Two Italian activists taken to hospital for treatment
Press Release 01.05.2010
Paralimni, Cyprus: A team of international bird conservationists from the German-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS), who had just dismantled 30 limesticks and freed protected migrant species including Blackcap, Nightingale, Collared and Spotted Flycatcher and Wood Warbler, were savagely attacked by four Cypriot men with stones, fists and boots on common land near Paralimni yesterday afternoon.
The CABS members, a mixed Italian, German and British team, had spent the day locating and destroying illegal traps and cleaning the sticky lime from the helpless song birds before releasing them. An American journalist from the respected magazine New Yorker who was accompanying the team had not anticipated being drawn into - in his words: "a war zone".

CABS general secretary Alex Heyd, also part of the team, gave a vivid description of the incident: "Without warning four men drove up in a pick-up and ran towards us throwing stones. Two of the team were thrown to the ground and mercilessly kicked and punched. Our video camera was grabbed, smashed on the ground, and then battered against the temple of a barely conscious Italian bird guard."
Both Italians were robbed of their personal possessions and needed extensive treatment for their injuries.They were released from hospital in the late evening in order to make statements to the police. The other team members escaped with minor bruises and were able to alert the police. The police arrived promptly but the attackers had already fled.

CABS is currently present on Cyprus with a team of 12 conservationists. Their aim is, together with the law enforcement agencies, to combat the trapping of migrant song birds, which end as delicacies on the under the counter menu of many restaurants. Although such bird species are afforded the full protection of European and Cypriot law, they are still trapped with mist nets and lime sticks on a large scale throughout the Republic. The local police are actively pursuing the investigation of the attack against the conservationists and the data on the hard disc of a shattered video camera will be evaluated by laboratory IT experts. "The Paralimni police chief has assured me that his officers will follow a policy of zero tolerance against such criminals" reports CABS civil liaison officer David Conlin, "I am confident that we have established a firm basis for cooperation with the Cyprus police at a local as well as a national level" he concludes.

CABS is committed to a long term presence on the island of Aphrodite - at least as long as the populations of migrant song birds are under threat.

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