Citation
DENVER, April 8 (Reuter) - A British veterinarian and others who care
for mountain gorillas in strife-torn Rwanda must abandon their posts,
leaving the endangered animals to the mercy of poachers, an official at
the Morris Animal Foundation said Friday.
It's a potential tragedy for the rest of the world,
Robert
Hilsenroth, executive director of the foundation said.
He said the decision was made Friday to abandon a clinic and a research
centre after the American Embassy ordered the evacuation of U.S.
nationals.
Red Cross officials in the capital Kigali of the former Belgian colony
reported the central hospital overflowing and said the death toll in
the bloodbath, which has raged since the presidents of Rwanda and
Burundi died in a suspicious plane crash Thursday, could run into
thousands.
The clinic at the Volcanoes National Park and a research centre are
under the auspices of the foundation and an affiliate group, the Dian
Fossey Gorilla Fund. Both are headquartered in nearby Englewood,
Colorado.
The groups support research and medical programmes at the park and the
Karisoke Research Centre. Fossey, a scientist who devoted herself to
studying and saving gorillas in Rwanda, was murdered in 1985.
There are only 651 of the majestic apes worldwide, 331 of them in
Rwanda, 50 miles (80 km) north of the capital city Kigali where civil
war is raging. The remaining 320 gorillas live in impenetrable forest
in Uganda, he said.
But he said Scientists tell us you need 1,000 of a mammalian species
to ensure survivability.
While demand for gorilla hands and other gruesome souvenirs has
virtually vanished, the gorillas are still threatened by poachers who
set traps for smaller animals.
Dr John Cooper, the clinic's British director, provides medical care
for the animals along with his wife Margaret. Four other scientists --
one British, one Canadian and two Americans -- do behavioural research
at the centre. All are leaving their posts, Hilsenroth said.
Hilsenroth said the research work can be put on hold, but the concern
was that the animals will not receive medical care.
In 1985 when Dian Fossey was killed, there were 270 in the park, and
now there are 331. So we feel our presence has helped,
he said.
The work will be left in the hands of 36 Rwandans, Hirsenroth said,
including a local who earned a masters degree in park management at
Colorado State University. But the Rwandans, who in February 1993 left
the park to join their families during an outbreak of violence, may
have to flee again.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
