Botswana: A Policy of Persecution for the Bushmen
Bushmen elder, CKGR, Botswana 2004 © 2004 Stephen Corry/Survival
The appalling treatment of Botswana’s Bushmen by the government should not be overlooked when considering the human rights record of the nation (‘Botswana: the power of stable institutions at work’, March 29). Botswana’s government may indeed be stable, but for the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Games Reserve, stability is a privilege they have routinely been denied.
In pursuit of a policy that might find a parallel in ethnic cleansing, Botswana’s government, headed by President Khama who also serves on the board of Conservation International, is responsible for having destroyed the homes of thousands of Bushmen and forcibly evicting them from their ancestral lands. It is no coincidence that Gem Diamonds has an exclusive retention license to develop diamond deposits in the reserve.
In 2004 the Bushmen took the government to court to claim their right to the land they have inhabited for thousands of years. With Survival’s backing, the Bushmen won a landmark ruling in 2006 in which the Botswana High Court ruled that they had been evicted ‘unlawfully and unconstitutionally’, and that they have the right to return home.
However, despite the ruling, the government continues to persecute the Bushmen, banning them from accessing a borehole which they rely on for water, and which they used before they were illegally evicted from their lands. At the same time, it has drilled new boreholes for wildlife, with funding from Tiffany & Co, and allowed the opening of a luxury tourist lodge in the reserve, complete with swimming pool.
In light of these violations of basic human rights, it is no surprise that over 400 Bushmen were denied the right to vote in the 2009 elections and not one Bushman has been granted a hunting permit, in defiance of the High Court ruling which stated that the Bushmen have the right to hunt in the reserve.
The UN Special Rapporteur for indigenous peoples, Prof. James Anaya, recently condemned the government’s treatment of the Bushmen, saying the ‘denial of services to those currently living in the reserve does not appear to be in keeping with the spirit and underlying logic of the [2006 High Court] decision, nor with the relevant international human rights standards.’ He also said that those Bushmen who have returned to the reserve, ‘face harsh and dangerous conditions due to a lack of access to water’. He also urged the government to reactivate the borehole ‘as a matter of urgent priority.’
The US State Department’s latest human rights report on Botswana also criticized the government for its ‘continued narrow interpretation’ of the 2006 ruling, and acknowledged that the ‘lack of water has made [the reserve] an extremely inhospitable environment’.
The Bushmen have now launched further litigation against the government in a bid to gain access to their borehole, and a hearing date has been set for June.
This all serves as a shocking blind spot in Botswana’s supposed glowing record of governance and by all definitions a striking instance of the oppression of a minority group. If President Khama’s government wishes to sustain a reputation as a free and fair democracy, it must now take heed of national laws and grant the Bushmen their right to water, land and self-determination.
Watch Survival’s film on the Bushmen lawsuit: From the Kalahari to Court
© 2010, TessThackara. All rights reserved.
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