Wild Yak Brigade heroes charged with selling antelope pelts

Eight men once hailed as local heroes who fended off poachers hunting wild antelope in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau have been arrested for alleged corruption, the Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday.

They were formerly members of the famous Wild Yak Brigade in Qinghai province. It was founded in 1992 to defend China's largest uninhabited area - the 45,000 square km Kekexili - against poachers who were slaughtering 25,000 Tibetan antelopes annually for their valuable shahtoosh fur. The brigade was disbanded early this year and most of its members were absorbed into the Kekexili District Protection Administration.

According to the newspaper, the eight were arrested on March 16 and accused of selling 94 antelope pelts they seized from poachers in August 1998. Each of the eight members was said to have received about 4,000 yuan (HK$3,760) from the sale.

Wives of the men interviewed by the newspaper admitted their husbands did sell the pelts but they had no choice because they had been owed months of wages by the authorities.

The wives also said their husbands had reported the sale to their superiors who agreed to offset the proceeds from the wages.

For two years, their husbands had not been paid a yuan because of it, the wives said.