Botswana court orders government to allow Bushman family to return to their land.

The latest report from Survival International on the attempt by the Botswana government to remove the Kalahari Bushmen from their land.

The Botswana High Court ruled on Friday 28 October that the government must allow Bushman Amogolang Segootsane and his family to return to their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. It must also return his goats to him and allow him to bring water into the reserve.

Segootsane brought his case after he was prevented from going back to his home in the reserve. The government closed the reserve in September and removed all the Bushmen's goats, claiming they were diseased. An international panel of vets dismissed this reason as 'spurious'.

Dozens of Bushmen have been evicted from the reserve at gunpoint in recent weeks. Three Bushmen, including a seven-year old boy, have been shot and wounded. All the Bushmen involved in the Bushman organisation First People of the Kalahari were arrested and beaten when they tried to enter the reserve last month.

Tshatlha Ntwayamogala, who was evicted from the reserve this month, told the Telegraph newspaper, "They told us, 'when you leave this place, you leave as volunteers.' So we said 'if we are volunteers, we don't want to go.' They began threatening us. They told us, if we stay behind, they will end up killing us. One of the police said 'if you don't move, you will all be killed'."