BOTSWANA: Canadian group protest Basarwa plight

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BOTSWANA: Canadian group protest Basarwa plight

JOHANNESBURG, 18 June (IRIN) - The worldwide campaign for the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana, received a publicity boost on the sidelines of an international diamond conference in Canada on Monday.

Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG) demonstrated outside the World Diamond Conference because they believe the real reason the Basarwa are being removed is because of the government's mining interest in the reserve.

About 700 people are contesting their removal from the reserve - which they consider their ancestral land and burial grounds - to resettlement camps.

VIPIRG member Jessica Asch told IRIN: "We wanted to add our voice to the growing concern about the impact these forced removals will have on the indigenous people and their way of life. We are determined to stand in solidarity with the Bushmen. We want the people of Botswana to know that although they are on the other side of the world, we are concerned and will continue to highlight their plight."

The Botswana government says it can no longer afford to provide the infrastructure the Basarwa to live in the park and want them all removed to the camps.

Since 1985 the authorities have relocated thousands of Basarwa people to settlements outside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

A recent court challenge against their removal was dismissed on a technicality, and activists are currently trying to raise money to return to court.

Officials say the programme is for the Basarwa's own good and have provided water, health and education services in the 63 resettlement villages, where most of the Kalahari people have already been moved.

Lobby group Survival International, which helps raise awareness of threatened peoples across the world, placed an advertisement about them in Canada's Vancouver Sun to coincide with the opening of the conference there.

"[Mining company] De Beers denies its interest in the park but according to our sources, they have already undertaken several studies and although they won't admit it, they have found one of the most fertile sites in the Kalahari in recent years," said Survival International spokesperson Miriam Ross.

Botswana, as the world's largest producer of diamonds, has the highest per capita income in Africa. The government says its aim in resettling the Bushmen is to help them benefit from this wealth, by providing schools, healthcare and job training. It also says it wants to give the reserve over to wildlife conservation that it claims has been thwarted by the Basarwa's hunting activities.

A successful land claim by the Basarwa might make it more difficult for the government to exploit any mineral finds.

Survival International has launched a worldwide campaign to persuade Botswana's government to reverse its policy. It is holding weekly vigils outside Botswana embassies, and publishing adverts around the world.

Meanwhile, less than 50 people remain in the reserve, refusing to move even though their basic services have been cut off and their hunting licences taken away.

[ENDS]

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