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Botswana Supreme Court Rules Kalahari Belongs to Bushmen

Botswana`s Supreme Court declared Wednesday that the states` bushmen were entitled to return to their historic land, in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, in northern Botswana. The judges accepted the bushman`s claims that the Botswana government illegally evicted them in order to utilize the diamond mines and other natural resources in the area. Botswana and neighboring South Africa are considered the world`s top exporters of diamonds.

The Supreme Court ruled that the bushmen were wrongfully evicted from their land by use of force, back in 2002, together with the governments refusal to grant the bushmen licenses to hunt in the reserve, which is about the size of Switzerland, was both illegal and unconstitutional. Although the ruling said that the Botswana government was not required to supply basic services, such as water, to any of the bushman, who decide to return to the reserve.

The Botswana government claimed during the trial that the bushmen agreed to the evacuation, when it was decided to turn the Kalahari desert into a nature reserve. The government claims that the bushmen were given ample compensation at the time and that their lives have improved substantially since they left the desert and were resettled. On the other hand the bushmen, supported by British human rights activists, said that their traditional way of life has been interrupted and that subsequently many of the bushmen have contacted AIDS and alcoholism. Junanda Gakelevone of the First People of the Kalahari, which represents the Kalahari Bushmen, told the Press: "We are going back to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve."