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Your support makes all the difference.The Norwegian Prime Minister admitted yesterday that he unwittingly smuggled home two illegal elephant tusks after an official visit to Africa.
Kjell Magne Bondevik was given the ivory tusks by the Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, during the visit in February 2000. He brought them home without an import permit and in violation of a global ban on ivory trade, making national headlines in recent days after it was reported by local media.
In a letter to the Norwegian customs service, the Prime Minister's office admitted the illegal import and promised to review its procedures for handling official gifts.
"It is a tradition and normal international protocol that gifts are given during foreign visits by a head of government," the letter said. "When one receives gifts from a country's highest authority, it is natural to assume that there is nothing to hinder taking them out of the host country." However, the office admitted that no one had checked whether the gifts would be legal in Norway.
Trade in ivory and elephant products is banned by the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species, known as Cites, to protect elephants from poaching.
The Prime Minister's office said it was not even sure whether Mr Bondevik had opened the gifts or knew what they were. Usually, a member of his staff would take care of such gifts.
The Prime Minister surrendered the tusk to customs officials. He also turned in an elephant foot vase with a wooden lid given to him by Mozambique's President, Joaquim Alberto Chissano, and a snakeskin handbag give to the Prime Minister's wife by the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, during the same tour.
It was not clear whether charges would be filed by the Norwegian authorities.
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