Botswana Bushmen's land claim case to drag on for months: lawyers
The legal battle between Botswana's San Bushmen and the government over rights to Kalahari land was expected to drag on for months, lawyers said Thursday, with the San expressing frustration over the pace of the process.
The Bushmen are taking the government to court to challenge their eviction four years ago from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), one of the world's largest sanctuaries and an area they have called home for the past 20,000 years.
The Bushmen are taking the government to court to challenge their eviction four years ago from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), one of the world's largest sanctuaries and an area they have called home for the past 20,000 years.
"We expect a judgment sometime in the middle of the year, after which the case is expected go to the Botswana Court of Appeals," said Sydney Pilane, who is representing the state.
"It will definitely be finished before the end of the year," he told AFP at the Botswana high court in Lobatse, south of the capital.
Pilane said he intended to still call a number of witnesses including at least three cabinet ministers to give evidence for the state in what has already become Botswana's longest-running trial.
But a lawyer representing the Basarwa, as the Bushmen are called here, as well as a spokesman for the group, have expressed frustration over the time the case has taken since it first started in 2004.
Gordon Bennett said he hoped a judgment would be given before October.
"It's a pity that in the meantime they (the Bushmen) are still waiting for someone to tell them whether they can or cannot go home," he told AFP.
Jumanda Gakelebone, a spokesman for the Basarwa, said he did not know how long the case would continue, but that "people wanted to go home."
"We are not happy because it's taking such a long time," he told AFP.
A group of 200 Bushmen filed an urgent application in April 2002 challenging their eviction from the game reserve, but the case was thrown out on a technicality. The high court agreed in 2004 to hear the complaint.
London-based Survival International, which has waged a 30-year campaign in support of the Bushmen, maintains they were driven out of the Kalahari to make way for diamond mining, a claim the government has denied.
Once numbering millions, roughly 100,000 San are left in southern Africa, with almost half of those -- 48,000 -- in Botswana. Others are spread across Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe
"It will definitely be finished before the end of the year," he told AFP at the Botswana high court in Lobatse, south of the capital.
Pilane said he intended to still call a number of witnesses including at least three cabinet ministers to give evidence for the state in what has already become Botswana's longest-running trial.
But a lawyer representing the Basarwa, as the Bushmen are called here, as well as a spokesman for the group, have expressed frustration over the time the case has taken since it first started in 2004.
Gordon Bennett said he hoped a judgment would be given before October.
"It's a pity that in the meantime they (the Bushmen) are still waiting for someone to tell them whether they can or cannot go home," he told AFP.
Jumanda Gakelebone, a spokesman for the Basarwa, said he did not know how long the case would continue, but that "people wanted to go home."
"We are not happy because it's taking such a long time," he told AFP.
A group of 200 Bushmen filed an urgent application in April 2002 challenging their eviction from the game reserve, but the case was thrown out on a technicality. The high court agreed in 2004 to hear the complaint.
London-based Survival International, which has waged a 30-year campaign in support of the Bushmen, maintains they were driven out of the Kalahari to make way for diamond mining, a claim the government has denied.
Once numbering millions, roughly 100,000 San are left in southern Africa, with almost half of those -- 48,000 -- in Botswana. Others are spread across Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe
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09 Février 2006 à 10:54 dans
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