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| Bushman women, Namibia
© Mark Håkansson/Survival |
The Botswana government has launched a massive crackdown on the Bushmen
of the central Kalahari aimed at destroying their way of life. The move
comes despite the resumption of the Bushmen's three-year court case
against the government for evicting them from their ancestral lands in
the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
The government has announced that it is putting guards around the
Central Kalahari Game Reserve to blockade the area and stop Bushmen
going in.
More Bushmen have been arrested for hunting to feed their families.
Xhatshoe Xhose, Maiteko Digotlhong and Gothata Digotlhong have
been arrested so far this month.
The wildlife department has barred the Bushmen's lawyers from
entering the reserve to consult with their clients, even though the
high court specifically asked them to do so.
The radio authority has refused to renew licences to Bushmen in
the Reserve who were using community transmitters to contact each other
to ask for help in medical or other emergencies.
Officials have gone so far as to stop the Bushmen's own organisation,
First People of the Kalahari, from talking to those in the reserve.
The government is on the point of changing the country's constitution to remove any existing protection for the Bushmen.
Selelo Tshiamo, one of several Bushmen severely tortured by
officials in June, died earlier this month. He had been repeatedly
beaten on the chest to the point where he coughed blood. His chest
pains increased in the following weeks until he finally succumbed to
his injuries.
All this amounts to the most serious assault on Bushman rights since their eviction in 2002.
Recent investigations show that the Bushmen in the forced relocation
camps have started to die after contracting HIV/AIDS. At least
thirty-seven Bushmen have the infection in just one of the camps.
Drunkenness and prostitution are spiralling out of control.
Journalist Sandy Gall witnessed Bushmen being evicted from their land
in 1998. He said today, The last hunting Bushmen in the world are now
on the edge of destruction, only international support can save them.
Unless ordinary people make their voices heard it will be too late and
our 21st century world will add the Gana and Gwi Bushmen to the long
list of indigenous peoples destroyed by racism and greed. Have we
learnt absolutely nothing? Are we really going to allow yet another
government to exterminate its tribal peoples?'
