Awful!
CAR Police work that makes as much sense as Eric Holder as Attorney General of the USA.

Pray for Briton David Simpson and his Swedish boss Erik Marav.



"A British man was last night facing the death penalty after being charged with mass murder following the discovery of 13 bodies in an African jungle ...

"‘Kony has killed and maimed lots of villagers here. I have found the bodies of women and children he had kidnapped and then murdered.
‘I led investigators to the massacre site and they took a few photos on their mobile phones, which was about the sum total of their investigation.’
Police in the capital, Bangui, detained Mr Simpson and his Swedish boss Erik Mararv after six hours of interrogation when they voluntarily went to report the massacre
in the remote south-east of the country. Mr Mararv is also in custody. His company Cawa offers clients the chance to hunt wild game at a cost of thousands of pounds,
with the cost of shooting a lion around £20,000.
Mr Simpson’s brother Paul, 22, who lives with their parents, Peter, 57, and Vicky, 55, on their farm, said: ‘I just hope the police come to their senses and release him.’"
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...a.html#ixzz1uLKIMT3Z

just another good reason to stay out of the shithole known as the CAR. think it can't happen to you? bet he thought the same thing!

Young and innocent in his actions.
Next time he comes across something similar he'll just walk away and forget what he saw.
Hope this regrettable issue can be resolved sensibly.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
First time I hear this

Someone clearly saw a chance to blackmail some money out of some foreign citizens

The comments from many of the people in that link speaks volumes about themselves.........

Justice in Africa, only to whom it suits. As for the comments, some of those twisted twots are no different to the likes of Kony, cousin Bob et al.

Watched a program a few months ago about CAR.It still carries the death penalty for witchcraft. There were hundred of woman across the country waiting trial. All you need to be arrested is for someone to accuse you.

how does this happen? In the 21 century?

Central Africa is not in the 21st century. No need for a time machine, just a short visit is needed for confirmation.

I only know what´s written on the net and in the newspaipers here in Sweden (and that´s useally a mix of lies and truth-twisting...).

We started getting news here in Sweden about Erik Marav beeing prisoned after he found several dead people on their hunting ground. Erik have been held in prison for a month or so without any offical expanation. Eriks whife (back here in Sweden) was quoted in a newspaiper that she is glad to get a official statement of what her husband is accused for. Again, this is what I red in the paiper. What she really think could be a totally different matter.....

There was a article about Erik and his whife a while ago in one of the bigger Swedish hunting magazines. Everything seemed great and they where happy to start a new life in darkest Africa. Truth chaught up with them pretty fast......

I really hope they will be released soon! I suspect a big pile of money or a heavy push from Swedish forgeing department (or probably both) will have to be seen before anything good comes outh of this mess

Stefan

Erik is a true gentleman, he and his sister are the consumate professionals. He and his family are in our prayers and should be in yours as well.
Brad

I'm sorry to hear about the murders in south-east CAR. This is a new escalation of tension for the precarious government to hold Simpson and Mararv just for relaying the intelligence about the atrocity to officials.

My brief stay in CAR 4 years ago confirmed for me that the northern part of the country is also unstable. I found out first hand that I need to stay away from that part of the world. When I hunted Eland in north CAR on the Aouk River, CAR was being continuously invaded by nomads and cattle herders with AKs and rogue military. They were natives of Sudan and Chad, where drought encouraged southern border penetration. One day they chased me and the rest of the hunting party, and we had to flee away from the hunting area as they fired on us with automatic weapons.

Maybe there are some peaceful areas over there, but I don't think I want to find out first hand. I'll leave that to those more adventurous than I.

Dear hunters and friends,

We know that some of you are already aware of the situation, and we have therefore decided to send this email out to all of you, to make sure you receive the same information. We have today decided to officially close down our 2012 hunting season in CAR, for the following reasons.

On 22 March, a few gold miners were found killed in a gold mine just south of our hunting concession. Since CAWA was apparently not targeted, we didn’t see this as a threat against us, but many of our workers had family or friends among the ones who had been killed, so understandably, they were all very sad and upset. We immediately made it clear to our employees that those who were directly touched by the tragedy were free to quit work and go back home, but that we hoped that the remaining part of the staff would finish the season together with us. However we soon realized that almost all the trackers wanted to leave, as well as an important part of the camp staff.

The hunters who were currently in the area were informed of the situation, and of the fact that we would not be able to live up to our standards with such big part of the staff members going out. We then made the decision, together with them, that it would be wiser to cancel the safaris and fly all hunters to Bangui, which was also done.

At this time, we still had hopes that the situation would calm down pretty soon and that part of the staff would get back to work again. However, a rumor started spreading in Bakouma, our nearest larger village, saying that it was actually CAWA that was responsible for the death of the gold miners. There is evidently no truth behind this rumor, indeed we had been in contact with the gold miners since they had been disturbing the hunt in the southern part of our area, but to accuse us of such a terrible act is totally out of sense. Nevertheless, the situation in Bakouma became quite tense, and Erik was asked to fly down to Bangui to explain what had happened. Once in Bangui, after a few meetings with several authorities, a decision was made to keep him under surveillance in Bangui until things had calmed down a bit.

With this situation, it has become obvious that we cannot continue hunting this season. We are very confident that everything will eventually be cleared out, but at this stage we have no means to carry through any more safaris this year, and that is why we have made the decision to close down the season.

We will now proceed with the documentation for trophy export and those of you that have hunted with us this season will receive a personal email with information about when the trophies will be shipped.

We thank you all for your understanding in this unfortunate situation. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get back to us.

Sincerely

Erik and Emelie Mararv



Emelie Mararv
Owner

Central African Wildlife Adventures
Tel CAR: +236 75 206957
Tel SAT: +88 216 692 516 63 (currently in use)
Tel SAT: +88 216 212 074 95
Tel Europe: +46 73 0735285
E-mail: emelie.mararv@cawasafari.com
Web: www.cawasafari.com

GOD bless them. They sure are in a mess over there.

The worst is having to deal with arrogant stupidity. No where to turn and little way out. Talk about shit creek and a leakey boat. And their governments, in order not to upset the buggers will roll slowly and ponderously.
God, please have mercy on them.

Guys, I've talked to Erik several times in the past few weeks. He's long since been out of jail, and likely common sense is gonna prevail. His family has lived in the CAR for along time, they are well connected and respected, it will be sorted out.

I doubt seriously he or anyone from CAWA will be held remotely responsible, and he'll be back to normal shortly. His areas are incredible hunting, and I would go back with him in an instant. If fact I will go back, to get revenge on the Bongo that kept me in a machan for 11 nights in a row.

I have full confidence in Erik, and I look forward seeing him in again in the CAR.

Aaron
What about Biton David Simpson?

I believe the article is several weeks behind on accurate info. To my knowledge no one has been in jail for weeks?

My info could be bad, but I understood Erik and David were still in jail and had been for 44ish days.

This is enough for me. Simply not worth the risk.

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
My info could be bad, but I understood Erik and David were still in jail and had been for 44ish days.

Bad info!!!

Having hunted with Erik during the incident, I get updates from he and Emelie. Here is the latest dated May 9 from their blog ( www.cawasafari.wordpress.com ) -

The present situation in our own words
Posted on May 9, 2012 by emeliemararv
Dear hunters, friends, and all of you who find your way to this blog,

Most of you are probably aware of the situation we are facing in CAR at the moment. Until today, we have chosen not to go out publically with information, but to only send emails two people involved with us. However, with the media attention being drawn to this case, we feel it is time to establish a way of openly sharing the story from our point of view.

What has happened is this:

On 22 March, 13 gold miners were found killed in a gold mine just south of our hunting concession. Since CAWA was apparently not targeted, we didn’t see this as a threat against us, but many of our workers had family or friends among the ones who had been killed, so understandably, they were all very sad and upset. We immediately made it clear to our employees that those who were directly touched by the tragedy were free to quit work and go back home, but that we hoped that the remaining part of the staff would finish the season together with us. However we soon realized that almost all the trackers wanted to leave, as well as an important part of the camp staff.

The hunters who were currently in the area were informed of the situation, and of the fact that we would not be able to live up to our standards with such big part of the staff members going out. We then made the decision, together with them, that it would be wiser to cancel the safaris and fly all hunters to Bangui, which was also done.

At this time, we still had hopes that the situation would calm down pretty soon and that part of the staff would get back to work again. However, a rumor started spreading in Bakouma, our nearest larger village, saying that it was actually CAWA that was responsible for the death of the gold miners. There is evidently no truth behind this rumor, indeed we had been in contact with the gold miners since they had been disturbing the hunt in the southern part of our area, but to accuse us of such a terrible act is totally out of sense. Nevertheless, the situation in Bakouma became quite tense, and Erik chose to fly down to Bangui to explain what had happened. Once in Bangui, after a few meetings with several authorities, a decision was made to keep him under surveillance in Bangui until things had calmed down a bit.

With this situation, it became obvious that we wouldn’t be able to continue continue hunting this year, and that is why we made the decision to officially close down the hunting season on April 3.

Erik has since then been held in custody in Bangui, together with our pilot David Simpson and ten local employees, while the authorities have made an investigation of the case. They have been kept in good conditions and have never been badly treated. At one point they were even out for a few days, in what was called a conditionnal liberation, but then they were taken back in again, due to disagreements between different authorities. We have been allowed to see them twice a day, while bringing food and anything they have needed. They have also been able to use their computers and phones at some points. They have been in good spirits and are only very bored.

The investigation has taken a lot of time to carry through, which is quite normal for CAR, even though they have a law saying that it is not legal to detain someone for more than 72 hours, renewable once, without an official charge. We have never been worried about the outcome of the case, but have been and are still very confident that we will eventually be cleared from all possible charges. Nevertheless, it is of course very frustrating to have been forced to close down the hunting season one month too early because of something that we didn’t do.

Last Monday, the whole group including Erik, David and the local employees, were finally brought to a judge, who told them what we already knew: that they were held on suspection of murder of the 13 gold diggers. They were informed that a second, independent investigation of the case will be carried out, and that a decision of a possible prosecution will come after that. In the meantime, they will be transferred to the prison, from which they will very much likely be able to get released conditionally while waiting for the second investigation to get ready.

We understand very well that for a person who is not familiar with Central Africa and with the legal system in this country, this may all sound very bad. However, as already mentionned, we have never been worried about the outcome of the case. We feel that have a good understanding of what is happening and about the underlying causes. We are in contact with the right people and are working on solutions as much as we can. We also have a lawyer who is doing a very good work. What one have to remember is that people in Central Africa don’t have the same perception of time as we do in the West. Things do take time in Africa. That is just the way it is, and there is not much we can do to change that.

Finally, since some people have been asking: Yes, we still totally count on working again the next season, and no, we don’t feel that this will give us any problems in the long term. We just wait for it to be over so that we can go on with our daily work. In the meantime, we are working with the export documentation of this year’s trophies, as well as preparing what we can for the upcoming season.

If you have any questions or comments about this situation, please don’t hesitate to let me know by writing a comment or emailing me at emelie.mararv@cawasafari.com. I will update this blog regularely to let you know what is happening.

Sincerely

/Emelie Mararv

Erik emailed me several times a few weeks ago, telling me he was out. So, perhaps it was his brief release when we last talked a few times? A few hrs ago, another AR member sent me the same info listed above.

I still have a lot of confidence in Erik, hopefully all will be made right.

Hopefully everything gets worked out for all involved. Scary stuff for sure.