Botswana: Relocation of San an Immediate Talking Point at CIVICUS Conference

The World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) has begun its biennial World Assembly with strong words from Botswana President Festus Mogae about the relocation of members of his country's San community. The assembly is being held in Botswana's capital, Gaborone. A non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Britain, Survival International, claims that Mogae's government has evicted the San - or Basarwa - from lands they had traditionally occupied in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to make way for mineral exploitation.