Suspected Chinese ivory smuggling kingpin Yang Fenglan. PHOTO | BBC
A 66-year-old bespectacled Chinese woman may
not be most people's idea of an ivory smuggling kingpin, but that's
exactly what Tanzanian investigators say Yang Fenglan is.
She is accused of leading one of
Africa's biggest ivory smuggling rings, responsible for more than 700
elephant tusks worth $2.5m illegally leaving Tanzania for the Far East.
Ms Yang denies all charges. Her trial, set to begin in Dar es Salaam Monday, has been postponed for two weeks.
So what do we know about the woman dubbed the "Ivory Queen" and what exactly is she accused of?
A translator
Originally from Beijing, Ms Yang
first went to Tanzania in the 1970s. She was one of the first Chinese
students to graduate in Swahili and worked as a translator for Tazara,
the Tanzania-Zambia Railway project that China was helping to fund and
build.
According to China Daily, after the railway was completed in 1975 she returned to Beijing to work in the government's foreign trade department.
It wasn't until 1998 that she decided to set up business in Tanzania. In fact, she set up two.
She rented a two-storey building in
downtown Dar-es-Salaam, opening a Chinese restaurant on the ground
floor and establishing an investment company, Beijing Great Wall
Investment, on the floor above.
The restaurant proved to be a success but in 2014 she told China Daily:
"Now I do not count on the restaurant to make money. Instead, I see it
as a place where people from China and Tanzania can communicate, get to
know more friends and conduct information exchanges."
Suspected Chinese ivory smuggling kingpin Yang Fenglan. PHOTO | BBC
She has spoken of her
attachment to Tanzania, both physical and emotional. Her daughter is
named Fei, the first character of the word for Africa in Mandarin.
By 2012 she was secretary-general of the Tanzania China-Africa Business Council.
"I know I should have retired, but
whenever I think that my language advantage and network can help many
Chinese and Tanzanians and increase mutual trust and confidence, I do
not want to stop. I myself am the best illustration of China-Tanzania
friendship," she said in 2014.
But at the same time, investigators
say, Ms Yang was a major player in a far darker relationship developing
between Tanzania and China - the illegal ivory trade.
They say she was a key link between poachers in East Africa and buyers in China for more than a decade.
Was arrested
Tanzania's National and
Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit tracked her for more
than a year. She was arrested after a high-speed car chase in October
2015 and charged with ivory smuggling between 2000 and 2014.
Poachers and ivory traffickers are
threatening the very existence of elephants in Central and East Africa.
Tanzania lost more than 60 per cent of its elephants between 2009 and
2014.
The role of Chinese buyers in this
hardly comes as a surprise - demand for ivory in China is high because
of its use in ornaments and even in holistic medicine.
Wildlife groups
Most of the time those arrested are small-time smugglers - which is why Yang Fenglan's arrest was welcomed by wildlife groups.
"It's the news that we all have
been waiting for, for years," Andrea Crosta, co-founder of the US-based
Elephant Action League, said in October.
"We must put an end to the time of the untouchables if we want to save the elephant."
The Elephant Action League says Ms
Yang is "connected to various companies abroad, all Chinese-owned, and
circulates in the upper echelons of Chinese citizens living and working
in Tanzania".
Country's elite
"When we think of a kingpin, we think of someone like Al Capone," Mr Crosta said.
"But this was someone who mingled with the country's elite, who blended in."
Ms Yang denies the charges against her. If found guilty she faces up to 30 years in jail
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