THREE SAUDIS DETAINED FOR TRYING TO SMUGGLE OUT RARE BIRDS

Jakarta, March 12 (ANTARA) - Customs and excise officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport here have detained three Saudi Arabian nationals for trying to smuggle out 33 endangered birds protected under Indonesian law.

The head of the Jakarta conservation and natural resources office, Ben Saroy, on Thursday confirmed the arrest of the three Saudis on March 8.
He said the arrests were made after airport customs and excise officers discovered the three Saudis' luggage contained 33 rare birds.
Meanwhile, Dwi Nugroho, an activist of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the three Saudis' case proved that illegal trade in endangered wildlife was still rampant.
"They (the smugglers) had modified the structure of their bags in such a way that they were able to put the birds in the bags and carry them as any ordinary baggage for air travel," he said.
But if the smugglers had succeeded in passing the customs checks, some of the birds would have died during the journey because it was not the proper way to transport birds, he said.
The rare birds the three Saudis had tried to take out of the country included three nycticebus coucangs, one lorius lory, eight 'punais', one cacatua maluccensis, and one cacatua gofini.
The others were 16 gracula religiosa, one green parrot, one red parrot, and one cactua alba.
The three Saudis will be charged with violating Law No. 5/1990 on the conservation of natural resources and ecosystem.