Na to, abyste jednou ranou sundali dvoutunového nosorožce tuponosého, potřebujete víc než jen přesnou mušku. Chce to opravdu profesionální loveckou zbraň. Akciová společnost Česká zbrojovka přesně takový artikl vyrábí a dodává do světa. Podivným řízením osudu se tyto zbraně dostávají do rukou pytláků a tím vydatně přispívají k masakrování tlustokožců kvůli jejich rohům. O podrobnostech píše The New York Times.

Na to, abyste jednou ranou sundali dvoutunového nosorožce tuponosého, potřebujete pořádnou pušku. / Ilustrační foto

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Potěší, když si práce českých rukou vybude uznání ve světě. V případě České zbrojovky má ale obchodní úspěch dost hořkou pachuť. Kde začít? Nejspíš v roce 2011, kdy se pytláckým tlupám z Mosambiku a Jihoafrické republiky začíná nebývale dařit. Jejich krvavé řemeslo jde totiž...

A gun manufacturer in the Czech Republic is implicated in flooding Africa with thousands of high-calibre hunting hunting rifles. Now poachers are even more deadly

A four-year investigation, Follow The Guns, by the Conflict Awareness Project (CAP), has uncovered evidence of a gunrunning network operated over five countries and three continents.
 

Headed by CAP director Kathi Lynn Austin, the organisation identified members of what it calls the Rhino Rifle Syndicate. It pieced together how this syndicate hatched a worldwide conspiracy to equip poaching teams in Mozambique and SA with rifles manufactured in the Czech Republic.
 

Some of these rifles were intended for the American market and bore a roll-mark reading CZ-USA, Kansas City, KS. These rifles were designed and marketed to kill big game and have wreaked havoc in the Kruger National Park, home...

Large-caliber weapons, manufactured in the Czech Republic, used by poachers of rhinos in South Africa are acquired in hunting shops in Maputo with the connivance of high-ranking officials in the ministries of the Interior, Agriculture and Tourism. One of the weapons companies have links with the Ministry of Defense, with the SISE and son of President Filipe Nyusi.

Following the series of numbers that identifies each firearm NGO Conflict Awareness Project (CAP in the acronym in English) found that large - caliber weapons were used in the poaching of rhinos in Kruger National Park in South Africa, they were manufactured in the Czech Republic by a company called Česká Zbrojovka Uherský Brod (Czub).

Although Rhino poaching has started more than two decades from 2010 increased significantly. Until that time the animals were killed to obtain their horn w...

Kathi Lynn Austin pulls the trigger of a pistol at a shooting range outside Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. It’s a fall afternoon in 2015, and she’s wearing jeans, cowboy boots and a scarf — her standard uniform when out in the field. She fires the gun with sweaty palms and a thumping heart. The men who invited her to the shooting range are the top players in the very crime syndicate Austin is here to investigate. She is working to gain their trust in hopes of getting information about the illegal pipeline of rifles used in southern Africa’s mass rhino slaughter, which is threatening to wipe the species off the face of earth. Austin pulls the trigger again. There’s lots of recoil, but she makes some decent hits, glad to not make a complete fool of herself.

Over the past 30 years, Austin has chased weapons traffickers and war profiteers around t...

HOEDSPRUIT, South Africa — High-powered hunting rifles are the tools of the trade for poachers in South Africa and Mozambique. Steady and deadly accurate, the rifles are capable of dropping a rhinoceros with one shot from long distances, and are a major reason the rhinos in those African countries, highly valued for their horns, are dwindling toward extinction.

Three years ago, Sandy McDonald began finding the rifles, left behind by poachers, scattered near the dead rhinos he found in the game reserve he owns in Mozambique, just across the border from South Africa.

Mr. McDonald immediately recognized the weapons. They were .375-caliber Safari Classics, made by CZUB or just CZ, a firearms manufacturer based in the Czech Republic. Upon closer inspection, Mr. McDonald noticed something else on the rifles. Carved into the metal were the words “CZ-USA,...

Bongani Bingwa speaks to Kathi Lynn Austin, Executive Director of Conflict Awareness and Arms Trafficking investigator

Not much is known about small arms trafficking, a global industry worth billions of dollars that feeds into many criminal syndicates. One woman has been tracking the dangerous network of illegal weapons for over 20 years … and her recent three-year investigation has revealed a huge network of illegal firearms that supply poachers with guns in the Kruger.

Listen to The Interview

"Hunt arms dealers, not poachers"

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“Criminals find that US planes allow them to fly under the radar far more easily than if using some dodgy Russian aircraft,” CAP ED Kathi Lynn Austin recently told the Boston Globe. “The simple act of flying out of US airspace — where regulatory standards are perceived to be high — conveys a level of legitimacy on its aircraft and its operator. The American flag also makes it easier for corrupt officials to wittingly turn a blind eye.”

Lax U.S. aviation laws have allowed drug dealers, terrorists (like 9/11's Mohammed Atta), and other criminals to disguise the true owners of aircraft, gain easy access to pilot's licenses, and operate internationally with very little accountability. Read the Globe's stellar in-depth investigation, which shines a much-needed spotlight on the changes required at the national level.

Read the Article

As the dragnet for the Paris terror suspects continues in Belgium, the Independent looks at how black market guns are funneled into the country and acquired on the streets. “There is a long history of leakage from Russian and eastern European stockpiles,” said CAP ED Kathi Lynn Austin.

Read the Article

L’express Maurice has published a French translation of CAP ED Kathi Lynn Austin’s recent LSL Radio interview. Austin discusses her 10 August open letter to the PM of Mauritius, in which she asks him to reopen an arms trafficking network inquiry.

Read the Interview Translation (in French)