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| Bushman child, Botswana
© Fiona Watson/Survival |
As the court case deciding the fate of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen
continues, judges this morning upheld an objection by the Bushmen's
attorney that the government lawyer had attempted to introduce evidence
previously banned by the court.
The government attorney, Sidney Pilane, had tried to enter as evidence
a 2005 report on the Bushmen's land, despite the court making an order
last August that the report was not admissible because it had been
written a year after evidence began.
Mr Pilane is the same lawyer who last September
ordered police to open fire on the Bushmen with teargas and rubber
bullets as they attempted to take food and water to their relatives
within the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
Arguments about the evidence and an adjournment to decide on the issue
took three days valuable court time in a case that is already well
behind schedule. The Bushman case is already the longest and most
costly in Botswana's history, despite being brought by the country's
poorest inhabitants.
The case continues today with the cross-examination of government witness Dr. Kathleen Alexander.
