10 March 2008
UK
Survival International will hold a peaceful protest in support of the Kalahari Bushmen outside a public meeting hosted by the Botswana diamond industry at Chatham House in London.
Date: Wednesday 12 March
Time: 10.30am - 11.15am
Place: Chatham House, 10 St James's Square, London SW1Y 4LE
Three prominent women involved in Botswana's diamond industry, one of them Botswana's Attorney General, will speak at the meeting. But Survival supporters will hold placards showing photos of three other women - Bushman women who have died due to the eviction of the Bushmen from their land to make way for diamond mining.
Diamond giant De Beers sold its concession on the Bushmen's land to Gem Diamonds in 2007. Gem Diamonds says the find contains more than $2.2 billion-worth of diamonds, and it plans to develop a mine as quickly as possible.
Botswana's High Court declared the evictions 'unlawful' in 2006. But the government is preventing the Bushmen from returning to their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve by banning them from using their own borehole there.
Bushman woman Qoroxloo died of dehydration and starvation in the reserve in 2005. Her relatives were arrested trying to take food and water to her. Gakemeitswe (not her real name) died of AIDS in a relocation camp in 2006 after being evicted from the reserve, and Dibe died 'of a broken heart' soon after being evicted against her will.
Renowned jeweller and Survival ambassador Pippa Small, who will join the vigil, said today, 'I'm appalled that the Botswana government is preventing the Bushmen from taking the tiny amount of water they need from beneath the Kalahari. The diamond mine planned on their land will use billions of times more water than the Bushmen would ever use. This is giving Botswana's diamonds a bad name.'
The CEO of De Beers Botswana Sheila Khama, Botswana's Attorney-General Athalia Molokomme and the Governor of the Bank of Botswana Linah K Mohohlo will speak at Chatham House. Molokomme and Mohohlo are on the board of Debswana, De Beers's joint venture with the Botswana government.
7.13.2008
GEM DIAMONDS SINK WATER BOREHOLES ON BUSHMAN LAND, BUSHMEN STILL DENIED WATER
14 APRIL 2008
BOTSWANA
Several water boreholes have been sunk in preparation for a diamond mine in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), Botswana, but the Bushmen who live there are forbidden from taking any water at all from their own borehole in the reserve.
The exploratory boreholes were created as part of the environmental assessment which precedes the construction of Gem Diamonds' $2.2 billion diamond mine at Gope, a traditional Bushman community within the reserve. The mine will require several wells to supply it with enough water to operate, in addition to the vast volumes of water that will be extracted from the mine pit itself.
Bushmen from the reserve have been petitioning the Botswana government to allow them to re-open a single borehole at Mothomelo, within the reserve, ever since the government dismantled it to "encourage" people to relocate in 2002. This borehole was the Bushmen's main source of water before the government unlawfully evicted them from the reserve.
The Bushmen won the legal right to return to their homes in December 2006, but the government continues to make this almost impossible by refusing to allow them to operate a water borehole in what is an extremely arid and inhospitable environment.
Stephen Corry, director of Survival, said today "There is only one reason behind the government allowing the diamond miners to sink unlimited boreholes and preventing the Bushmen from using just one - the cruel vindictiveness of a government determined to keep the Bushmen out of their ancestral lands, and intent on making them pay for their victory in the high court. The diamonds from this mine will be tokens of hate, not love."
BOTSWANA
Several water boreholes have been sunk in preparation for a diamond mine in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), Botswana, but the Bushmen who live there are forbidden from taking any water at all from their own borehole in the reserve.
The exploratory boreholes were created as part of the environmental assessment which precedes the construction of Gem Diamonds' $2.2 billion diamond mine at Gope, a traditional Bushman community within the reserve. The mine will require several wells to supply it with enough water to operate, in addition to the vast volumes of water that will be extracted from the mine pit itself.
Bushmen from the reserve have been petitioning the Botswana government to allow them to re-open a single borehole at Mothomelo, within the reserve, ever since the government dismantled it to "encourage" people to relocate in 2002. This borehole was the Bushmen's main source of water before the government unlawfully evicted them from the reserve.
The Bushmen won the legal right to return to their homes in December 2006, but the government continues to make this almost impossible by refusing to allow them to operate a water borehole in what is an extremely arid and inhospitable environment.
Stephen Corry, director of Survival, said today "There is only one reason behind the government allowing the diamond miners to sink unlimited boreholes and preventing the Bushmen from using just one - the cruel vindictiveness of a government determined to keep the Bushmen out of their ancestral lands, and intent on making them pay for their victory in the high court. The diamonds from this mine will be tokens of hate, not love."
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