier as they sought to open his luggage. Many countries, including Kenya, have banned trade in ivory and other endangered wildlife species. – AFP