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| Bushman woman, CKGR, Botswana 2004
© Stephen Corry/Survival |
Survival International's advertising campaign has spread to Canada. A new
advert appears today in the Ottawa Citizen highlighting the eviction of the Gana
and Gwi Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, and what many suspect to
be the real reason behind this atrocity – the diamond deposits known to be in
the Reserve.
The advert is timed to coincide with a meeting of mining ministers, diamond
companies and NGOs in Ottawa for the final round of the Kimberley Process. The
Kimberley Process was set up by the UN General Assembly to control the trade in
conflict diamonds.
Headlined 'Diamonds mean despair' the ad says, 'The
Gana and Gwi 'Bushmen' are being brutally evicted from their ancestral land in
Botswana. The authorities have driven them from their homes, cut off their
water, forbidden them to hunt or gather food, and are forcing them into
'resettlement camps' where despair reigns. The government says this is to offer
them 'development' – the Bushmen think it's to make way for diamond mines. You
can help save the Gana and Gwi from exile and destruction: tell the authorities
what you think, and that you will avoid buying Botswana diamonds until the
Bushmen get their land.'
Survival's director, Stephen Corry, said today, 'The longer the
government persists in not allowing the Bushmen to live on their own land, the
more likely it is that Botswana's diamonds will be labelled 'conflict diamonds'.
President Mogae's obstinacy is putting at risk his country's main source of
income.'
NB The names Gana and Gwi contain sounds not conveyed by this spelling, and
can be written as G//ana and G/wi. Survival omits the symbols '//' and '/' as
they are not understood by most people internationally.
Click here to donate to Survival's Bushman campaign.
Click here to join Survival's letter writing campaign on behalf of Botswana's Bushmen.
