4 December 2007
Windhoek — NEXT week marks the first anniversary of the Kalahari Bushmen's landmark victory in the Botswana High Court to be allowed to return to a game reserve that had been their home for centuries, but they still languish in resettlement camps outside the park.
The Botswana government did not uphold the court's judgement, which ruled that the eviction of the Bushmen or San was unlawful and unconstitutional, and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, a rights organisation for indigenous people said yesterday.
"The court further ruled that the San may and hunt and gather in the Reserve," said the London-based group Survival International.
"The government refuses to let them hunt, and has stepped up its persecution of those who do.
At least 53 San have been arrested for hunting in 2007, and many have been tortured," said the group in a statement.
The Botswana government denied them access to a borehole inside the reserve after the court case.
Since the court ruling, the government has backed plans for a massive diamond mine worth US$2,2 billion on the Bushmen's ancestral land, Survival's director Stephen Corry said.
"The Botswana government is in effect saying the Bushmen have the right to eat and drink in the government camps but not on their ancestral lands.
It is effectively condemning them to death," Corry added.
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