AR-News: Botswana's Bushmen fight removal from game reserve

[jim robertson]

Botswana's Bushmen fight removal from game reserve


Tuesday, July 06, 2004
By Barry Baxter, Reuters


GABORONE, Botswana — Removed from their ancestral lands by the government, 
Botswana's Bushmen are going to court in a case that could set a precedent 
for traditional hunters and gatherers fighting forced modernization across 
southern Africa.

The Bushmen hope to compel the state to allow them to pursue their ancient 
ways in one of the world's biggest nature reserves: the 42,000-square-km 
(16,220-square-mile) Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

"It's basically colonialism continuing in other hands," said Miriam Ross, a 
reseacher with Survival International (SI), a human rights NGO that supports 
the Bushmen's cause. "If the Bushmen do win ... this could set a precedent 
for Bushmen in other parts of southern Africa, such as South Africa," she 
said from SI's London headquarters on Monday.

The government says it wants the Bushmen, also known as Basarwa, out of the 
reserve so they can be brought into the mainstream of development and 
society.

Human rights organizations have said the government does not want the 
Bushmen to claim potential mineral rights in the reserve.

Southern Africa's Bushmen have been living in the region for thousands of 
years, and many still live as traditional hunters and gatherers in an 
unforgiving desert environment. About 2,500 Bushmen have been relocated over 
the past 18 months from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, located in the 
middle of huge and sparsely populated Botswana.

Botswana's massive diamond reserves have helped transform one of the world's 
poorest nations into one of Africa's most sophisticated economies, with one 
of the continent's highest per capita incomes and model health and education 
services.

Bushmen are famed for their rock art and paintings, many of which are 
thousands of years old.

Government officials said on Monday three High Court judges were leading an 
inspection of Bushmen settlements in the reserve. Officials have said a 
special court will be set up in the desert for the case, which is expected 
to start next Monday.

Source: Reuters

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-07-06/s_25541.asp

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