GANA AND GWI BUSHMEN FACE EXTICNTION

All over the world indigenous people remain under attack. Botswana is no exception. The government of that nation has now left Gana and Gwi Bushmen families in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to cope without water in the desert. The government cut off water supplies to the remaining Bushmen communities in its latest attempt to force them off their ancestral lands. Many of the 700 Bushmen still living in the reserve at the start of this month have now been forced to leave. The reserve was established in the 1960s on the Gana and Gwi's ancestral lands as a home for them. The 'Bushmen' are the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa. They have lived on their land for more than 20,000 years. For the last sixteen years the Botswana government has waged a campaign aimed at driving them off their land which under international law they own. The authorities have tried as far as possible to restrict the hunting on which the Bushmen depend for survival – some Bushmen have even been tortured and imprisoned for alleged over-hunting. Bushman homes have been bulldozed. The government is trying to put all of these people into "resettlement camps." The Bushman describe these camps as "a place of death."

Clifford Maribe, information officer with the Botswana ministry of foreign affairs claims that the relocation of the tribe does not amount to forced removal, even though essential services to the community in the reserve had been cut. Maribe said: "This is for purposes of sustainable service provision. Outside the reserve they can be provided with services, as well as empowerment and development. Further, the government claims it cannot afford to continue to provide water and other services to Bushmen communities in the reserve, even though it costs only $3 per person per week, and the EU has anyway offered to pay. All of this is typical justification for policies of removal all over the world and for centuries.

The President of Botswana has refereed to the Bushman as 'stone age creatures.' The government sees the Bushman as in the way of tourism. Speculation also runs rife that the area’s rich diamond reserves figure in the government’s plans.

Stephen Corry, director of the organization Survival, says, 'Stopping them hunting, torturing them and then prosecuting the victims, cutting off their water - and pouring what reserves they had into the ground -disabling their water pump, stealing their radio transceivers, saying
they cannot even enter their homeland without a special permit... this is the most concerted attack the Gana and Gwi Bushmen have ever faced. Incredibly, the government still hides behind the bare-faced lie that all this is for the Bushman's benefit - the most blatant lie
in the centuries of genocide the Bushmen have faced.'

To express your concern write: The Hon F G Mogae, President of the Republic, Private Bag 001, Gaborone, Botswana or Fax: + 267 356 086
Sources: IRIN, Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone), Survival

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