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NEWS: This is the first time that American tourists have been intimidated and harasses inside a Botswana game reserve. The incident was registered with the American Embassy in Botswana and with the State Department in Washington DC. Group facilitator Jumanda Gakelebone was then subjected to a rash of death threats upon return to his home in Ghanzi - some by phone and one in person, in front of witnesses, by a member of the Botswana police force: "we will hunt you, f***k you and kill you", said the officer. Mr Gakelebone - recently nominated for a Nobel Peace prize - duly registered a complaint at Ghanzi police station. Meanwhile, in the Bushman settlements inside the reserve, government intimidation and violence against the remaining residents holding out until the court case between their community and the government is decided, has been stepped up. On the 15th September all the community radios, both inside and outside the reserve were confiscated by police. The last messages transcribed read: "They are firing over our heads, they are beating us, we don't know if we can hold out." Some days later, personnel of Botswana?s Special Support Group (or SSG - the para-military wing of the police force) arrested two Gana Bushmen inside the reserve for alleged illegal hunting. After being released from Ghanzi police station, prior to appearing before the magistrate of sentencing, both men said they had been badly beaten. One had lost the use of his right arm. Both said that while being driven out of the reserve they had witnessed villagers being beaten by SSG, police and wildlife department officials. The Bushmen holding out inside the reserve since the forced evictions of 2002 now have no food or water, have armed units camped out in their villagers, have no way of communicating with the outside world, may not see their lawyer (who was recently denied a permit to go and see them), and are in dire circumstances. Botswana is in the grip of a bad drought: the old people, children and pregnant women inside the reserve can be expected to die within the next couple of weeks. Botswana appears to be on the eve of its first genocide.
May 25th, 2005 Hello everyone - Rupert and Kim here again - sorry for the silence these past few weeks, but we wanted to wait until after we had been up to the UN this week for the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues conference. We also wanted to wait until our team of evidence gatherers had returned from the CKGR and the resettlement camps. So, now that both have happened, here's the scoop. We got something of a result at the UN, it seems. In a nutshell, Kim and I were sitting in the balcony, watching the various special envoys and panel members speak, and then the rep from South Africa (a half Koranna called Dr William Langeveldt - anyone on this list ever run across him?) ups and says that he's been asked by his government to find out what the UN is doing, if anything, about the problems facing the forcibly evicted San of Botswana's CKGR. He wanted to officially raise the issue and ask the UN to consider what action might be taken. We just about fell over. Afterwards I buttonholed him for a while. He didn't have all the background - for example, he wasn't aware that the Permanent Forum's special rapporteur had been out to the CKGR two years ago, had recommended intervention, and then the thing had been quietly forgotten. He also didn't know that Roy and co had been to the UN last fall and that promises to get him before the Secretary general had been made and not followed through on. He also didn't know about the upcoming change to the constitution in Botswana that will nullify the special protection given the San in 1961, and will also render all claims to ancestral land through ethnic or tribal affiliation completely void. So we managed to thrash out kind of a rough plan - he will try and get government high-ups from South Africa, possibly even Thabo himself, to sit down with the Botswana people and try to - in a fellow African to fellow African way - see if they won't be prepared to make some kind of settlement. In the meantime, we will absolutely keep up the pressure our end, and prepare the cases of cultural genocide and forced eviction to go before both the African Commission on Human Rights (and thus, to the African Union), and the International Criminal Court (ICC). This was last Monday. I had to go home on Tuesday. Kim stayed, on Tuesday she made an ILRF statement to the Permanent Forum on behalf of the CKGR Bushmen, which got the thing talked about again, then managed to speak with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, who expressed strong concern/desire to help, as well as from some of the other African reps. She will go back next week to try and build this into some kind of African member state declaration/statement to the Permanent Forum and talk in more depth with the Special Rapporteur, Rudolpho Stavenhagen and other members of the Human Rights Commission. Either way, the fact that the South African rep was on board before we even talked to him was a welcome surprise. And now that the Human Rights people at the UN are looking at this properly (at last), we may be moving towards intervention. It should also be noted that in the latest issue of the Indigenous World 2005, published by the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs through the U.N., has an entire section devoted to the situation in Botswana as well as the trip we organized to the UN last fall with Roy Sesana and Pauline Tangiora, our Maori ally. You can order a copy online at www.un.org. On another tack - our evidence gathering team (the law students from the Human Rights Clinic at American University and the journo Tom Price) are home and are satisfied that they managed to collect enough evidence (interviews, photographs and video) from the camps and inside the CKGR to prove ongoing harm and demise of the community - so that the first case can be brought before the African Commission. According to the evidence that has been gathered, conditions in the camps are truly terrible and people are certainly dying of HIV and its related illnesses. Back in the reserve, increasing numbers of people are trying to live a free life - they stress that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, for them in the camps but death. But another problem has arisen: since the relocations three years ago many of the traditional healers - cut off from both their herb and plant base, as well as the grave sites where the trance dances occur, have themselves died. Inside the reserve, this means the people are without any kind of healthcare. In the camps it means they are reliant on clinics where neither the doctors nor the nurses speak their language, and where they say they are routinely humiliated and ordered and even pushed around or manhandled. It's a vicious cycle. Again, people are dying. So that's the news from the Front. When we have some of the interviews from the evidence gatherers transcribed, we'll post them here. We need to make a special acknowledgement to Kakuna Kerina from the International League for Human Rights who provided us with the opportunity to be at this session of the Permanent Forum. If you want to know more about what has happened this past week and what will be happening this coming week at the U.N. in regard to indigenous issues, visit www.un.org/news. As always, thank you for your continued support. April 20th, 2005 The following is from Business Day - Johannesburg, in response to the Botswana's government plan to change the constitution and make it more "tribal neutral". As we told you last week, this comes at a very opportune time for the Botswana government as it could significantly effect the outcome of the land rights case currently in the Botswana court - the Bushmen lead by First People of the Kalahari, have taken their government to court to be allowed to return to their ancestral land inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. They were forcibly evicted in 2002. Botswana Denies Bid to Undermine Land-Claim Fight by Sello Motseta Johannesburg BOTSWANA's government has denied allegations that a bill, which is being pushed through parliament, to change the constitution is aimed at undermining a court challenge to the forced removal of the Baswara people from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The amendment will remove clause 413(3)(c), which provides protection for Baswara in the reserve, from the constitution. Rights group Survival International and First People of Kalahari - which is fighting the removals - argued last week that the proposed change would directly affect the outcome of a high court challenge to the removal of Baswara from the reserve, which is in part based on the clause. Presidential office spokesman Jeff Ramsay said late last week that the change was aimed at rendering the constitution "tribally neutral". The high court and the lawyers for Roy Sesana (the chairman of the First People of Kalahari) and company were informed of the proposed change on this basis. This government made a commitment to render the language of the constitution "tribally neutral",he said. The clause in question stipulates that government can restrict the general public's right to free movement within "defined areas of Botswana" if required for the protection or well-being of Bushmen. The amendment has already passed its second reading in parliament and if supported at the third reading, will become law within months. First People of the Kalahari spokesman Jumanda Gakelebone said last week: "On behalf of all Bushmen we at First People of the Kalahari are upset because the government is planning to remove the protection given to Bushmen in section 14 of the constitution. Gakelebone said he thought it was more than a coincidence that when the Baswara invoked this clause for the first time, to protect their constitutional right to protection and their land, the government set about changing it. "This section was included in the constitution to give us protection. Now we are trying to rely on the section for the first time in history", he said. Survival International said the high court's guidance on the clause would have helped the Bushman's case. The rights group also said the government appeared to "quite happy to arbitrarily bend the law to get its own way". Survival International director Stephen Corry said last week: "The government claims the constitution must be changed to render it tribally neutral. Removing this section takes away the only constitutional protection given to an already vulnerable people just when they need .... It is outrageous that it should act before the court has handed down its judgment." The government has denied the Baswara are being forced off their ancestral land. Rather, the state says, the removals are aimed at averting a slide into poverty and to preventing the spread of farming in the reserve blamed on Bushmen. The government has said the Baswara were encouraged to leave and that they have been given arable land outside the reserve, where clinics and schools have been built. Some Baswara say the relocation sites are underdeveloped poverty traps. The Botswanan government has also denied the reserve has been earmarked for mining. Relevant Links -- Southern Africa Legal and Judicial Affairs South Africa Botswana Human Rights Games Parks and Safaris Gope Exploration Company, a joint venture between Falconbridge Explorations Botswana, a subsidiary of Canada's Falconbridge, and diamond miner De Beers was in November 2000 granted a retention licence to mine in the reserve. A kimberlite pipe discovered there was initially found to be uneconomical to mine, but Gope has rights to explore further and mine the area until November next year. April 13th, 2005 UN REPORT: GREATER PROTECTION FOR INDIGENOUS CULTURES Speaking on behalf of the world's voiceless and uprooted communities, rights experts before the United Nations top human rights body have called for greater protection from the disparities that jeopardize the very survival of indigenous cultures, and the obstacles which disrupt the lives of internally displaced persons (IDPs). As the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights continued its annual six-week session, an expert yesterday updated the 53-member panel on the precarious state of the world's IDPs, chiefly those millions that have fled ongoing strife in Sudan's Darfur region, and the million more in South Asia uprooted by last December's Indian Ocean earthquake and devastating tsunami. Three other experts also addressed a broad range of indigenous issues, including obstacles hampering education in indigenous communities, protection of natural resources, and the ongoing negotiations on a draft UN Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples. Walter Kalin, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Representative on the human rights of IDPs, said 2004 had been overshadowed by the dramatic escalation of the conflict in Darfur, which had uprooted nearly two million persons, among them some 1.7 million IDPs, since the fighting started. Sudan's Government should give serious consideration to the report of the previous Representative on this, and his recommendations, to implement the norms contained in the Guiding Principles on IDPs, and cooperate with the international community in addressing the plight of the displaced. Mr. Kalin also expressed concern for the more than one million persons displaced by the earthquake and tsunami in South Asia. His main recommendation was that in the reconstruction and recovery phase, it was essential to take a human rights-based approach to the response so as to prevent future possible problems or violations. Leading the discussion on indigenous issues, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, the Commission's Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people, said many indigenous peoples, especially girls, found it difficult to access education of a similar quality as that offered to non-indigenous peoples. What had led to the destruction of the communities of indigenous peoples was the implementation of educational policies ignoring their particularities. Although this was becoming less the case, the issue was not fully resolved. He stressed also that if a solution were not found, a new generation of indigenous peoples would continue to be marginalized. It was not only urgent to improve the education in quantitative terms, but also in qualitative terms, in particular regarding the intermediate level and upper education. Countries should pay attention to the needs of indigenous peoples, and equip organizations devoted to their needs with sufficient institutional needs. Luis-Enrique Chavez, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on a draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Erica-Irene A. Daes, Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights on indigenous people's sovereignty over natural resources; and Jose Carlos Morales, Member of the Board of Trustees of the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations, also addressed the Commission. April 10th, 2005 The latest news out of Botswana is that the government is going to attempt to amend its own constitution to be "tribally neutral". Great idea on the face of it, right? Diffusing tribal and ethnic conflicts, thereby safeguarding Botswana from the dangers of ever descending into tribal war. Or is that why it"s being done? One of the most effective ways to strip people of rights is to first strip them of their identities. It"s what the American and Australian governments did back in the bad old days. Imagine if, now, the American Constitution were amended such that tribal identities no longer had any legal standing. The Indian Reservations would no longer be sacrosanct. Government or corporate interests (which already gnaw at the edges of the rez"s) would be able to step in and take land unhindered. But everyone would be American and equal, right? Right - but some would of course be more equal than others. On a darkly humorous note, does this mean that the name of the country "Botswana" will no longer have legal standing? It is, after all, named after the dominant tribe there - the Botswana. More serious questions arise, however: what will the other countries of the African Union think of this? Or the UN? Tribal identity is obviously of great importance within Africa. However, it"s likely that most countries on that continent will not want to interfere - especially as Botswana has Africa"s most powerful economy (built on diamonds) and a correspondingly powerful military. In this country of 1.4 million, the spending on the armed forces and state-of-the -art weaponry including jet fighters is reported to be about 5% - out of all proportion to the size of the country. To the international community the move to become "tribally neutral" can always be presented as a forward-thinking policy to diffuse any tribal conflict that might arise in the future; not that Botswana has any precedent for this - but then you"d have to know Africa pretty well to be aware of that. Robert Mugabe"s land grabs of 200/2001 come to mind: he played a devilishly clever card - claiming that he was repatriating African land for African people to keep the UN off his back while in fact sending armed thugs onto the land to terrorise the country"s voters into re-voting his ZANU-PF party back into office after the country had taken a vote of no-confidence in Mugabe and demanded a change of government. Then he took the land and divided it up to his supporters. Thousands of workers were dispossessed. The neighboring countries did and said nothing. The same result will be likely for this latest move. But why bother amending the constitution to wipe out legal standing for tribal and ethnic identity and rights? It seems that the Botswana government is learning a lesson from the international outcry that has dogged its decision to forcibly relocate the Basarwa, as it calls the San, or Bushmen, of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). Ever since the dispossessed residents of the CKGR first took their government to court for this illegal action - after all the CKGR was granted to the San in perpetuity in 1961 and this was re-ratified in "65 - the government has threatened to amend its constitution should there be a verdict in favour of the dispossessed San. Now, it seems, the government is going to make that move preemptively, attempting to obviate any verdict before it ever comes. And also, presumably, re-arranging things so that if any other tribal or ethnic group gets shoved off its land for another project (and one can only assume that this is inevitable), they will have no rights to that land, no matter what the history. Brilliant. Also pointless: Botswana wants to keep its past reputation of a "shining light of democracy in Africa. Moves such as forcible relocations and attempts to strip people of their ancestral (and legally ratified) rights don"t do much for the image. In such a large, under-populated country, there is no need to move people around like this: for example were the government to change its tune and allow the dispossessed CKGR San to go back to the reserve, observe their rights to the land, re-start basic services and - we"re dreaming pretty hard here - give them a stake in any development for the region, then money would still be made from the diamond exploration and possible mining of the reserve, and the government (and the associated mining companies such as De Beers, Debswana and BHP Billiton) would come up smelling like roses. Is this all about ego at the end of the day? Partly: the government seems dead set on doing the wrong thing as much because of international criticism as from any real economic or other motivation. But, more sinisterly, perhaps it comes down to tribe after all. The Batswana, of Botswana (or Neutral-Tswana, as the country may have to become known), have always been the ruling tribe. Smaller ethnic groups such as the San, and others have always been marginalized, mistreated and pushed around at the whim of their more dominant neighbors. By making its constitution "tribally neutral" Botswana will in fact place more power firmly into the hands of the Batswana tribe - or rather the handful of ruling houses of the Batwsana tribe. So, a shining light of democracy then. It"s worth a read of the US State Department"s latest assessment of that. Human rights abuses of all kinds are a growing concern in Botswana, and people - even those who don"t know Africa well - are starting to notice. Thanks for reading Rupert Isaacson and Kim Langbecker - Indigenous Land Rights Fund March 25th, 2005 A sinister new development is that Duma Boko, the lawyer representing the CKGR Bushmen to the Botswana High Court has reported a death threat. We've attached a report from the Botswana Gazette, but in a nutshell here is what happened: one of the most vocal critics of the Government policy towards the Basarwa (Bushmen) within Botswana is an academic called Ken Good. Professor Good recently produced a paper questioning the democratic process within Botswana and showing how in fact the country, for all its much-vaunted development for the masses through diamond money, has in fact reserved most of this money for a small coterie of upper-class ministers, leaving the majority of the small population (only about 1.5 million) in the same grinding poverty that they were in before diamonds were ever discovered. Getting wind of Professor Good's imminent publication of this paper, Botswana's president Festus Mogae declared good an "undesirable immigrant" and ordered him to be deported within 24 hours, despite the fact that he has held a position at the university of Botswana in Gaberone for many years. Duma Boko, the Bushman lawyer has also taken on the case for Ken Good. Whether the death threat was because of Boko's efforts on Good's behalf, or for the Bushmen, or for both, is unclear. If the picture seems bleak, remember that each time the government blocks the High Court case, it also continues to fan the fire it has started under itself, with inevitable consequences in the international courts. Such stalling works in the short-term, but there are mechanisms within the international courts that take note of these kinds of tactics and allow a case to be brought even if no ruling has been allowed at home. Finally, we leave you with the Gazette report on Duma Boko's death threat: Boko receives death threats by Batlhalefi Leagajang PROMINENT human rights lawyer Duma Boko told The Gazette on Monday that he has received death threats. Boko said he received a call from the receptionist in his law firm telling him that an unidentified person has called his office and asked her to inform him that he is going to be eliminated. When The Gazette arrived at Boko's chambers the staff were agitated. Tony Moremi, the receptionist, said she received the call at around 1245hrs; the man at the other end asked to speak to Boko. After being told that the attorney has gone to court, the caller asked for his mobile telephone number. Moremi said as the caller refused to identify himself, she refused to give him Boko's cell number. When she insisted that he give his name, he said: "itse fela gore ke nna ke leditseng. Bona, I am calling from the SIS (Security Intelligence Services); bolella Duma gore we are planning to eliminate him, so I'm just warning him because I know him."(it's enough to know that I rang. Look, I'm calling from the SIS; tell Duma that we are planning to eliminate him..." Moremi said she panicked and asked the caller if she could give him Boko's number so that he delivers the message himself, but he said he could not call him because that would reveal his identity."After he hung up I rushed to Mr Motlhala's (Boko's partner) office and used his phone to call Boko," she said. Boko said he on his way to Gaborone from Mahalapye when he received the call from the receptionist. He said he was a little shocked and surprised. "Why would anybody want to eliminate me?" asked Boko. He said he would not dismiss the threat as empty or a joke. He has reported the matter to the police and he has spoken with Motlhala to ensure that they arrange security for him. "I cannot prevent the inevitable because if indeed the SIS wants to eliminate me, they will, because they are well equipped and organised," said Boko. Boko is well known for his column that he writes in Mmegi Monitor. He has criticised many institutions and individuals in the column, including President Festus Mogae, but only once has he attacked the Vice President, Lt Gen Ian Khama. Boko said he does not think what he writes would offend anyone to the degree that he would be eliminated. "That is the nature of discourse, when you write you offend some people, and you in turn expects to be offended," he said. He said he does not apologise for the views that holds. Boko is also the legal representative of the Basarwa in their ongoing case at the High Court and together with Dick Bayford and Carlos Salbany, they represent Professor Kenneth Good, who was on Friday declared a prohibited immigrant. February 28th, 2005 Dear All, This week marks the forty-forth anniversary of the establishment of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana as a home for the Gana and Gwi Bushmen. It has now been almost three years since the Botswana government, in violation of its own law, evicted the Gana and Gwi. Of the resettlement camps, one Bushman said recently:'Where we have been moved [into resettlement camps] our death rate has gone up. Sometimes three or five people might die in one day. We didn't know such things inside the reserve. When we were staying on our own without the government there were no clinics, there were no doctors, but our health was good. We must be allowed to go back to our land. The campaign must continue.' Meanwhile, the Botswana Government is starting to crack down on dissent within its own borders: Dr. Kenneth Good, professor of political science studies at the University of Botswana for 15 years, has been ordered to leave Botswana. Late last Friday three men arrived at his home with handcuffs to inform him he had been declared a prohibited immigrant and had 48 hours to leave the country. Professor Good's legal team went to the high court on Saturday and obtained a stay of execution from a judge, who ordered him to appear before the court on 7 March. In a more sinster turn of events, Dr Duma Boko, an attorney on Good's legal team - and the main representative for the CKGR Bushmen in their ongoing case protesting the forced evictions - has received a death threat, reportedly from Botswana's intelligence service. Neithe Good nor Boko are allowing themselves to be intimidated. Professor Good is due to present a paper he co-authored entitled 'Presidential succession in Botswana: no model for Africa' at the university today. The paper is a critique of what the authors see as growing autocracy in the so-called 'model for Africa'. It is believed the paper may have been leaked to the president, who then ordered the deportation. Professor Good is a noted academic who has not shied away from commentating on controversial government polices. He has written about the evictions of the Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and questioned Botswana's reputation as Africa's 'shining light of democracy'. Finally, Festus Mogae, Botswana's president, has been in Britain this past week. Addressing a UK audience he asserted that he would not allow the Gana and Gwi Bushmen to return to their homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. 'I cannot allow them to go back,' he said, prejudging the Bushmen's court case currently in progress. President Mogae also claimed - as he seems to have taken to doing recently - that the Bushmen are allowed to hunt inside the reserve, as long as they do not use guns. In fact, Mr Mogae's government banned all hunting and gathering in the reserve following the eviction of the Bushmen in 2002. Bushmen attempting to hunt now face arrest and heavy fines. Seven Gana and Gwi Bushmen, arrested for hunting, are currently awaiting trial in Botswana. The President gave a lecture at Sussex University on 'Botswana's experience of development.' After the lecture, he was asked about the Bushmen. 'Development' for the Bushmen, said the questioner, had meant 'relocation from their ancestral land, being taken to eviction centres that they consider places of death, alcoholism, and dependence on state handouts.' February 21st, 2005 This week's update is an interview with Rupert that ran on MotherJones.com recently. Please see the interview in full below. Fighting Cultural Genocide The co-founder of a legal and humanitarian aid goup details the plight of the Kalahari Bushmen. by Onnesha Roychoudhuri December 22, 2004 In 1961, Botswana's British administrators created the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) to protect the way of life of the Kalahari Bushmen. An ancient tribe with rock art dating back some 30,000 years, the Bushmen (also known as the San) have a long history of being subjugated by more militant and populous tribes. Persecuted by Afrikaner tribes to the south and Tswana tribes to the north, the peaceable Bushmen's numbers plummeted. By the late 1950s, only a few thousand survived. In the mid-1980s, government officials began to discuss the need to bring the Bushmen into "modern society." In 2002, the Botswana government forcibly moved the Bushmen to relocation camps in New Xade, on the edge of the CKGR. It is not just paternalism that is motivating the resettlements: immediately following the removal of the Bushmen, huge swaths of their land were leased to diamond mining companies. In these new relocation camps, the Bushmen are losing not only their way of life, but their lives. Exposed to the scourges of AIDS and alcoholism, the Bushmen are disappearing. Without their connection to their land, which provided them with traditional healing plants and medicines as well as a strong spiritual base, the Bushmen will not survive long. Rupert Isaacson knows the struggle well. Through his frequent trips to Botswana, he has spent over three years with the Bushmen of the Kalahari. Author of The Healing Land: The Bushmen and the Kalahari Desert, Isaacson is co-founder of the Indigenous Land Rights Fund, a group working to provide legal and humanitarian aid to the Bushmen. His group is currently trying to bring a cultural genocide case before the International Criminal Court. He recently sat down with Mother Jones.com to discuss the plight of the Bushmen and what people can do to help. MotherJones.com: Botswana prides itself on being a modern nation. President Festus Mogae has called the Bushmen "backwards creatures." Do you think this attitude is at the root of the relocations? Rupert Isaacson: [No.] I think what is really at the root of it is a kind of cultural racism. When most of us look at Africa, the idea of there being racism within Africa seems impossible. The thinking is "What do you mean? They're all black." It's a leap of understanding that has to be made before people can really come to terms with the fact that the Bushmen are not considered black by black Africans -- they're considered to be inferior. It's a very hard thing for people in the West to get their heads around this idea. Whether there are diamonds or not, that cultural racism is never going to go away. There's not much you can do about that; but there is something you can do about relocating people because of diamonds. The bottom line is that these people have been dispossessed. MJ.com: Do you think the Bushmen culture is in danger of extinction as a result? RI: If they return home they can pick up their culture and their lifestyle almost immediately. The proof is the Khomani San in South Africa who won the land claim in 1999 that set the precedent whereby [the Bushmen's] land claim has a chance. They had been away from their land for 25 years, scrounging by the side of the road, but their skills remained intact. What they lost in that generation was their language. The older people spoke it but didn't pass it on, and they lost their trance-dancing medicine men. But as soon as they were able, they started reaching out to trance dancers in Botswana. Whether or not the language comes back is almost a moot point because they're back on the land. Some will pursue a mostly modern existence, some will pursue a mostly traditional existence, but most people will do something in between. It's such a tough and hardy culture. Its whole ethos is about hardship and how you survive hardship because that's the nature of the land. But it's absolutely the death of the culture if they can't return to their land, because this is the last large area of Bushmen land. MJ.com: These Bushmen that are returning to their old land no longer have access to the minimal government services that were provided them before the government relocations. Can they survive without these? RI: Yes. Otherwise, the ones that stayed two years ago would have all died by now. You've got to remember that the water and so on that the government was taking in there was almost exclusively used for livestock. When the Bushmen are out hunting and gathering for more than a day they can't take large amounts of water with them, so they all know how to survive without it. But if the government wants to bus in water, they'll happily drink it. MJ.com: Hunting must still be done secretively though, right? RI: Yes. Interestingly Festus Mogae, the president of Botswana, issued a statement saying that the Bushmen can go back and hunt as long as they use traditional weapons. But he won't put it in writing and they'll end up arrested if they actually do try to hunt and are caught. De Beers have changed their tack, too. They apparently gave about 5 million dollars to keep afloat a Bushmen organization called Kuru Development Trust. It's done some good: there's a bit of ethno-tourism, art projects, some minor manufacturing, but it's still not a self-determined thing. That money that De Beers gave is obviously to distract attention from the fact that they're dispossessing autonomous Bushmen. MJ.com: The government claimed that it was necessary to move the Bushmen because they were killing off the game in the CKGR (Central Kalahari Game Reserve, where the Bushmen's land lies), yet a government report cited an increase in game before the relocations occurred. RI: They'll basically say whatever they think will get the job done, and misinformation is a big part of this. Either the Bushmen are too traditional and they're an embarrassment or they're not real Bushmen at all and -- one government official actually said this -- they're driving around in four-by-fours blasting animals away with firearms out of the window. I don't know anyone who has ever witnessed [this]. And no ecologist in their right mind would accuse the Bushmen of over-hunting because they are the arch-conservationists. They are celebrated as such by almost every zoologist, biologist, and ecologist in Africa. The government also claims that because the Bushmen were keeping livestock, living in permanent settlements and using horses and donkeys to hunt, and that they are therefore no longer living the "traditional" life. But again, that's misinformation because the reason they were living in the permanent settlements was because the government moved them into them back in the 70s. The only reason the Bushmen ever did these things was because the government tried to change the culture and rather than change completely, they, in a very Bushmen way, would absorb a bit of it. MJ.com: How many Bushmen are dying in New Xade, and why? RI: If you hear Roy Sesana's figures, he'll say it's three to four a day. My feeling is that there are probably days when three to four die, but it's probably more likely that that figure is for a week or a month. But there is a great ticking time bomb there, which is AIDS. There is no question that more people are dying because of alcohol-related violence that they were not facing when they were living within the reserve. So many of the girls in New Xade are prostituting themselves and there's so much rape that we won't see the true cost for a couple of years. It would be a great irony if they get to go home but they go home infected. MJ.com: Is the violence initiated from within the Bushmen community, or is it from other people that are in New Xade with the Bushmen? RI: Outsiders come in and run illegal bars. Bushmen tend not to kill each other, even in drunken rages. It tends to be more them getting beaten up by outsiders. And there's a lot of rape and prostitution-the Bushmen will sell themselves for food, will sell themselves for money, particularly when they're dead drunk. But a lot of the rape that goes on is from outsiders-whether it's government officials or whether it's the people who own these bars. MJ.com: Are there any figures that are kept on the violence, murder, and rape? RI: Absolutely not. The only people that would keep those figures would be the government and there haven't been any independent observers out there before now. Our group has sent some people out there and we're waiting to see what they come back with. MJ.com: Has Roy Sesana made an effort to keep figures on what's happening to the Bushmen? RI: He's realizing now that that's something that he needs to do. Roy himself is just now learning the ropes. These concepts and issues-how to collect figures, how to document each abuse-they're not as obvious to him. Roy's idea was simply, get to the U.N. and tell them we're all dying and then hopefully someone comes along and helps. But it takes more than that. We're just at the beginning of gathering this information now. MJ.com: Your group, ILRF, is trying to bring the Bushmen's plight before the ICC. What case are you making? RI: Well, first we have to make sure that there is a case. We have a couple of people out there right now interviewing and talking to the Bushmen inside the resettlement camp. They just went out about 10 days ago so we will see what they come back with. A few others and I will be going out there this coming year to do the same thing. We'll send the lawyers out to do the same thing and we'll gradually get this evidence together, hopefully over the course of the next six to ten months. MJ.com: What will be the preliminary focus of the case? RI: At this stage, the focus is on cultural genocide. The Botswana government appears to be violating the UN's convention on genocide by knowingly creating a situation that results in the whole or partial demise of a community. This can include cutting them off from their economic base, their land base, their spiritual base, their cultural base. We were alerted to this by a paper written by Dr. Mark Levene from the University of Southampton in the UK. It shows how blind one can be. We had not thought to call it this-cultural genocide. I think most of us tend to think of genocide as putting people up against a wall and shooting them or putting them all in a concentration camp. But, in fact, if you look at this picture over the last thirty years, you realize that this is just the thin end of a much larger wedge. I think that in a perfect world we would not have to bring the case because there's always, at every level, an out for the government to simply let the Bushmen go home, re-ratify their existing rights, and add that they will be included in the decision-making process for any development of the region and given a fair deal on any mineral-related development. MJ.com: What responsibility do you think the World Bank's IFC bears for the Bushmen relocations and the state of Bushmen in New Xade? Do the International Finance Corporation [IFC, a member of the World Bank Group] and Kalahari Diamonds Ltd. [a subsidiary of BHP Billiton] plead ignorance? RI: We just got word a few days ago from someone inside the CKGR that a man from BHP has been running around the communities telling them of the plans to explore -- no doubt in reaction to the IFC's investigation. Too little, of course, and too late. > And again, our contact person said that the man was doing little to really help the people on the ground truly understand what was afoot, which because of the cultural and linguistic gulf takes more than just a flying visit. How much responsibility do they take? It seems that the KDL people knew what was going on. That's what is suggested. I think the IFC were probably taking KDL's word for it and not inquiring too closely. Are they culpable? We'll see what the IFC ombudsman says. MJ.com: When will we hear about the results of the IFC investigation? RI: In about 60 to 80 days. Certainly, no evidence has been presented to us that either KDL or the IFC really did put the necessary effort into informing and consulting with the local communities. Nor did they say to the government, "Hey, I'm sorry guys, we can't do business with you over these concessions because you're breaking the rules by which we play. You're evicting these people. Our own rules say that we can't do this." Why didn't they say that? MJ.com: If the Bushmen were allowed to return to their land and legally hunt, do you believe they could continue their traditional lifestyle? Do you see the Bushmen being able to survive in a "modern" Botswana? RI: They were doing just fine until 2002 and had been for several hundred years with lots of people coming in and doing various things across their land whether it was trading with them, taking them as slaves, or killing them off and raping them. These people have been dealing with the outside world in their face for a long time. I think they would do just fine. They would go on with their unique hybrid of traditional and modern culture -- as long as they have the rights to their land. It's not a question in my mind whether they would "go back to" their traditional culture because the traditional culture never died. It's more an issue of whether they will be allowed the autonomy to decide what kind of culture they want to have. MJ.com: Given the opportunity to work and receive shares in the mining on their land, do you think the Bushmen's quality of life would be better than it is in New Xade? RI: It would all depend on how close to the mine they were living. If they were living in the actual mining town or towns that end up getting built there, their quality of life will definitely deteriorate. So would mine. What's more likely to happen is that certain people will end up there as drunks or scavengers, but a lot of others will live away from where all that goes on, and perhaps have a family member who's working there for cash. It would be on a family-by-family, individual-by-individual basis as to how much quality of life is compromised. The thing to remember is that the reason the Bushmen have said that they are willing to work the mines on their land if they are allowed to return to their land is because they are fatalistic. They accept that, in their experience, once someone has their eye on a resource, whether it's the land or the stuff in the land, they won't give up. They know that this area will be mined whether they're in it or not. For them, the important thing is not to get pushed off. But I think if they had their perfect world, no one would do anything to their land, and they'd just be left alone. MJ.com: If people want to help the Bushmen, where do you think their efforts are best focused? RI: There are several things they can do. Obviously this stuff takes money. They can give to us (ILRF) -- the money goes to legal costs and humanitarian relief -- to Survival International, Kalahari People's Fund, or any of those organizations depending on where their specific interest is. If they give to us, it goes to legal costs. If they give to Survival, it goes to some legal costs and publicizing. If they give to Kalahari People's Fund, it goes to on-the-ground, village projects. Also, writing a letter to the Botswana embassy here and saying that you're thinking that you might not go on safari there, and that you're disseminating this information on to your friends is helpful. And this is crucial: Don't buy diamonds if you don't know where they come from. I can't stress this enough. It's almost impossible to go into a jewelry shop and buy a diamond that doesn't have blood on it. There's an organization starting up next year called "Diamonds For Humanity" which is busy sorting specific conflict-free diamonds, which they'll have in shops in the Spring. There's Gemesis, which is growing the gems in a laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. They're available now. These things really only change for economic reasons; if people said, "We love diamonds, but we really feel uncomfortable about buying them until we know that the Bushmen, and whoever else is affected by them -- Australian Aboriginals, Sierra Leoneans --are getting a fair cut of the pie and are not being exploited. This is the bottom line: people have really suffered and died world-wide because of this and if that's what you're giving as a proof-mark of your love, what are you actually giving? What are you actually putting on this woman's finger whom you want to spend the rest of your life with? Could be a pretty heavy burden to bear. Onnesha Roychoudhuri is an editorial intern at Mother Jones. @2004 The Foundation for National Progress Read the article online: www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2004/12/12_407.html Check out the latest from Mother Jones at: www.motherjones.com February 9th, 2005 The Botswana president, Festus Mogae, replied to the 11 US senators led by Senator Leahy, D- Wisconsin) who had written him a letter requesting an accounting for the evictions of the Bushmen from the CKGR. In their previous communications with the Botswana government they had been assured that no plan for any relocations of Bushmen from the CKGR existed. Festus Mogae's letter - all 61 detailed points of it - sadly fails to answer this question. More importantly, however, amid all the assertions he makes about how the Bushmen moved voluntarily, were compensated, were over-hunting the reserve etc (i.e. the usual propaganda), he makes one very interesting assertion, and appends his signature to it: to whit, that the CKGR Bushmen may hunt in the reserve provided they use traditional means. The same assertion was made by the Botswana authorities to a visiting delegation of British MPs in November of 2004. In that case, how can we possibly account for the following, just in from Survival International? On the eve of the three-year anniversary of the eviction of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen from their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, six Bushmen have been heavily fined for hunting to feed their families. The six Bushmen were ordered to pay one thousand Botswana pula (125) each or face imprisonment. Despite having very little money, all have paid. They were arrested in July 2004 and detained for two weeks without trial, and were subsequently charged with hunting gemsbok antelope. Seven other Bushman hunters have also been charged and are awaiting trial. So in this case, dear supporters, we are asking you to take some direct action. Please cut and paste the following letter, print it, sign it, and send it to the following two addresses: -- President Festus Mogae, President's Office, private Bag 001, Gaborone, Botswana and Mr Michael Tshipinare Minister of Local Government Ministry of Local Government Private Bag 006 Gaborone Botswana Dear Sir: We are writing from the United States to express our deep concern at the involuntary removal of the residents of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and what appears to be continued persecution of these people on the ground. Specifically, we have read assertions from your government that the CKGR residents, previously the holders of (now rescinded) Special Game licenses, may still hunt inside the reserve. This assertion was made to a delegation of visiting MPs from the United Kingdom in November 2004. It was made again to 11 United States senators in January 2005. How then, can you explain the detention, without trial, of six hunters in July 2004, and their subsequent fining of 1000 pula each? Gemsbok are not endangered species. One thousand pula is a punitive fine for a people known for their poverty. We have also learned that seven other hunters are still in prison, awaiting trial. Botswana prides itself on being known as a democracy and a free, civilized society. Forced relocations and the persecution of poverty-stricken minorities hunting to feed their families, supposedly according to government guidelines, disabuses us of this image. Botswana is, sadly, rapidly eroding its good standing in the international arena. We urge you to release the seven hunters currently in detention, and to allow the residents of the CKGR to go home - as they are asking - with a measure of security that they will be allowed to stay there and live as before - which includes the rights to hunt, gather and graze small numbers of livestock in conjunction with the wildlife management policy of the CKGR. Surely it cannot be your intention for Botswana to join the ranks already occupied by so many other African countries, who routinely abuse the basic human rights of their minorities? Surely such policies can only hurt the country in the long run. Again, we urge you, release the seven detained hunters and let the residents of the CKGR go home. Yours Sincerely, January 26th, 2005 Our weekly update features testimony, currently being heard by the high court in Botswana, from one of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve residents who were forcibly evicted by the government. We have also attached two articles from Alertnet and the Mail & Guardian online. It is encouraging to report that many news services are covering this trial closely as the stakes for both sides are very high. The story below is from Survival International.z Botswana's high court has heard how government officials evicted a dying man from his home in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and then returned to tell his sons that they would not see their father unless they agreed to be relocated. Mogetse Kaboikanyo died just four months after he was evicted. His widow told Survival in the eviction site New Xade, 'This land killed my husband.' The sick Mogetse Kaboikanyo from the community of Kikao was taken to New Xade in February 2002. His sons stayed behind. His son Losolobe Mogetse told the court how he had argued with an official who came to evict him, but had eventually left Kikao out of concern for his father: 'He said we could not go to see the old man unless we agreed to relocate. We said we could not relocate in his absence. I finally gave up and agreed and we went with him. After years of struggling to remain on his land, Mogetse was buried in New Xade, far from the graves of his ancestors, because officials refused to allow Losolobe and his brothers to return his body to Kikao. He had repeatedly said he wished to die on his land. Before the evictions, Mogetse told Survival, 'These things are done to us because we are Bushman people. The government of Botswana calls itself a democracy. But it isn't so here. We are oppressed until we die, and soon there will be no one left. His full testimony can be read at www.survival-international.org/bushman_statements_mogetse.htm Currently in the witness box for the defense is Arthur Albertson, an ecological consultant brought in by the government's department of Wildife during the early 1990s to assess the CKGR as a place where community eco-tourism could be developed - ie working with the local people. If, as the government has claimed since the evictions, the Bushmen were over-hunting and over-exploiting the land, such an initiative would hardly have been deemed feasible. Then, in 2001, it appears that Mr Albertson's work was abruptly terminated. Clearly a higher up in the government decided to squash the project. A few months later the Bushmen were evicted. A few months after that the CKGR was divided up into diamond concessions. For further coverage, please visit the sites below: -- www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleId=195696&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/ www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/08c8a7f5912ff0b3f1183205706875c9.htm January 21st, 2005 This weeks update contains a firsthand account from Paul Welhauser (you may remember his blog that we forwarded in early December) who is traveling in Botswana at the moment, purchasing crafts to help the local community support themselves. You will find his comments below. In addition, we have word from the IFC's Ombudsman office that they were able to connect with Roy and co over the weekend. He will be visiting residents inside the CKGR and in the resettlement camps, getting their testimony as well. He will also be speaking with government officials and project representatives in order to have all sides of the story. We should know what their decision is in regard to our complaint by Feb 1. The lawyers from the Law Clinic at American University have told us that they should have a formal complaint ready to send to the African Union by next month. Here is Paul's report. On January 17 the High Court of Botswana continued the case of the San people from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) against the Government of Botswana. 231 residents lead by Roy Sesana contend that they were forcibly evicted from their ancestral homeland inside the reserve. The witness on the stand was Matsipane Masthanyane. I'd met him during my time inside CKGR when I visited Mothomelo. The lawyer for the San, Duma Boko, was asking questions in English which was then translated into Setswana and back. Matsipane described the relocation exercise and the removal of his house, his two wives, two children and most of his livestock. His daughter was removed to New Xade while his some was sent to Kaudwane, the two resettlement sites designated by the government. At one point he described how government officials left him with only one blanket, some donkeys and dogs. Matsipane eventually moved to New Xade as well where he was unemployed. He said: "While at New Xade I did not plough nor work. I was just idle". He described that he is illiterate. There was a system that the government would give the people pieces of paper with writing. Some people would be allowed to work if their piece of paper, pulled from a container and unwrapped had the right writing. "If you were one of those lucky ones it would say yes, you have work. If you were unlucky it would say no. I was unemployed for one year." Matsipane tired of life at New Xade and proceeded with some remaining livestock back to Mothomelo sometime last year. One of his wives has stayed at New Xade. When asked where life is better he replied: " Life is better at Mothomelo. When drought strikes I know where to go to sustain my life. At New Xade I don't know how to do this." He described how one of his wives has changed: "Since she went on the truck, I don't know what happened to her mind. We are together today because of the children. She does not stay at home. She comes at night and goes away in the morning. Most of the time she is at drinking places. The reason I say she has changed, that she no longer cares about me and the children is that her mind has changed. She is selling the cattle she was given to use the money for drink. As the defense concluded with the witness the government attorney Sidney Pilane asked for an adjournment to correct an error made in the numbering of pages in one of the documents given to the court. He insisted that he and his assistants would not be able to stay past 4:30 necessitating a prompt adjournment to take care of this pressing issue. He was also insistent in his implication that the error was the fault of an intern from Boko's firm although after some questioning by the judges it was not clear this was the case. It was clear that pressing on would have made sense but instead an adjournment was called. This is typical of Botswana culture preferring a protocol of sorts, ensuring all documents must be correct before> proceeding for example, over efficiency. As a general strategy it seems the government attorneys would like to make the matter proceed as slowly as possible knowing that the resources of the San are thin. Roy Sesana, the Chairman of First People of the Kalahari who brought the case forward is sleeping in a tent in Gaborone as I write this now. Today I'll continue to watch at least some of the cross-examination. All the time I'll think about the contrast between the resettlement camps where alcoholism is rampant and the smiles that received me inside CKGR. January 14th, 2005 As many of you are aware, the Land Claim case in Botswana comes back to court next week (on the 17th to be exact), at the High Court in Lobatse, Botswana. Thanks to one of our generous donors, we are able to donate US$5,000 towards the para-legal costs over the coming weeks (accommodation and food for the FPK representatives and their expert witnesses). The IFC Ombudsmen are currently out in Botswana too, looking into the possible irregularities in the way Kalahari Diamonds Ltd (BHP Billiton's Botswana subsidiary) secured its CKGR concession during/immediately after the CKGR residents were evicted from the CKGR in 2002. We also have reports from the ground that now around 500 Gana and Gwi people have moved back into the CKGR - thereby proving the continued impossibility of living conditions in the resettlement camps, and the Botswana government's current 'hands off' approach towards the Gana and Gwi while the eyes of the international press are once more focused on the CKGR. Which leads us to a partial victory. You may remember that shortly after Roy and Jumanda were in DC a letter signed by 11 US Senators went out to the Botswana president demanding an accounting for the evictions, after the previous president (back in 1996) had assured Washington that no such evictions were scheduled. Finally a reply has arrived from Festus Mogae himself. Most of it is the usual government line - that the residents wanted to leave, that they were all compensated, that they were over-hunting the park, that it has nothing to do with diamonds etc. However - AND THIS IS CRUCIAL - in this letter he also states ON PAPER that the Gana and Gwi may hunt inside the CKGR as long as they use traditional means. Obviously this is intended as a sop. No hunting licenses have been granted - a necessary next step to implementing this important step-down. We now have to put pressure on Mr. Mogae to make good that signed statement, and be sure to follow up hard on any cases of arrest or intimidation of Bushmen found hunting from this point on. The last time this happened, in 1997, the international press and other concerned parties took the government at their word and looked away. We all know what the result was. We must not let it happen again this time. Many thanks, as always, for you continued support. January 7th, 2005 The events of the past few days in Southeast Asia and Africa have effected us all deeply. As we mentioned in the last newsletter there are organizations aside from the ones you hear about everyday (Red Cross, Unicef, etc) that are on the ground, working with the indigenous people on an ongoing basis. If you are interested in more information about these organizations, please feel free to contact us. We also want to draw your attention to Somalia, partcularly the Puntland region which was also devastated by the tsunami. Little has been publicized about this because the death toll is relatively small (about 150 so far) compared to the rest of the region. However, we have heard reports that upwards of 50,000 people are homeless and in need of aid. Please do not forget about these people who have suffered so much already. As for the Bushmen, the IFC ombudsman will be traveling to the region next week(Jan 12) to do their own investigation. We should have some kind of resolution by the end of January. The court case against the Botswana government in which the Bushmen are seeking to return to the their homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, resumes on January 17. Please click on the following link - http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2004/12/12_407.html to read an interview Rupert did for Mother Jones magazine online. It is a companion piece to the print story written by Tom Price for this month's Mother Jones magazine entitled "Exiles of the Kalahari". Like Rupert, Tom has spent a considerable amount of time with the Bushmen and his investigative skills provided the kind of background information we needed to bring this situation to the IFC. > We have received word from Senator Leahy's office that they have gotten a very "stock" response to the letter that was signed on to by 11 Senators including Leahy last October, questioning the forced relocation and subsequent issues facing the Bushmen. We are in the processing of drafting a response. We have the continued support of the Senators (Jeffords, Luger, Feinstein, Feingold, Inouye, Specter, Biden - outgoing, Mikulski, Brownback and Durbin) and we encourage you to write to your Senator to express your concern. We have also received word from the State department that they will continue to keep the pressure on the Embassy and government of Botswana. We thank you for your continued interest and support in the Indigenous Land Rights Fund. January 1st, 2005 Happy New Year one and all, We have a website finally! Please go to www.landrightsfund.org and have a surf around. The current projects are outlined, as are the support teams we are working with, and a bunch more stuff. This website, like the Indigenous Land Rights Fund itself, will be a living, breathing entity that will change and morph as necessary, so please check in from time to time. It's time to look ahead. Although our principle focus needs to stay fixed on the Kalahari and the cultural genocide happening there, obviously in the coming year(s) we will be looking to address similar issues facing indigenous groups elsewhere on the planet. It has, for example, recently come to our attention that the 13 new national parks that have been founded in the Congo Basin over the past 2 years have displaced an estimated 50,000 people, many of them indigenous hunters and gatherers, such as the Baka (pygmy). A tribe in Surinam has contacted us with a similar problem, and then there is the current attempt to re-draft the UN's own declaration on Indigenous Rights - which if successful will strip many groups of their much of their hard-won rights. Meanwhile in New Zealand, the government is making moves to deprive many coastal Maori groups of their shoreline and under-sea rights. These are some areas where the ILRF will be looking at in the months to come. In terms of our Kalahari projects, this is what we will be doing. Thanks to our amazing pro-bono lawyers at the Public International Law and Policy Group we now have a template by which evidence can be gathered from the dispossessed CKGR Bushmen to bring a cultural genocide case before the International Criminal Court. In the meantime, after January 30th we will know what the verdict of the IFC's Ombudsman investigation was, and how that should be best followed up. The Human Rights Clinic at American University law School will be assisting the lawyers on the ground for the current land claim case in Botswana and meanwhile will prepare it for its inevitable progression to the African Union. In partnership with the Kalahari Peoples' Fund, we will continue to raise funds to help the Xhomani Bushmen in South Africa (!Ara Foundation) set up their school - part Montesorri Curriculum, part traditional curriculum. We are busy setting up various events and fundraisers. In the spring, the ILRF will have some exposure at the Oscars and Grammys this February (we'll update more closer to the time) and at the upcoming launch of the amazing Diamonds for Humanty project at the Guggenheim, New York (April). Summertime we hope to raise enough funds to send out an evidence gathering team to Botswana, and also (again, with Kalahari Peoples' Fund and Journey to the Heart) to bring a small group of Ju'/Hoansi trance healers to America for the Gathering (if you missed it last year, make sure to get there this September - www.journeytotheheart.org), and then on to Texas. Finally, we will bring Roy Sesana back to the United Nations during 2005 to follow up directly with Kofi Annan, and we will be submitting a grant to National Geographic's Explorers' Council to take a group of Hopi, Navajo and other Native Americans on a cultural exchange to the Kalahari. So, much to look forward to. For the absolute time being, however, we urge all supporters to turn their immediate attention to the tsunami victims, many of whom - of course - are indigenous fishing peoples living in areas far from Western infrastructure. These will likely be the last communities to receive direct aid. One organization that has this in hand is Surf Aid, who work with the indigenous fishing tribes of the Mentawai islands, off Sumatra - the area hardest hit by the disaster. Not only will Surf Aid be getting help directly to these beleaguered communities, but they are busy securing a dollar for dollar matching grant from the New Zealand government. No doubt you have all given much already. However, if you are considering any further donations we highly recommend this project: find them online at www.surfaidinternational.org . Thank you all so much for you support this year. We hope to see you at one or more of 2005's upcoming events and possibly some of you in the Kalahari itself. Be well, and a very happy, fulfilled and prosperous New Year to you all. Rupert Isaacson and Kim Langbecker (ILRF) December 24th, 2004 For this week's update, we once again provide an on the ground account(from Survival International) of what life is like for those Bushmen who risk their lives to return to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. In other words, to their home. At this time of year, this agonizing, sometimes deadly journey home is especially poignant as most of us on the planet travel to our family and loved ones for the holidays. Please, pray for all people who are displaced from their home, their land and their families. Pray for peace. Bushmen who were evicted by the government from their homes in the Kalahari are braving exhaustion and starvation to return to their land. In one incident, two grandmothers in their seventies attempted to walk home by themselves - a distance of approximately 120 kms. After they had walked around half the distance, they were forced to accept a lift back to the resettlement camp as one of them was near to collapse. Temperatures in the Kalahari at this time of year reach over 100 F (39C), and the risk of dehydration and exhaustion is high. In a separate incident, a Bushman woman and her three small children narrowly escaped attack by lions as they trekked back to their old home in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The driver of a passing vehicle noticed the tracks of two lions following the family's footprints. The lions were only two hundred metres from the woman and her children when the vehicle scared them away. Such a trek would usually be undertaken as a group, with the men armed with spears against a lion attack. It is a measure of the Bushmen's desperation that they would make such a journey alone. The Botswana government evicted all but a few of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen from their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002. Dumped in eviction sites far from their homes, many have succumbed to depression, alcoholism and prostitution. Over two hundred Gana and Gwi have now returned to the reserve despite government harassment. Photos and footage available. For more information contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org December 15th, 2004 This week in our update, we feature a report by Paul Welhauser who runs a crafts organization called Nharo, which promotes San Bushmen art, crafts and culture in Botswana and Namibia. He has created a webblog as he journeys across Southern Africa - including the CKGR and resettlement camps. He has been involved with the San since the 1990s. Paul knows firsthand of the issues the San are currently facing. His blog provides an on the ground glimpse into the terrible conditions in the re-settlement camps and the resulting cultural genocide. He also notes the numbers of people returning to the reserve, despite the continual harassment they experienced from Botswana wildlife officials. You will also see that a representative from BHP Billiton is currently going around the communities in the CGKR - perhaps a belated response to the coming IFC Ombudsman inspection. To keep up with Paul, please go to www.nharo.com/blog.html for the complete blog. Thank you for your continued interest and support. Here is Paul's latest: A truck rolled into town and I wondered immediately if it was the Wildlife Department. I was thrown a back and felt slightly frightened even though I was doing nothing wrong. To be fair the Botswana has some of the best game parks in the world and a big part of this is owed to aggressive anti-poaching programs. The rare Kori Bustard, the world's largest flighted bird, is a common sight in the Central Kalahari but threatened elsewhere. The downside for the 200 or so Bushmen in CKGR is that they are not allowed to hunt. Surely their is some balance that could be struck but negotiations that were ongoing for some time failed and the matter is now before the High Court of Botswana. It wasn't the Wildlife Department after all and Amogelang and his son assured me that the people were friends. I felt somewhat guarded still but relieved. Two men came from the vehicle, one was a relative of Amogelang's from Kaudwane and the other identified himself as an employee from the Australian/UK based resource company BHP Billiton. He'd come to inform the people that helicopters would be flying over in order to survey for the mineral that fuels Botswana's economy, diamonds. The man from BHP was as suspicious of me as I might have been of him. He was concerned that I might be affiliated with the British NGO Survival International. Survival has been working with the Bushmen in Central Kalahari and have been reviled by the Government as a threat to the NGO's linkage between relocations and a disputed large deposit at Gope, a site about 60 kilometres west or so of our present location. Safely I was able to assure the man that I was not a part of Survival and gave a part answer about why I was there which was for holiday. I was happy to say this truthfully as I was truly enjoying the experience of seeing and talking to the Ganakhwe people and seeing how good things were in the reserve. I couldn't help but think about the politics of the situation though as the situation is so clearly politicized. From suspicions at the front gate to this man at Kukama it was impossible to consider it just a holiday. After a useless day in Khutse game reserve, hardly an animal in sight, we made our way out of the reserve through Kaudwane. It was sad to see that at eight in the morning the shabeens, informal local bars, were already doing a good business. This made me feel sad and provided a stark contrast to what was the joy and productivity that seemed possible inside the reserve. I'm left to wonder, forgetting about diamonds or any other issue, how a Government could justify a relocation. As a human rights test any move should bring the people a better life. It's very clear from what I've seen that this test is failed, miserably. The first building you see coming into New Xade is a bottle store and the people stink of booze and vomit. December 8th, 2004 With the trial in Botswana now adjourned til January 17th the CKGR Bushmen have a chance to consolidate. As many of you are aware, one of the problems they faced in November was severe lack of funds for the para-legal expenses (accommodation in the town of Lobatse where the Botswana High Court sits, money to bring in and put up their expert witnesses, etc). We managed to raise a small amount this Fall to help mitigate those costs (thanks Lori Robinson!), but with a month to look for more contributions we should be able to make a more significant donation when the trial resumes in the new year. In the meantime, the IFC's Compliance Ombudsman inspectors will finish their investigation of Kalahari Diamonds Ltd's apparent breach of their own and the IFC's policies on indigenous peoples protocols in the CKGR, ending with a field visit to the CKGR and the re-settlement camps just before the trial resumes. We should have a verdict from the Ombudsman's office shortly thereafter. Also in the meantime, we will ask the eleven senators who signed October's letter to Botswanas president Festus Mogae to write another asking him to put in writing his verbal statement of a few weeks ago that of course the CKGR Bushmen may go and hunt inside the reserve as long as they use traditional methods. Such statements comprise an attempt to make outside observers think all is well - but of course the Bushmen's special hunting licenses (taken away from them prior to the evictions) have not been re-granted. We hope that the eleven senators will begin to put pressure on Mr. Mogae to make good his statement as the first step towards re-ratifying the Bushmen's existing rights to dwell, hunt, gather, graze and take water within the CKGR, originally granted to them at the park's inception in 1961 and illegally rescinded in 2001. Finally, we should have some visual evidence and statements of current conditions (ie death rates, estimates of HIV infection due to women having to turn to prostitution, rape etc) in the re-settlement camps when photographer Beat Steffen and crafts co-ordinator Paul Welhauser return from Botswana next week. This evidence will passed on to the legal team in Washington who are busy putting the ICC case together, as well as to the Bushmen's allies on Capitol Hill, and circulated to the media. Thank you for your continued support. Indigenous Land Rights Fund |