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SOS Bushmen

Bushmen forced out of desert after living off land for thousands of years

THE death throes of an ancient way of life are being played out in the Kalahari sands where Botswana has resumed its policy of removing the San Bushmen from their last redoubts.

Almost two thirds of the Bushmen inhabiting the desolate Central Kalahari Game Reserve have been evicted in the last three weeks.

Witnesses accuse officials of deploying armed police and using threats of violence to clear two settlements.
 (Suite)

Botswana Bushmen in court next month over alleged 'violent protests'

Twenty-six Bushmen appeared before a Botswana court Wednesday for allegedly staging "violent protests" over their relocation from ancestral land in the Kalahari but the case was postponed until next month.

Duma Boko, the Bushmens' lawyer, told AFP that the 26 Bushmen facing charges of staging "violent protests" last month and "going into a restricted area" were told to return to court at the end of Novemb.
 (Suite)

Botswana ousting Bushmen from nature reserve

 All but a few of the Bushmen living in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve have been forcibly removed from their homes in recent days in what spokesmen for the affected communities said is a final push by the government to end human habitation there after tens of thousands of years.

The First People of the Kalahari, an activist group in Botswana, said Bushmen villages have been cut off from their main sources of food and water, and outsiders have been prohibited from entering to provide relief for the past six weeks.

 
 (Suite)

DISAPPEARING WORLD: 11 KALAHARI BUSHMEN

With genetic evidence linking them with the first Homo sapiens of more than 100,000 years ago, the Bushmen are the world's oldest human community. However, this hasn't prevented them being evicted from their ancient territories " the dry Savannah of red sand, camel thorn and scrub encompassed by Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve. There, amid wildebeest and lions, the Bushmen have lived as hunter-gatherers for at least 20,000 years. The Botswana government says their continued presence is incompatible with the conservation of wildlife, although human-rights activists claim the prospect of diamond mining in the ancestral lands is the real motive behind the eviction.

The Bushmen say they have been subjected to beatings and torture and that now there are fewer than 50 of their kind still left on the land.

il caso - "In Botswana violenze contro i boscimani"

 «Mentre il presidente Festus Mogae è in Italia per la giornata
della Fao, in Botswana è in corso una crudele pulizia etnica contro i
boscimani per sfrattarli dalle loro terre, che vengono sfruttate
dalla compagnia diamantifera De Beers». La denuncia è
dell´associazione Survival International, che invita a fare pressioni
su Mogae perché rispetti i diritti di questo popolo. «La polizia -
spiega il direttore di Survival Stephen Corry - ha sparato contro i
boscimani, per spingere la popolazione a lasciare le terre. Chiediamo
di boicottare i diamanti della De Beers, fino alla fine delle
violenze».

Denuncia Il capo «Noi boscimani, cacciati come belve nella savana»

Nel Botswana, in Africa meridionale, l'antica tribù è stata deportata perché nella sua riserva si nascondono ricchissimi giacimenti Sfrattati dal governo che fa l'interesse dei mercanti di diamanti

 (Suite)

Bushmen in Botswana Say They Were Forcibly Evicted From Village

In the end, the Bushmen of Molapo village could neither hunt nor gather, they said. Nor could they tend crops, collect firewood or lead their goats to pasture. After tens of thousands of years, the dry but life-giving vastness of the Kalahari Desert was declared off-limits by police and wildlife officers.

According to Molapo's chief, Molathwe Mokalaka, officials told the villagers that if they stayed, "you will eat the soil. Nothing else but the soil."
 (Suite)

Botswana denies 'ethnic cleansing' of Kalahari Bushmen

Botswana's Foreign Minister Mompati Merafhe on Thursday denied claims by Britain's Survival International that his government had begun "ethnic cleansing" of San Bushmen from their ancestral land in the Kalahari.

"Nothing could be further from the truth than those malicious allegations being marketed around by a one-issue organisation called Survival International," Merafhe told reporters in Pretoria.
 (Suite)

Bushmen Villages Are Nearly Emptied --- Botswana Forces Removal Of Residents, Activists Say; Outsiders Barred From Area

All but a few of the Bushmen living in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve have been forcibly removed from their homes in recent days in what spokesmen for the affected communities said is a final push by the government to end human habitation there after tens of thousands of years.

The First People of the Kalahari, an activist group in Botswana, said that Bushmen villages had been cut off from their main sources of food and water and that outsiders had been prohibited from entering to provide relief for the past six weeks.
 (Suite)

Bushmen Villages Nearly Emptied; Botswana Accused Of Forced Removal

All but a few of the Bushmen living in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve have been forcibly removed from their homes in recent days in what spokesmen for the affected communities said is a final push by the government to end human habitation there after tens of thousands of years.

The First People of the Kalahari, an activist group in Botswana, said that Bushmen villages had been cut off from their main sources of food and water and that outsiders had been prohibited from entering to provide relief for the past six weeks.
 (Suite)

Botswana Bushmen 'Starving' As Police Seal Off Reserve

A BID to force the last remaining Bushmen, or Baswara, from the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve intensified last week as reports emerged that police had sealed off their camp, including their water supply, and were starving them out.

A small group of Bushmen evaded a police cordon erected around their settlement, and walked for three days to report late last week that their water had been cut off and they were starving in the camp.
 (Suite)

Bushmen accuse Mbeki of treating them as 'unpure bastards' (South Africa)

THE ancient Khoi-San people, commonly known as the Bushmen, have accused South Africa's government of implying that they are not African at all but mixed race "bastards''. Chief Elwin White said the refusal by President Thabo Mbeki's government to grant his 5,000-strong community official status as the country's earliest inhabitants was insulting.
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La démocratie en péril

Trois Bushmen, dont un enfant, viennent d'être blessés par les tirs de la police botswanaise, au cours d'offensives destinées à terroriser les communautés qui survivent dans la Réserve du Kalahari afin de les forcer à quitter définitivement les lieux.

Kekailwe, 7 ans, a été atteint à l'estomac durant l'arrestation de son père qui refusait de laisser la police pénétrer dans sa hutte sans mandat de perquisition. Au cours d'un autre incident, Kesodilo Ntwayamoga, qui se tenait de dos les mains à l'air, a reçu une balle dans chaque jambe. Des témoins ont confirmé que la police tentait de lui faire avouer qu'il chassait.

Dans un troisième incident, le 24 septembre, Mokgakalaga Gaoberekwe a été blessé à la mâchoire alors qu'il tentait, avec d'autres Bushmen, de rentrer dans la Réserve pour apporter de l'eau et de la nourriture à leurs familles. Grièvement blessé, il est toujours à l'hôpital.

 

 (Suite)

Government admits to using rubber bullets against Bushmen

Botswana's police commissioner said Tuesday that officers had fired rubber bullets to disperse a group of about 35 Bushmen protesting their eviction from ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

The Basarwa tribesmen had been trying to break through blockades and enter the reserve on Saturday, Police Commissioner Edwin Batshu said. Some demonstrators, including mothers with infants and young children, were briefly detained, but were not charged, he said.
 (Suite)