SOS Bushmen

A team of lawyers from the United Kingdom and South Africa will on Monday start presenting argument in a specially convened High Court in the Kalahari Desert.

At issue is the fight of the Basarwa (Bushmen tribes) of Botswana for the government to support them with essential services while they are living in what they claim as "ancestral lands."

The government has for many years been pressuring the Basarwa to relocate to areas outside of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).

It contends that the nomadic people, among them some of the last remaining hunters and gatherers, must join mainstream development.

The government stopped social services, including the supply of water, to the desert communities in January 2002, saying this had become too costly.

Many of the Basarwa have accepted the government's offer of free relocation to specially-constructed settlement camps outside of the CKGR, with education and medical facilities.

But others, particularly older Basarwa who joined the move, are now saying they want to return to the CKGR.

They argue their relocation was unconstitutional.

Judges have for the past week led senior advocates Gordon Bennett, QC, John Whitehead (South Africa), and human rights lawyers on an inspection in loco of Basarwa settlements inside and outside of the CKGR.

Should the Basarwa win the case, those who have not moved will be able to remain, and those who voluntarily moved out, return.

"It would amount to government recognition of the rights of the Basarwa to reside in the CKGR," Ditshwanelo, the Botswana Centre for Human Rights said in a statement.

The government and De Beers diamond company have confirmed that diamonds have been discovered in the desert, but say this is not a viable deposit.

Hearings in the desert are to enable Basarwa to testify more easily. The proceedings will close on 30 July.

On 4 August, the trial will move to the High Court's regular seat at Lobatse. The case is expected to close on 20 August.