Voices for African Wildlife statement on the official announcement of the mass protest date to save Zimbabwe baby elephants

As a follow up to our earlier statement when we broke the news of our forthcoming mass protest against the government's continued abuse and mismanagement of our wildlife resources, particulary their exporting of baby elephant to China, we are pleased in this issue to announce the date for the mass protest as the 18th of April.

Our choice of the 18th as the date for the mass protest to save Zimbabwe baby elephants is consistent with the realisation that the President routinely passes by the CBD on his way to the celebrations venue, and this gives us the opportunity to take our campaign directly to him briefly as we will also be in the CBD. Another reason for the choice of the date is that the 18th of April, in Zimbabwe, stands out as a day of importancy, the events of which would never be missed by our national leaders. In this regard, the presence of these influential people, including the President, is what makes our demands be possibly heard and taken seriously. Also, by virtue of this day being of national importance, and with the President in attendance, it means more resources in the form of national security, will be accorded to this event. And this may therefore give us room to get our message across, since we believe the state security will be preoccupied with national events in general and the security of the President in particular, since under certain draconian laws in our country, protests of this nature would be nipped in the bud.

I'm sure you can all agree with us that there can be no better date than April 18th when the nation celebrates an independence from oppressive colonial rule which has over the past 35 years been proven to be a lie in that the oppression of people and animals of Zimbabwe by our government still continues except that its nolonger colonial. On our side it gets no better, a day for celebrating an independance that is least remindful of an important occasion, a disgruntled mass of oppressed people and a government busy squandering state resources when the country's economy is on its knees and now bent on destroying the last remaining piece of the national heritage in our wildlife, that's a perfect recipe for a mass protest and one we intend to fully exploit. As we mentioned in our first statement, we don't support violence, but can never and will never guarantee a peacifull protest, especially from an angry population. We are very much aware that the police might deny us police clearance but that still is not going to hinder us, its only for formality that we are aplying for one but we have never obeyed unjust laws at the expense of Zim baby elephants and we are not going to start now. The protest is going to be, with or without a permit. We have reached the level of our tolerance, and we shall not rest until there is an overhaul of the wildlife management policies to criminalize trophy hunting and the capture and export of baby elephants to China. We are also demanding an independent board to do a census of our elephant population to expose the lies of overpopulation our government are using to justify their now habitual trading of our elephants.

May the People of Zimbabwe and the Elephants enjoy life together and find joy with the God who created us.

We are ready! No turning back!