From what I've been reading, all the evidence points to the fact that the Botswana government is attempting to displace indigenous Bushmen from ancestral lands in order to get access to diamond mining rights. After much government resistance, torture, admitted lies and delay, the court case by the Bushmen Gana and Gwi tribes to prevent their evictions restarts on Monday.
An international campaign is gathering steam to persuade diamond giant de Beers, the corporate beneficiary of the mining rights, to back off from a deal whose cost includes the eviction of these Kalahari bushmen. One by one, the models de Beers has hired to be the "face" of their diamond sales, have withdrawn from or refused offers representing de Beers.
The campaign is being spearheaded by UK-based charity Survival International, formed to "help tribal peoples defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures." According to their web site, they have been helping the Bushmen since 1976.
Survival is currently targeting US jewellery designer Neil Lane who has been hired by De Beers to create a signature collection of diamonds to coincide with the November opening of the De Beers store in Beverley Hills.
More about this story:
2005: Kalahari Bushmen Plea for Help in Securing their Botswana homeland
2005: Kalahari Bushmen vs Botswana government - eviction trial resumes
2005: Botswana Bushmen's Last Stand
2005: Botswana police shoot Kalahari Bushmen
2005: Botswana government's attempt to silence and remove the Kalahari Bushmen
2005: Botswana: Kalahari Bushmen evicted at gunpoint and their houses burnt down2005: Protestors against Botswana president's appearance at Oxford
2005: Botswana court orders government to allow Bushman family to return to their land
2006: More bushmen die as a consequence of Botswana and De Beers diamond agenda
2006: Bushmen call for support from Leonardo di Caprio and Linda Evangelista
2006: Botswana Kalahari Bushmen court ruling on December 13
2006: Boycott de Beers web site combats eviction of Kalahari Bushmen
2006: Bushmen win the right to live on their ancestral land
2007: Destruction of tribe and their forest home to make way for cattle ranching
2007: The Kalahari Bushmen's struggle to retain their land, culture and existence
2007: Botswana government thwarting court judgement
2008: De Beers stops mining on Kalahari Bushmen land
2013: Bushmen of the Kalahari being evicted again from their traditional lands
BOTSWANA GOVERNMENT LAUNCHES CRACKDOWN ON BUSHMEN
SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
22 August 2005
The Botswana government has launched a massive crackdown on the Bushmen of the central Kalahari aimed at destroying their way of life. The move comes despite the resumption of the Bushmen's three-year court case against the government for evicting them from their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
* The government has announced that it is putting guards around the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to blockade the area and stop Bushmen going in.
* More Bushmen have been arrested for hunting to feed their families.
Xhatshoe Xhose, Maiteko Digotlhong and Gothata Digotlhong have been arrested so far this month.
* The wildlife department has barred the Bushmen's lawyers from entering the reserve to consult with their clients, even though the high court specifically asked them to do so.
* The radio authority has refused to renew licences to Bushmen in the Reserve who were using community transmitters to contact each other to ask for help in medical or other emergencies.
* Officials have gone so far as to stop the Bushmen's own organisation, First People of the Kalahari, from talking to those in the reserve.
* The government is on the point of changing the country's constitution to remove any existing protection for the Bushmen.
* Selelo Tshiamo, one of several Bushmen severely tortured by officials in June, died earlier this month. He had been repeatedly beaten on the chest to the point where he coughed blood. His chest pains increased in the following weeks until he finally succumbed to his injuries.
All this amounts to the most serious assault on Bushman rights since their eviction in 2002.
Recent investigations show that the Bushmen in the forced relocation camps have started to die after contracting HIV/AIDS. At least thirty-seven Bushmen have the infection in just one of the camps. Drunkenness and prostitution are spiralling out of control.
Journalist Sandy Gall witnessed Bushmen being evicted from their land in 1998. He said today, 'The last hunting Bushmen in the world are now on the edge of destruction, only international support can save them. Unless ordinary people make their voices heard it will be too late and our 21st century world will add the Gana and Gwi Bushmen to the long list of indigenous peoples destroyed by racism and greed.
Have we learnt absolutely nothing? Are we really going to allow yet another government to exterminate its tribal peoples?' View this press release here http://www.survival-international.org/news.php?id=977 For more information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org
Posted by: JN | Monday, August 22, 2005 at 10:10 AM