Botswana ousting Bushmen from nature reserve
All but a few of the Bushmen living in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve have been forcibly removed from their homes in recent days in what spokesmen for the affected communities said is a final push by the government to end human habitation there after tens of thousands of years.
The First People of the Kalahari, an activist group in Botswana, said Bushmen villages have been cut off from their main sources of food and water, and outsiders have been prohibited from entering to provide relief for the past six weeks.
The First People of the Kalahari, an activist group in Botswana, said Bushmen villages have been cut off from their main sources of food and water, and outsiders have been prohibited from entering to provide relief for the past six weeks.
A heavy contingent of police, military and park rangers recently trucked out most of the remaining residents at gunpoint, the group said, and the stragglers face constant harassment.
Even such basic activities as hunting game and gathering water- filled roots are now prohibited, and government officials have seized goats, sheep and other livestock the Bushmen used for food, said Jumanda Gakeredone of the First People of the Kalahari, speaking by phone from Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.
"The situation is really, really bad," he said. "Every day, they are there with guns."
Botswana officials gave a strikingly different account, saying that the police activity has been prompted by a quarantine made necessary by a disease affecting the goats kept by many Bushmen.
The officials also said that all those who left have done so voluntarily.
But they acknowledged that one of the game reserve's two main villages, Malapo, has been deserted after 25 residents were trucked out by the government on Oct. 7. The other substantial settlement in the game reserve, Metsiamanong, lost nearly half of its residents when 14 left on government trucks the next day.
They are not permitted to return as long as the quarantine remains in force, the government has said.
No date has been set for the end of the quarantine, and Bushmen activists say it is a pretext for removing them at a time when their right to stay is being argued in a major court battle.
Government officials have long sought to drive the Bushmen from the game reserve, saying their increasingly sedentary lifestyles - including keeping domestic animals and a few motorized vehicles - make them incompatible with a game reserve.
It is a major tourist attraction for Botswana, a landlocked southern African nation of 1.6 million people, and has some diamond deposits.
The total number of Bushmen remaining in the game reserve, which is larger than Switzerland, is 27 spread across three now-tiny villages, said Ruth Maphorisa, the top government official for the district that includes the game reserve.
"There was no harassment whatsoever," said Maphorisa. "The reason why there are still people in the (game reserve) is that we didn't force anybody to leave."
Told of her comments, Gakeredone responded angrily.
"It's a lie. No one has (left) Malapo by choice," he said. "Every day the police are there and threatening with guns."
....
FEW LEFT
Population: An estimated 2,000 Bushmen lived in the game reserve before the government mounted forced removal campaigns in 1997 and 2002.
Relocated: Most of the Bushmen went to New Xade, a government settlement beyond the western border of the game reserve. Dozens and perhaps hundreds eventually migrated back, though most were elderly or children.
Even such basic activities as hunting game and gathering water- filled roots are now prohibited, and government officials have seized goats, sheep and other livestock the Bushmen used for food, said Jumanda Gakeredone of the First People of the Kalahari, speaking by phone from Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.
"The situation is really, really bad," he said. "Every day, they are there with guns."
Botswana officials gave a strikingly different account, saying that the police activity has been prompted by a quarantine made necessary by a disease affecting the goats kept by many Bushmen.
The officials also said that all those who left have done so voluntarily.
But they acknowledged that one of the game reserve's two main villages, Malapo, has been deserted after 25 residents were trucked out by the government on Oct. 7. The other substantial settlement in the game reserve, Metsiamanong, lost nearly half of its residents when 14 left on government trucks the next day.
They are not permitted to return as long as the quarantine remains in force, the government has said.
No date has been set for the end of the quarantine, and Bushmen activists say it is a pretext for removing them at a time when their right to stay is being argued in a major court battle.
Government officials have long sought to drive the Bushmen from the game reserve, saying their increasingly sedentary lifestyles - including keeping domestic animals and a few motorized vehicles - make them incompatible with a game reserve.
It is a major tourist attraction for Botswana, a landlocked southern African nation of 1.6 million people, and has some diamond deposits.
The total number of Bushmen remaining in the game reserve, which is larger than Switzerland, is 27 spread across three now-tiny villages, said Ruth Maphorisa, the top government official for the district that includes the game reserve.
"There was no harassment whatsoever," said Maphorisa. "The reason why there are still people in the (game reserve) is that we didn't force anybody to leave."
Told of her comments, Gakeredone responded angrily.
"It's a lie. No one has (left) Malapo by choice," he said. "Every day the police are there and threatening with guns."
....
FEW LEFT
Population: An estimated 2,000 Bushmen lived in the game reserve before the government mounted forced removal campaigns in 1997 and 2002.
Relocated: Most of the Bushmen went to New Xade, a government settlement beyond the western border of the game reserve. Dozens and perhaps hundreds eventually migrated back, though most were elderly or children.
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23 Octobre 2005 à 13:34 dans
- English
