Botswana tribe victimised
AN indigenous rights group accused the Botswanan government on Monday of barring local bushmen from drawing water from a borehole even as it gave a diamond firm the green light to sink several in preparation for a mine in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
British-based charity Survival reported that transnational corporation Gem Diamonds had created the exploratory boreholes as part of an environmental assessment before constructing a £1.1 billion diamond mine at Gope, a traditional Bushman community within the reserve.
Bushmen have been petitioning the government to allow them to reopen a single borehole within the reserve ever since the government dismantled it to put pressure on people to relocate in 2002.
Survival director Stephen Corry said that the decision highlighted "the cruel vindictiveness of a government determined to keep the bushmen out of their ancestral lands and intent on making them pay for their victory in the High Court."
-
21 Avril 2008 à 11:44 dans
- English
