botswana: BUSHMEN'S COURT CASE AGAINST BOTSWANA TO BE HEARD
The crucial case for the 'Bushmen' of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) has been referred to Botswana's High Court to be heard as 'a matter of urgency'. The court will consider the case brought by over 200 Bushmen and determine if they were deprived of their land by the Botswana government forcibly, wrongly or without their consent. At least 1500 Bushmen have been evicted from the CKGR in the last six years.
SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL NEWS RELEASE
24 January 2003
BUSHMEN'S COURT CASE AGAINST BOTSWANA TO BE HEARD
The crucial case for the 'Bushmen' of the Central Kalahari Game
Reserve (CKGR) has today been referred to Botswana's High Court to
be heard as 'a matter of urgency'.
The court will consider the case brought by over 200 Bushmen and
determine if they were deprived of their land by the Botswana
government forcibly, wrongly or without their consent. At least 1500
Bushmen have been evicted from the CKGR in the last six years.
It will also determine if the government's destruction of the
Bushmen's water supply, ban on the Bushmen hunting for subsistence,
and refusal to allow Bushmen to enter their land without a permit are
'unlawful and unconstitutional'.
The case was thrown out of court last April on a technicality at the
request of the Botswana government. The Bushmen have been removed
from their land where they lived for thousands of years
and dumped in resettlement camps which they describe as 'places of death'.
Stephen Corry, Survival's Director, said today, 'This case must be
heard with the utmost urgency. The evictions happened nearly a year
ago, and the case has still not been heard. The Bushmen are dying in
the relocation camps, they think it's a government scheme to finish
with them once and for all.'
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