Botswana cracking down on Bushmen: report
Botswana has launched a crackdown on the San Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, stationing guards around the park and preventing lawyers from entering the reserve, rights advocate Survival International said Monday.
The organisation, which is fighting for the rights of the San Bushmen community in the southern African country, said the new measures came despite the resumption of a court case against the government of Botswana President Festus Mogae.
The organisation, which is fighting for the rights of the San Bushmen community in the southern African country, said the new measures came despite the resumption of a court case against the government of Botswana President Festus Mogae.
"The government has announced that it is putting guards around the Central Kalahari Game Reserve" to block Bushmen from going in and "has barred lawyers from entering the reserve to consult their clients," the local SAPA news agency quoted the organisation as saying.
It also accused the government of arresting Bushmen for hunting to feed their families and refusing to renew licences for community transmitters in the vast park situated in the centre of the country.
Survival International said Gaborone was at the point of changing the country's Constitution to remove existing the protection for Bushmen.
"All this amounts to the most serious assault on Bushmen rights...," the organisation said, adding that a recent investigation revealed that tribe members in forced location camps were starting to die after contracting HIV and AIDS.
Once numbering millions, there are roughly 100,000 San left in southern Africa, with almost half of those -- 48,000 -- in Botswana. Others are spread across Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, according to rights groups.
It also accused the government of arresting Bushmen for hunting to feed their families and refusing to renew licences for community transmitters in the vast park situated in the centre of the country.
Survival International said Gaborone was at the point of changing the country's Constitution to remove existing the protection for Bushmen.
"All this amounts to the most serious assault on Bushmen rights...," the organisation said, adding that a recent investigation revealed that tribe members in forced location camps were starting to die after contracting HIV and AIDS.
Once numbering millions, there are roughly 100,000 San left in southern Africa, with almost half of those -- 48,000 -- in Botswana. Others are spread across Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, according to rights groups.
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22 Août 2005 à 12:41 dans
- English
