Protest of Botswana's Bushmen kicks up dust: A Kalahari reserve has become the focus of a complex battle involving indigenous people, government and diamond.
An escalating land-rights conflict in Botswana threatens to tarnish the reputation of one of Africa's best-governed countries.
At the weekend police arrested 21 people as they tried to enter the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The group included Roy Sesana, an activist member of Botswana's Basarwa minority - commonly known as Bushmen - leading a court case against Botswana's government to seek the right to live in the reserve.
The government claim that the group, who will now face criminal charges, rioted and attacked police "with an assortment of weapons" on Saturday. Survival International, a UK pressure group that supports the activists, said the group was seeking only to "enter their ancestral homeland" and called the government's actions "perilously close to genocide".
At the weekend police arrested 21 people as they tried to enter the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The group included Roy Sesana, an activist member of Botswana's Basarwa minority - commonly known as Bushmen - leading a court case against Botswana's government to seek the right to live in the reserve.
The government claim that the group, who will now face criminal charges, rioted and attacked police "with an assortment of weapons" on Saturday. Survival International, a UK pressure group that supports the activists, said the group was seeking only to "enter their ancestral homeland" and called the government's actions "perilously close to genocide".
The events present a ratcheting up of an obscure and long-running conflict that has infuriated Botswana's government and ensnared De Beers, its partner in mining the world's richest diamond deposits.
Survival has claimed that Botswana wants to clear the game reserve of human residents to make way for diamond production.
Stephen Corry, Survival's director, recently told the Financial Times that his group planned to step up calls for a boycott of De Beers and Botswana's high-end tourism industry in the US, the world's largest diamond market. "We will certainly intensify the calls for a boycott and try to get celebrities involved," he said.
Botswana's government has called Survival "racist" and accused it of distorting facts to raise funds. "Money is really the driving force behind this," said Clifford Maribe, a spokesman for Botswana's foreign ministry.
De Beers rejects the diamonds link as "a deliberate deception" and has described Survival, which campaigns on behalf of indigenous groups worldwide, as "patronising and deluded".
An investigation earlier this year by the ombudsman of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, conducted after a complaint by Survival, concluded that it was "unable to establish a causal connection" between current diamond prospecting and Botswana's relocation of the Basarwa.
By its own account, Botswana's government began moving residents from the reserve, which is larger than Switzerland, as part of a policy of consolidating remote communities in areas where they could receive public services.
The government also claims that wildlife preservation was incompatible with the presence of the Bushmen, who had long ago abandoned classic hunter-gatherer ways and were using dogs and guns to hunt.
With big revenues from diamonds and a population of 1.7m, the country is often ranked as one of Africa's most stable and least corrupt countries.
While most of the reserve's residents accepted financial incentives to relocate, about 200 people have remained there. In an apparent attempt to eject remaining Basarwa from the reserve, the government earlier this month refused to renew their radio licences.
According to Survival and its local allies, police and game wardens have been intimidating and harassing those who are staying.
"I think it's pressure for people to give up so they leave the reserve," Jumanda Gakelebone of First People of the Kalahari, a group allied with Survival, told the FT last week. Mr Gakelebone, who claims he has received death threats, was one of the group arrested on Saturday.
Survival has agitated on the hold-outs' behalf through a modestly funded but well organised campaign that has succeeded in putting Botswana and De Beers on the defensive. In July, actress Julie Christie spoke at a London rally organised by Survival outside an exhibition sponsored by De Beers.
Botswana's government has refuted Survival's claims of "genocide". Two moderate groups representing the majority of Bushmen who live outside the reserve recently distanced themselves from the UK group.
A compromise plan to allow some managed settlement in the reserve, drafted in 2001, fell victim to worsening acrimony between the government and Survival. "We believe Survival's tactics have contributed to the government's hardening of attitude," said Alice Mogwe, director of Ditswhanelo, a Gaborone-based human rights organisation.
The conflict also appears to have inflamed racist attitudes toward the Basarwa among many in Botswana's ethnic Batswana majority. Mr Sesana was recently mocked by a comedian on Botswanan television.
Survival has been the main financial backer of the court case against the government, which began last year and has been the costliest in Botswana's history. Earlier this month the group secured an adjournment of the trial until February 2006 to give it time to raise additional funds.
The group, which has an annual budget of about Pounds 1m (Euros 1.5m, Dollars 1.8m) and gets most of its funding from individual donors, has brushed off criticism of its methods. Mr Corry said: "We've been asked by Africa's most indigenous and least powerful people to help them. They are powerless without an outside voice."
Survival has claimed that Botswana wants to clear the game reserve of human residents to make way for diamond production.
Stephen Corry, Survival's director, recently told the Financial Times that his group planned to step up calls for a boycott of De Beers and Botswana's high-end tourism industry in the US, the world's largest diamond market. "We will certainly intensify the calls for a boycott and try to get celebrities involved," he said.
Botswana's government has called Survival "racist" and accused it of distorting facts to raise funds. "Money is really the driving force behind this," said Clifford Maribe, a spokesman for Botswana's foreign ministry.
De Beers rejects the diamonds link as "a deliberate deception" and has described Survival, which campaigns on behalf of indigenous groups worldwide, as "patronising and deluded".
An investigation earlier this year by the ombudsman of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, conducted after a complaint by Survival, concluded that it was "unable to establish a causal connection" between current diamond prospecting and Botswana's relocation of the Basarwa.
By its own account, Botswana's government began moving residents from the reserve, which is larger than Switzerland, as part of a policy of consolidating remote communities in areas where they could receive public services.
The government also claims that wildlife preservation was incompatible with the presence of the Bushmen, who had long ago abandoned classic hunter-gatherer ways and were using dogs and guns to hunt.
With big revenues from diamonds and a population of 1.7m, the country is often ranked as one of Africa's most stable and least corrupt countries.
While most of the reserve's residents accepted financial incentives to relocate, about 200 people have remained there. In an apparent attempt to eject remaining Basarwa from the reserve, the government earlier this month refused to renew their radio licences.
According to Survival and its local allies, police and game wardens have been intimidating and harassing those who are staying.
"I think it's pressure for people to give up so they leave the reserve," Jumanda Gakelebone of First People of the Kalahari, a group allied with Survival, told the FT last week. Mr Gakelebone, who claims he has received death threats, was one of the group arrested on Saturday.
Survival has agitated on the hold-outs' behalf through a modestly funded but well organised campaign that has succeeded in putting Botswana and De Beers on the defensive. In July, actress Julie Christie spoke at a London rally organised by Survival outside an exhibition sponsored by De Beers.
Botswana's government has refuted Survival's claims of "genocide". Two moderate groups representing the majority of Bushmen who live outside the reserve recently distanced themselves from the UK group.
A compromise plan to allow some managed settlement in the reserve, drafted in 2001, fell victim to worsening acrimony between the government and Survival. "We believe Survival's tactics have contributed to the government's hardening of attitude," said Alice Mogwe, director of Ditswhanelo, a Gaborone-based human rights organisation.
The conflict also appears to have inflamed racist attitudes toward the Basarwa among many in Botswana's ethnic Batswana majority. Mr Sesana was recently mocked by a comedian on Botswanan television.
Survival has been the main financial backer of the court case against the government, which began last year and has been the costliest in Botswana's history. Earlier this month the group secured an adjournment of the trial until February 2006 to give it time to raise additional funds.
The group, which has an annual budget of about Pounds 1m (Euros 1.5m, Dollars 1.8m) and gets most of its funding from individual donors, has brushed off criticism of its methods. Mr Corry said: "We've been asked by Africa's most indigenous and least powerful people to help them. They are powerless without an outside voice."
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28 Septembre 2005 à 13:17 dans
- English
