Cash crunch forces delay in Botswana Bushmen trial.
A court bid by Botswana's Bushmen to appeal against their eviction from ancestral Kalahari desert lands was delayed on Friday after their lawyers said they needed time to raise more cash.
The judge in the case, which has been heard in a special court set up in the remote desert town of Ghanzi, agreed to delay proceedings until November 3.
"We asked the court for a postponement so that we can ask for more funds. We had not been properly informed by our local attorney that the case was set to run into August," lawyer Glyn Williams said by telephone.
"We have had generous funding so far. I'm hopeful that the balance will come in."
Williams said international donors from seven countries had helped to fund the Bushmen's appeal, but declined to name them.
Lawyers for the Bushmen, also known as the Basarwa, say the government violated the constitution when it ordered them out of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2001, saying their lands were too vast to be reached by essential services.
The government says the Bushmen must be better integrated into mainstream society if they are to benefit from education, medical services and job opportunities.
But supporters of the Bushmen, including several international pressure groups, say the government order is railroading them into unwanted development.
The legal battle involves lands rich in diamonds, which have helped transform Botswana into one of Africa's most sophisticated economies with one of the continent's highest per capita incomes and model health and education services.
Southern Africa's Bushmen have lived in the region for thousands of years and many still survive as traditional hunters and gatherers in an unforgiving desert environment.
A victory for the Bushmen would give them the right to stay in the Kalahari - an important symbolic advance for Africa's dwindling populations of traditional hunter-gatherers.
Over the past two weeks the Ghanzi desert court has heard testimony from Bushmen who were forced to leave the Kalahari reserve as well as those who have stayed on the land.
About 2,500 Bushmen have been relocated over the past 18 months from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, located in the middle of huge and sparsely populated Botswana.
Botswana's treatment of the Bushmen has become an international issue with celebrities weighing in and major diamond producer De Beers, which has massive operations in Botswana, coming under pressure.
Williams said international donors from seven countries had helped to fund the Bushmen's appeal, but declined to name them.
Lawyers for the Bushmen, also known as the Basarwa, say the government violated the constitution when it ordered them out of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2001, saying their lands were too vast to be reached by essential services.
The government says the Bushmen must be better integrated into mainstream society if they are to benefit from education, medical services and job opportunities.
But supporters of the Bushmen, including several international pressure groups, say the government order is railroading them into unwanted development.
The legal battle involves lands rich in diamonds, which have helped transform Botswana into one of Africa's most sophisticated economies with one of the continent's highest per capita incomes and model health and education services.
Southern Africa's Bushmen have lived in the region for thousands of years and many still survive as traditional hunters and gatherers in an unforgiving desert environment.
A victory for the Bushmen would give them the right to stay in the Kalahari - an important symbolic advance for Africa's dwindling populations of traditional hunter-gatherers.
Over the past two weeks the Ghanzi desert court has heard testimony from Bushmen who were forced to leave the Kalahari reserve as well as those who have stayed on the land.
About 2,500 Bushmen have been relocated over the past 18 months from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, located in the middle of huge and sparsely populated Botswana.
Botswana's treatment of the Bushmen has become an international issue with celebrities weighing in and major diamond producer De Beers, which has massive operations in Botswana, coming under pressure.
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30 Juillet 2004 à 11:19 dans
- English
