Who is the ’Ivory Queen’? 谁是“象牙女王”？

导读:根据坦桑尼亚国家及跨国重罪调查组公布的信息，“象牙女王”杨凤兰十余年内秘密走私了价值250万美金的706枚象牙，意味着大约350头大象因此被盗猎杀害。

A 66-year-old bespectacled Chinese woman may not be most people’s idea of an ivory smuggling kingpin, but that’s exactly what Tanzanian investigators say Yang Feng Glan is.

当你看到这位66岁的、戴着眼镜的中国籍妇女，你可能无论如何也想不到她会是一位象牙走私犯罪集团头目。但她，杨凤兰，确实正是坦桑尼亚法院要控告的人。

She is accused of leading one of Africa’s biggest ivory smuggling rings, responsible for more than 700 elephant tusks worth $2.5m illegally leaving Tanzania for the Far East.

她被指控操纵非洲一桩最大的象牙走私案——将价值250万美金的700多副象牙从坦桑尼亚走私至远东地区。

Ms Yang denies all charges and her trial is set to begin in Dar es Salaam on Monday.

然而，她否认所有指控。此案将于周一（5月9日）在坦桑尼亚首都达累斯萨拉姆开审。

So what do we know about the woman dubbed the "Ivory Queen" and what exactly is she accused of?

那么，这位被称为“象牙女王”的人到底是什么来头？她因为什么被指控？

Originally from Beijing, Ms Yang first went to Tanzania in the 1970s. She was one of the first Chinese students to graduate in Swahili and worked as a translator for Tazara, the Tanzania-Zambia railway project that China was helping to fund and build.

杨凤兰是北京人，上世纪70年代来到坦桑尼亚。她是中国第一批斯瓦西里语专业的毕业生，被分配到坦赞铁路建设工地担任翻译。这是一条中国协助投资建设的铁路。

According to China Daily, after the railway was completed in 1975 she returned to Beijing to work in the government’s foreign trade department.

据中国日报报道，1975年这条铁路竣工后，她回到国内，在政府的对外贸易部门工作。

It wasn’t until 1998 that she decided to set up business in Tanzania. In fact, she set up two.

1998年，她开始在坦桑尼亚做生意，事实上，她开拓了两个业务。

She rented a two-storey building in downtown Dar es Salaam, opening a Chinese restaurant on the ground floor and establishing an investment company, Beijing Great Wall Investment, on the floor above.

她在达累斯萨拉姆市中心租了两层楼，一楼开了中餐馆，二楼开了“北京长城投资公司”。

The restaurant proved to be a success but in 2014 she told China Daily: "Now I do not count on the restaurant to make money. Instead, I see it as a place where people from China and Tanzania can communicate, get to know more friends and conduct information exchanges."

这家餐馆获得了成功，但是，在2014年她告诉中国日报，“这家餐馆的主要目的不是赚钱，而是作为中国和坦桑尼亚人交流的场所，人们可以在这里认识更多的朋友，相互交流信息。”

She has spoken of her attachment to Tanzania, both physical and emotional. Her daughter is named Fei, the first character of the word for Africa in Mandarin.

她表达出对坦桑尼亚的依恋，无论是物质层面还是精神层面。她女儿的名字专门用了一个“非”，即“非洲”这个词在普通话里的第一个字。

By 2012 she was secretary-general of the Tanzania China-Africa Business Council.

2012年之前，她还担任坦桑尼亚中非民间商会秘书长。

"I know I should have retired, but whenever I think that my language advantage and network can help many Chinese and Tanzanians and increase mutual trust and confidence, I do not want to stop. I myself am the best illustration of China-Tanzania friendship," she said in 2014.

2014年，她曾说，“我知道我应该退休了，但是每当我想到，我的语言优势和人脉资源能帮助中坦两国人建立交流互信，我就不想停止工作。我自己其实就是中坦友谊最好的例证。”

But at the same time, investigators say, Ms Yang was a major player in a far darker relationship developing between Tanzania and China - the illegal ivory trade.They say she was a key link between poachers in East Africa and buyers in China for more than a decade.

但与此同时，坦桑尼亚相关机构调查显示，杨凤兰是中国和坦桑尼亚之间黑暗的非法象牙交易的主要参与者。他们说，10多年来，她是东非偷猎者与中国买家之间的关键一环。

Tanzania’s National and Transnational serious Crimes Investigation Unit tracked her for more than a year. She was arrested after a high-speed car chase in October 2015 and charged with ivory smuggling between 2000 and 2014.

坦桑尼亚国家和跨国严重犯罪调查部门跟踪调查了一年多，于2015年10月在一辆高速行驶的小车上将其逮捕，指控其在2000年至2014年期间参与象牙走私。

Poachers and ivory traffickers are threatening the very existence of elephants in central and East Africa. Tanzania lost more than 60% of its elephants between 2009 and 2014.

偷猎者和象牙走私者严重威胁到了中非和东非洲大象的生存。2009到2014年间，坦桑尼亚的大象数量降幅高达60%。

The role of Chinese buyers in this hardly comes as a surprise - demand for ivory in China is high because of its use in ornaments and even in holistic medicine.

中国买家扮演的角色不足为奇——中国的象牙需求量一直以来都很高，因为它被作为装饰品甚至是整体医学之用。

Most of the time those arrested are small-time smugglers - which is why Yang Feng Glan’s arrest was welcomed by wildlife groups.

多数时候逮捕到的都是小规模的走私——这也就是为什么野生动物保护组织为抓捕到杨凤兰而欢呼。

Ms Yang denies the charges against her. If found guilty she faces up to 30 years in jail.

杨凤兰否认对她的指控。如果罪名属实，她将被判30年监禁。