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BOTSWANA: GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWN
ON BUSHMAN HUNTERS
9 October 2007
Six Bushmen have been arrested for hunting in New Xade resettlement camp,
according to First People of the Kalahari, a Bushman human rights organisation.
The latest arrests bring the total number of Bushmen arrested for hunting
since last year's landmark court ruling to at least forty-eight, with most
being arrested since June this year.
The Botswana High Court held last December that the Gana and Gwi Bushmen had
been evicted illegally from their land in the central Kalahari in 2002. The
court also held that the government had broken the law in refusing to issue
them with hunting permits.
Besides refusing to issue hunting permits, the government has also refused to
provide transport for the Bushmen to return. It has banned them from using
their water borehole, and will not let them take their small numbers of
livestock back with them.
Survival's director Stephen Corry said today, 'The ongoing campaign of
harassment against Bushman hunters has suddenly escalated in the past few
months. This is a blatant attempt on the part of the government to stop
Bushmen returning home. It seems that it is determined that the High Court
judgement should not be implemented.'
SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE
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