BOTSWANA: Basarwa Bushmen living in terrible conditions in resettlement camp ready to go home after winning court battle for Kalahari home

This Bushmen settlement in the Kalahari desert is a depressing place. Removed from their ancestral land by the Botswana government, the Basarwa Bushmen, or San have been living in this resettlement area since being relocated in 2002. Unable to hunt or gather wild berries, many adults have little else to do but drink potent fermented barley beer. For years the Bushmen have said that their way of life was being wiped out as they were re-settled into bleak camps where they were unable to use their traditional hunting skills. Now, a landmark court decision has allowed them to return home. Lobby group Survival International's Campaigns Co-ordinator Fiona Watson acknowledged the significance of the ruling, "I think it's a real important case, I think its very important for Botswana, for Africa as a whole, particularly because hunter gatherers generally throughout the world and in Africa, are very discriminated against, they are marginalised, they are looked down on, they are despised. And what this is saying is, these people have as much right to live in this world as any other, and they have the right to choose, they should have the freedom and the right to choose they wish to live." she said. Another activist Kiplanga Chiriot from the Human Rights Advocacy Campaign in Nairobi asserted the Bushmens rights, "Many of them are now dying of HIV/Aids and other diseases because they have exposed to a different environment which is contrary to where they used to live. This is a genocide which is being seen in this country. Unless serious measures are being taken, the Botswana government is going to be taken accountable even by the international community, we are there to watch the outcome of the case." he warned. A group of Bushmen went to Botswana's High Court yesterday (Wednesday 13) to listen to the ruling. The court determined that that hundreds of Bushmen had been wrongly evicted from ancestral hunting grounds in the Kalahari desert and should be allowed to return. The court ruled 2-1 for the Bushmen in the key issues of the case, which saw Africa's last hunter gatherers take on one of the continent's most admired governments in a dispute over diamond rich land and development priorities. Those from the Bushmen community like Roy Sesana couldnt hold back their happiness. "My heart is very happy. I am feeling very happy and I have got what I have been believing in. My heart is very happy." he gushed. Another Bushman Jummanda Gakelebone joined in the celebration saying, "I think that the ruling was clear and fair. I think it's fine with the ruling which had to be on our side." Speaking outside the courthouse, lawyer Gordon Bennet said the court ruling had opened the way for the Bushmen to return to lands that their ancestors have lived on for some 20,000 years. "Well, I think my clients will be extremely relieved and extremely pleased with the verdict today. Their right to return to the reserve has been confirmed by the court, and they will wish to exercise that right, I hope, in a sensible and orderly manner, and what we're now anxious to do is to reach some kind of accommodation with the government to ensure that we can get back onto the reserve without any further incident, without any further tension, without any further trouble. That will be right for discussion between us and we're ready, willing and able to have that discussion as soon as the government wants to talk to us." he summed up. Chief government lawyer Sydney Pilane stressed that the state had not lost outright because the ruling did not require it to provide essential services to the Bushmen in the reserve. He said the government might appeal. Activists say more than 1,000 Bushmen want to go back to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, an area of desert the size of Belgium which the government has set up as one of Africa's largest protected nature reserves.

ITN Source | December 16, 2006

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