Kalahari San seek backing from Britain

LONDON – The leader of the San Bushmen met British lawmakers in London on Wednesday in a bid to drum up support for his people’s struggle to return to their land in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana.

Roy Sesana met members of the newly formed cross-party parliamentary group on tribal peoples. Botswana is a member of the Commonwealth and was a British protectorate before it declared independence in 1966.In December last year, a court in Botswana’s southern city of Lobatse ruled after a marathon legal battle that hundreds of San Bushmen were wrongly forced from the Kalahari Game Reserve.The Bushmen maintain they were driven out of the Kalahari when vital supplies were cut off in order to make way for diamond mining – a claim the world’s top diamond producer has denied.But despite the court victory, the Botswana government is trying to prevent them returning to their land, claimed Survival International, a London-based non-governmental organisation supporting tribal people.In addition, the Botswana attorney general has said that only Bushmen named in the court case can return, Survival said.”We Bushmen won our court case, and this made us feel strong again.But now the president is ignoring Botswana’s own court,” Sesana said on Tuesday.”I am asking people in Britain to please help us, because people are dying in the places where we have been forced to live.”Survival activist Kali Mercier told AFP: “The Bushmen want their rights to be respected and want solutions to be found quickly.”The Bushmen’s situation is comparable to the Aborigines in Australia and lots of other peoples across the world,” she added.Once numbering millions, roughly 100 000 San are left in southern Africa, with almost half of them – 48 000 – in Botswana.Others are spread across Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Nampa-AFPBotswana is a member of the Commonwealth and was a British protectorate before it declared independence in 1966.In December last year, a court in Botswana’s southern city of Lobatse ruled after a marathon legal battle that hundreds of San Bushmen were wrongly forced from the Kalahari Game Reserve.The Bushmen maintain they were driven out of the Kalahari when vital supplies were cut off in order to make way for diamond mining – a claim the world’s top diamond producer has denied.But despite the court victory, the Botswana government is trying to prevent them returning to their land, claimed Survival International, a London-based non-governmental organisation supporting tribal people.In addition, the Botswana attorney general has said that only Bushmen named in the court case can return, Survival said.”We Bushmen won our court case, and this made us feel strong again.But now the president is ignoring Botswana’s own court,” Sesana said on Tuesday.”I am asking people in Britain to please help us, because people are dying in the places where we have been forced to live.”Survival activist Kali Mercier told AFP: “The Bushmen want their rights to be respected and want solutions to be found quickly.”The Bushmen’s situation is comparable to the Aborigines in Australia and lots of other peoples across the world,” she added.Once numbering millions, roughly 100 000 San are left in southern Africa, with almost half of them – 48 000 – in Botswana.Others are spread across Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Nampa-AFP