27 November 2015
[In November 2015] the second-largest diamond in history was discovered close to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the recognized ancestral homeland of the Bushman people. Botswana has been keen to publicize its considerable diamond-derived wealth to the world’s media, but coverage has so far ignored the ongoing violations of the Bushmen’s human rights...The Bushmen were evicted from their land just over a decade ago. In a landmark 2006 court case they officially won the right to return to their homes...[But] life has been made nearly impossible... Government ministers and mining corporation Gem Diamonds have separately promised to create several new boreholes for water in the territory, but most Bushmen still have no access to clean drinking water... They face arrest, beatings and torture at the hands of paramilitary police and state-funded wildlife scouts...accused of “poaching” because they hunt to feed their families.
Survival International has campaigned extensively for the Bushmen’s right to live in the reserve..."...Bushmen’s rights are still violated by a government that thinks itself too powerful to obey its own High Court..." [said Stephen Corry, SI director].
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