Post date: Sep 30, 2010 12:39:49 PM
Survival International calls for tourists to boycott Botswana until the government ends a brutal campaign of persecution against Kalahari Bushmen.
SHAKAWE, BOTSWANA , REUTERS -
Survival International, the human rights organization for tribal peoples, called for tourists to boycott Botswana in a statement release on Monday (September 27) until the government ends a brutal campaign of persecution against Kalahari Bushmen.
"Our message is: think seriously about going out to Botswana out on holiday because the oldest inhabitants of the land whose land has been recognizes by the country's own high court, are deprived of the most fundamental right which is water," says Fiona Watson, the research and field director of Survival International. "Do you really want to go and support a regime, a government that is persecuting the oldest inhabitants of its country."
The call coincided with World Tourism Day on Monday, which Botswana is using to promote its 'cultural diversity and welcoming people'.
But its government has waged a thirteen-year campaign to evict the Bushmen, the country's first inhabitants, from their ancestral lands inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Many have been evicted several times from their homes in the reserve to grim relocation camps.
Although the Bushmen won a legal victory to be allowed to return home, the government is trying to starve them out of the reserve, rights group say. It has banned their access to water (they are not allowed to use their former well, which has been disabled), and food (they are not allowed to hunt), said 'Survival' in its report.
There are some 300 Kalahari bushmen currently living on their ancestral lands inside the reserve, but there are several thousand more in the resettlement areas, who want to go back, but won't until the water issue is resolved. Survival International also says the bushmen have been threatened with the army and guns.
Watson is convinced that a fall in tourism will have a big impact. "If tourists vote with their feet it can make a huge difference," she says. "Public opinion is crucial. And in fact there are many people abroad and in Botswana and southern Africa who voiced their concern and their opposition to the government policy. But I think the difference with the boycott is that it is going to hit the government economically... tourists should realize that they come with a lot of potential money in their pocket. I think that's the only thing that is going to make the government sit up and listen."
The government's actions have been criticized by the UN - its expert found the Bushmen face 'harsh and dangerous conditions due to a lack of access to water' - and the African Union's Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.
And while the Bushmen are denied food and water, the government is promoting tourism to the reserve - Wilderness Safaris has opened a luxury tourist lodge with swimming pool - and is likely to grant Gem Diamonds permission to mine for diamonds at one of the Bushmen's community locations.
Botswana's president, Ian Khama, who sits on the board of Conservation International, as well as having close personal links to Wilderness Safaris, has described the Bushmen's way of life as 'an archaic fantasy'. Meanwhile, the CEO of Wilderness Safaris, Andy Payne, has said that 'any Bushman who wants a glass of water can have one'.