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RAPAPORT... The Bushmen in Botswana won a court ruling for "wrongly being evicted" from their ancestral land -- the Central Kalahari Game Reserve -- Botswana’s high court ruled two-to-one on December 13, 2006.
Gordon Bennett, legal representative for the San (Bushmen) told BBC news, "It's about the right of the applicants to live inside the reserve as long as they want - and that's a marvelous victory."
The case was the longest and most expensive in Botswana's history. (Scroll to see the history of stories on this case from Rapaport News.)
Botswana claims the Bushmen no longer belonged to the game reserve because the group's lifestyle had changed and that the San's presence interfered with conservation efforts. Botswana denies a claim from Bushmen that the reserve was cleared of inhabitants for the purpose of diamond mining.
In April 2002, some 230 indigenous Bushmen filed an application challenging their eviction from the Kalahari, the ancestral homeland of southern Africa's first people for some 20,000 years. The case was originally thrown out on a technicality, but the high court agreed in 2004 to hear the complaint. Since the case was first launched, the number of Bushmen joining the cause grew to more than 1,000, and non-governmental organization Survival International launched a worldwide campaign in support. Survival International contended that diamond mining was behind the eviction, a claim both De Beers and Botswana denied.
In December 2005 De Beers asked Botswana's President Festus Mogae to stop removing San Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and to reconsider governmental policy on relocation of Bushmen from the region.
The court ruled that Bushmen have the right to hunt and gather in the reserve, and should not have to apply for permits for entry.
Justice Phumaphi, said the government's refusal to allow the Bushmen to hunt "was tantamount to condemning the residents of the (reserve) to death by starvation."
The judges ruled that Botswana is not obliged to provide services to Bushmen living on the reserve.
Bushman spokesman Roy Sesana said outside the court, "Today is the happiest day for us Bushmen. We have been crying for so long, but today we are crying with happiness. Finally we have been set free. The evictions have been very, very painful for my people. I hope that now we can go home to our land."
Survival's director Stephen Corry said, "The court's ruling is a victory for the Bushmen and for indigenous peoples everywhere in Africa. It is also a victory for Botswana. If the government quickly enacts the court ruling, then the campaign will end and the country really will have something to be proud of."
Meanwhile, an anti-De Beers website, boycottdebeers.com, was launched ahead of ruling on December 12. The site accuses De Beers and Botswana's government of forcing the country's Bushmen from their land into camps outside the reserve. The website further calls diamonds produced by De Beers 'conflict diamonds.'
The owners of boycottdebeers do not identify themselves on the website and an e-mail sent to them by Rapaport News bounced. Additionally, the website has not returned an online request form sent by Rapaport News and only a London street address is listed in website registration paperwork.
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