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| Bushman child, CKGR, Botswana 2004
© 2004 Stephen Corry/Survival |
Botswana's High Court has heard the first Bushman witnesses in their case
against the government tell their harrowing stories of eviction from their
ancestral land.
Tshokodiso Botshilwane from Metsiamenong in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve
gave evidence on 27 and 28 July. He told the court how government officers
arrived in trucks and ordered everyone to move. He watched helplessly as they
dismantled his huts, but refused to leave the reserve himself, sleeping instead
under a tree for many days. He implied that whatever the statutes said, the
Bushmen have always lived in the CKGR, and said the government of Botswana could
not claim to respect the Bushmen's opinion when their views had not been taken
into consideration. 'I prefer death to relocation,' he told
judges.
Amogelang Segootsane from Gugama described how government officials had
emptied the tank that had held his community's water, leaving them 'having to
rely on desert melons as their source of water.' The land 'belongs to my
forefathers and all my children who were born there,' he told the court.
Segootsane gave evidence on 26 and 27 July.
Motsoko Ramahoko on 30 July described the government officers who forcibly
relocated he and his community from Gope to the resettlement camp Kauduane as
'arrogant and so vicious that they could even kill a person.' They told him
nobody would give him water if he refused to move. Kauduane, he said, was noisy,
with no job opportunities, and was full of drunkards. People there had to eat
dogs, and HIV/AIDS was spreading. The government 'removed us from the graves of
our fathers,' he said. He wanted to return to Gope and to be able to hunt and
gather, even without government services like water: 'I want my land
back.'
The Bushmen's case has now been adjourned until November. 'We want
the case to be concluded as soon as possible, so that we can return to our
land,' said a Bushman representative today.
For further information, please contact Miriam Ross at Survival International
on: +44 20 7687 8734 or email mr@survival-international.org
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