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Diamonds stained by blood of
the Bushmen
9 October 2004
ROY SESANA, a Gana “Bushman”
from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana, southern Africa, visited
London last week.
He came to publicise the battle
against the Botswanan government and the De Beers diamond company. Through his
interpreter he spoke to Socialist Worker about the Bushmen’s struggle for
survival.
THOUSANDS OF Bushmen have been
removed from the lands where they have lived for many generations and taken to
resettlement camps.
There is no development - only a
plan to kill the culture of the Bushmen and to clear the lands for the diamond
companies, especially De Beers.
We have been torn away from our
land so that these companies can mine it.
In the camps there is sorrow.
People are taken up with alcohol,
and there is unemployment and prostitution. You will not find a Bushman nurse
or a Bushman official. We were promised that our lives would improve, but they
have got much worse.
We are not even allowed to bury
our dead people in the ancestral lands. Instead we must bury them near the
resettlement camps.
This is very hard for us, because
we think it is important to live near where our ancestors are buried. We are
prevented from going back to our homes, or hunting and gathering there.
My brother is one of those who has
been killed fighting for the rights of our people.
Four years ago he died after
beatings and torture from officials.
Before we were moved, our people
lived to old ages. Now there are new diseases, and the death rate in the camps
is high.
We want to go home, and to choose
and control our own fate.
Life changes, but we want to
control what happens - to decide for ourselves if mines should be dug and what
should happen to the wealth.
Stephen Corry, the
director of Survival International which organised the Bushmen’s visit, adds:
THERE ARE parallels with the
aboriginal people of Australia or the native people of North America.
Groups are torn from their roots
and left broken, leading to suicide and ill health at fearsome rates.
We believe diamonds are central to
what has happened.
The managing director of Debswana
(De Beers Botswana) welcomed the eviction of the Bushmen.
Most of the directors of Debswana
are senior political figures. A diamond deposit was discovered in the reserve
in the 1980s, but a formal evaluation of the mine did not take place until
1996.
The first forced evictions started
in May the following year.
A Bushman community, Xade, which
was equipped with a school, clinic and borehole for water was completely
removed.
In 2002 further enforced evictions
occurred. Government officials destroyed another water borehole, forbade all
hunting and gathering, and emptied all the Bushmen’s stocks of water.
Maps from the government’s
official sources show a dramatic increase in diamond exploration concessions
since the evictions.
The British government has been
worse than useless over the Bushmen’s situation.
A number of parliamentary
delegations have visited the area, but the authorities have carefully directed
them all so they only meet selected people.
When Glenys Kinnock went as part
of a European delegation she did ask to meet Roy Sesana. This was refused. She
said she would meet him later, but she never made contact.
We want people to protest. Allow
the Bushmen to return to their lands.
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=2720
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