Bushmen victims of mining plot.
Botswana is letting mining companies explore for diamonds in parts of the Kalahari desert from which San Bushmen were recently evicted, renewing the accusation that the country's oldest ethnic group is the victim of a plot by the government and multinational companies.
Sections of the central Kalahari game reserve, which the government said would not be touched, have been opened only months after an assurance that relocating the Bushmen had nothing to do with diamonds.
Concessions to explore have been granted and one company, Kalahari Diamonds Limited, has got $2m from the World Bank to fly a surveillance plane over territory thought to be rich in kimberlite, a volcanic rock associated with diamonds.
The London advocacy group Survival International, which opposed the Bushmen's removal, said yesterday that it had been vindicated in linking it to diamonds.
"There has been a complete explosion in the number of concessions given out, and this funding for the exploration is further proof that there is a link," its spokeswoman Sophie Thomas said.
But mining companies and a Botswanan group representing the Bushmen said they were moved for other reasons
The London advocacy group Survival International, which opposed the Bushmen's removal, said yesterday that it had been vindicated in linking it to diamonds.
"There has been a complete explosion in the number of concessions given out, and this funding for the exploration is further proof that there is a link," its spokeswoman Sophie Thomas said.
But mining companies and a Botswanan group representing the Bushmen said they were moved for other reasons
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21 Février 2003 à 13:22 dans
- English
