Greenpeace accused of organizing murder, torture and punitive actions

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The facts that threaten a major scandal with the participation of the governments of entire countries and stars of the first magnitude have been made public. The World Wildlife Fund, whose emblem in the form of a cute panda is known by almost everyone, is accused of organizing murder, torture and punitive actions. Moreover, his activities are described by analogy with the special services. What is behind these accusations?

Environmental organizations and conservation foundations flourished in the global clearing shortly after the end of World War I, responding to both its aftermath and the active industrialization that made the war so devastating. From the very beginning, they tried on a messianic role - enlightening humanity for its own good and protecting the planet as a common home for the future of our children.

Considering that the engine of such organizations was the world elite - scientists, philanthropists, intellectuals and other representatives of the group, which is drawn to be called the international intelligentsia, their authority was high, and their motives were traditionally described by the ideals of humanism.

The division into radical groups, hunting for fur products with cans of paint, and respectable organizations engaged in science and charity, took place later, in the 1950s and 1960s. At the same time (specifically - in 1961), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) was founded - the largest environmental organization in the world with five million members, five and a half thousand employees, representation in more than a hundred countries and an annual budget confidently going to the billion mark. dollars.

Nowadays, the image of environmental organizations has become much brighter, but at the same time - ambiguous. Proceeding from the fact that the recipient of funds cannot be fully independent of the sponsor, environmentalists were accused of participating in economic and political confrontations. For example, as a hired force in the struggle of one large corporation against another - a competing one. Or as "useful fools" used by states and their special services to advance their interests at the expense of restraining strangers.

But even when accusing Greenpeace of mercenarism and extremism became commonplace, WWF, as Caesar's wife, remained above suspicion. The BuzzFeed investigation is destroying the good image of the well-deserved organization by making grave allegations of massive human rights violations, attacks on state sovereignty, and the encouragement of atrocities that have cost hundreds of lives.

It is worth noting here that BuzzFeed has a specific image, this media company has been repeatedly accused, for example, of spreading fakes. But in this case, we are talking about a well-designed and still ongoing investigation, supported by hundreds of testimonies and a huge array of documents, including, as it is emphasized, confidential. At the same time, BuzzFeed is not a conservative publication, which is accustomed to deny global warming and defend the interests of industry, but a liberal and pro-democratic one. That is, in the American realities BuzzFeed with WWF are ideological and political allies.

Previously, WWF, accumulating donor funds, spent them on supporting other people's environmental programs, but by now it is actively creating its own projects. BuzzFeed describes the Foundation as a global intelligence agency that oversees and coordinates a wide network of informers and security officials.

These security forces can be foresters or rangers, and can be paramilitary formations and even detachments of militants who have passed hot spots. Their common enemy is poachers who hunt rare species of animals to satisfy the demand of collectors and folk healers who treat impotence with a rubbed rhino horn (such apparently meaningless rituals can cost fabulous money, but there is a demand). In fact, these are organized crime groups, whose assistant, for a relatively small fee, is often the impoverished population from third world countries living near nature reserves.

Like other organized crime groups, poachers are criminals who easily go to extremes. And the war with them is not a metaphor, but an armed conflict. "Last year, poachers killed about 50 rangers around the world," admits BuzzFeed. "But, like any armed conflict, WWF's war on poaching brings civilian casualties."

The Fund can recruit or rent its security officers. Or it can support existing groups (for example, government) in the field, providing them with money, ammunition and weapons. A failed operation to buy a (notoriously illegal) consignment of weapons in the CAR is part of the BuzzFeed investigation. Three other countries in which the Fund's activities are covered in particular detail are India, Cameroon and Nepal.

That is, a large international organization creates its own small armies on the territory of third countries, to the trouble of the local population. Imagine that such an army is sitting somewhere in Northern Siberia, explaining its presence by caring for polar bears. And periodically rob, rape, torture and kill the local population. Sometimes whole villages.

Based on the official position of WWF, beggar peasants who carry out penniless activities on the territory of national parks and reserves are not enemies. But in practice, the rangers perceive these peasants as accomplices of poachers, subjecting them to torture.

As for the poachers themselves, the training manuals of WWF's “partners” do not always recommend keeping them alive.

One could attribute all this to individual excesses in disadvantaged countries, about which the Foundation located in Switzerland simply did not know, but specific examples of cases are given, the awareness of WWF in which there is no doubt.

One of them is the murder of a Nepalese named Shikharam. Rangers accused him of helping his son, a poacher, hide a rhino horn in the yard of his house. It was never possible to find this horn, so Shikharam was thrown into a special prison without formal charges and tortured. As a result, he died of his injuries. A lawsuit was launched against the three rangers, WWF got involved in it as a lobbyist, excluding "his sons of bitches", and in the end all charges were dropped, which was declared a victory in the Foundation.

Shikharam's relatives are still trying to get justice, and his alleged killers are at large. Someone is still working in WWF structures. Someone even published a memoir in which they advocate the benefits of water torture in protecting rhinos (alleged poachers are forcibly poured into their noses).

Another example is from Cameroon, where another alleged "informant", an 11-year-old boy, was tortured, and he was bullied in the presence of his parents. The family's village filed a collective complaint with WWF. However, she received no answer.

Despite all this, WWF continues to cite ignorance. The Foundation has already announced the start of an internal investigation with the involvement of external experts. And they said that human rights violations cannot be justified. However, what else could they say in such a situation?

The investigation contains examples of punitive raids, attacks with knives, executions with bamboo sticks, rapes and executions. All this, to one degree or another, was financed by WWF or implemented by the Fund's partners in the field, for whose training veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were involved.

The scandal promises to be loud, there are all the prerequisites for this. It is not only about the terror against the civilian population, but also about the indirect involvement of the stars of the first magnitude in this. For example, Leonardo DiCaprio is funding tiger conservation in the Bardia and Chitwan National Parks, where BuzzFeed is rife with violence.

It does not follow from all this that the distinguished organization WWF is discredited completely, unconditionally and forever. For example, we are indebted to the Russian office of the Foundation for excellent projects in the field of environmental protection and rare fauna, but there are no examples of fighting people for the sake of animals in its history - and they are unlikely to appear. But in countries where the state is especially cruel (Cameroon), frankly painful (CAR), or it is simply not enough (as in certain regions of India), it is not so difficult to imagine environmental terror.

Contrary to the concepts of conspiracy theorists who see the ears of the CIA behind every environmental action, no politics or even economics can be traced in WWF's actions in these countries. But they vividly confirm that in the 21st century, even the most respectable and respected organizations can infect the virus of extremism. And then messianism turns into a punitive action by armed fanatics.