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Botswana: Survival Claims Not True - Foreign Affairs
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
4 April 2008
Posted to the web 7 April 2008
Thato Chwaane
Gaborone
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation says that Survival International's (SI) claims that the UN Human Rights Committee has criticised Botswana over the Basarwa issue is 'misleading and incorrect'.
Clifford Maribe from the Public Relations, Research and Information department issued a response from his ministry saying the UN Human Rights Committee noted the pleas that were submitted to it. Not all relocated persons will benefit from the High Court decision asking that the Botswana government "ensure that all persons who were relocated are granted the right to return to the CKGR consistent with the reasoning of the High Court decision". SI said that 'the committee urged Botswana to ensure that all persons who were relocated are granted the right to return to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR)'.
The SI further states on their website that the committee, 'the UN's top human rights body, expressed its 'concern' that the right to return is conditional on providing identity documents prior to entering the CKGR, obtaining special game licenses to hunt and that the state party will not provide access to ground water for such persons'. However, the ministry insists that the government's implementation has been consistent with the decision of the High Court and that all the applicants, their spouses and children have been granted unrestricted access to the CKGR. They also add that government has gone further to include in the list of beneficiaries an additional 30 people who were on the original list of applicants who failed to have their case heard. Maribe stated in the response that all that is required of them is to produce identity documents before they enter the CKGR for verification purposes. "It should further be noted that people who relocated outside the CKGR are free to visit the game reserve for visits to the grave sites of their loved ones or for spiritual purposes. All that is required of them is to record, free of charge, the purpose and duration of their visit with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks. "Any other person requires a permit to enter the CKGR as movement into and out of all national parks and game reserves in the country, including the CKGR, is of necessity, monitored and controlled in accordance with applicable laws.
"Demands that government should allow unmonitored movement into and out of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve are totally unjustified and unreasonable and therefore cannot be accepted," the statement emphasises. The ministry suggests that with regards access to water, the government has stated that the residents of the game reserve are at liberty to make their own arrangements to bring unlimited amounts of water into the CKGR.
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"It must be recalled that the court decision clearly stated that the Botswana government is not obliged to provide services inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve," he states in the response.
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