The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Zephania Ubwani
17 September 2008
Arusha — The leopard, which killed the son of a United Nations employee in October, 2005, had been frequenting a tourist lodge during barbecue dinners to feed on the leftovers, the High Court was told yesterday.
The first prosecution witness in the case filed by the victim's father told the court sitting in Arusha that Tarangire Safari Lodge management did not make any effort to chase the animal away.
Mr Mpinga Mathew, who was a laundry attendant at the lodge, said the leopard arrived without fail at the luxury resort every Wednesday and Saturday, during the barbecue dinners.
He said it had become so familiar at the place that it was not seen to pose any danger visitors and staff. No leopard attack had been reported before that fateful day, when it snatched the young boy.
The boy's father, Mr Adelino Pareira, has sued the lodge for alleged negligence leading to his death.
In his testimony yesterday, Mr Mathew said the deadly animal had become an amusement for tourists, who would often pose with it and take photographs.
"Everybody knew that there was a leopard, which always camped near the kitchen, especially during the barbecue dinners. It used to feed on meat leftovers," he told the court.
The law prohibits the feeding of wild animals in the national parks. The lodge is within Tarangire National Park.
The killer leopard was shot dead three days after it had snatched the boy. It had killed him, abandoned the body and fled on being pursued by a search party. However, it was ambushed as it turned up not far away from the lodge, apparently in search of meat leftovers.
Mr Pereira has sued Tarangire Safari Lodge and its employees, accusing them of negligence, which, he says, led to his son's killing by the animal on October 1, 2005.
The beast snatched seven-year-old Adrien from the verandah of the lodge, while his parents and other guests were having dinner.
During yesterday's four-hour hearing, Mr Mathew told Judge Kakusulo Sambo that the lodge never sought the advice of wildlife experts on how to deal with their strange four-legged visitor.
He said he believed Mr Pereira's son could be alive today had some care been taken by the lodge's management.
Mr Mathew told Judge Sambo that about an hour before the leopard snatched Adrien, who was playing with other children after dinner, it had also attacked his own son within the lodge.
The two-and-a-half-year-old Mathew Mpinga was saved from the claws of the animal, but suffered deep wounds on his face, the court heard.
Mr Mathew left the lodge, where he had worked for nine years from December 1997, after he was sacked following Mr Pareira's decision to file the case.
He said that before the October, 2005 incident, he had been seeing a leopard wandering about near the lodge for a year and believed it was the one that attacked his own baby and later killed the UN employee's son.
During cross-examination by Mr Hubert Makange, representing the lodge and staff, Mr Mathew denied that he had become a prosecution witness because he was bitter after being sacked.
But the advocate asked him why he had not sued his former employer over injuries suffered by his son suffered in the leopard attack and for dismissing him.
Mr Mathew said there were no armed security guards at Tarangire Safari Lodge during the twin attacks on the evening of October 1, 2005.
The lodge, located by the main gate to the park, near Minjingu Township, had only two employees doing security work but "armed" only with spotlights to assist visitors, the former laundry attendant said.
Mr Method Kimogora represents Mr Pereira, who was a translator with the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
During cross-examination, Mr Pereira maintained that the animal killed his son because of the negligence of the lodge management and its employees.
Visitors to the lodge, he said, had not been notified about the dangers posed by wild animals or given any safety instructions.
He told Judge Sambo that although the animals in the park were under the control of Tanapa, the safety of people within the lodge was the responsibility of management.
Mr Pereira, who was cross-examined for nearly three hours, defended Tanapa, saying it gave visitors safety instructions. He said they had been advised to drive only along the tracks and not to get out of their vehicles while inside the park.
The killing of his son happened barely two hours after his family returned to the lodge from a game drive.
There was a sombre mood in the court when, the UN employee, who has since been transferred to Geneva, narrated how he heard screams after his child was snatched by the animal as he was having dinner.
He said that after the distress call, all the guests came out and called their children, but "my beloved Adrien did not respond.
"I called, Adrien, Adrien, Adrien. He did not respond. I was so confused. In a few minutes, a safari car came and we rushed into the bush," he said, holding back tears.
Within 10 to 15 minutes, they spotted a leopard. "I alighted and it ran away. The first thing I found was a shoe. Later, I stumbled upon his body," he said.
The critically injured boy was taken to the local health centre but was pronounced dead by a Canadian doctor, who is among the prosecution witnesses expected to testify today.
Mr Pereira said the incident occurred only two months after he was posted to Arusha as a French translator at the ICTR.
The case will be heard at the High Court for three consecutive days. Four witnesses will testify for the Pereira family.
They include Dr Scott Markey, a medical specialist from Vancouver, Canada, who was among the more than 10 guests having dinner that fateful evening.
According to a plaint filed in the High Court of Tanzania, Arusha (Civil Case No.10 of 2006), Mr Pereira has sued Sinyati Limited, which owns Tarangire Safari Lodge.
It says Sinyati Limited/Tarangire Safari Lodge was "solely responsible in negligence" for the death of Adrien, a former pupil of Braeburn School in Arusha.
The family is demanding "a modest" compensation from Tarangire Safari Lodge mainly to cover the travel costs of the witnesses and funeral expenses.
They are also demanding that the lodge erect a commemorative plaque and plant a tree at the spot where Adrien was snatched by the beast.
According to Mr Pereira, an inquiry made by ICTR's security unit and Tanzanian police immediately after the attack, established that the presence of the leopard was known to many of the workers that day.
"The leopard was sitting on the wall not very far from the barbecue. One of the waitresses admitted the leopard was there and that some people took pictures with it," he said.
He accused the management of not taking any measures to improve security around the lodge despite knowing about the presence of the leopard and other dangerous animals.
On the fateful day, Mr Pereira and his wife, Cecile, and their children, Adrien and Clement, had checked in at around 2pm for what was expected to be an enjoyable weekend at the lodge.
They went for a game drive and by 7.30 pm, they were having dinner, when the animal struck.
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