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In what is
presumably an attempt to deflect attention from the controversy
surrounding its reaction to the eviction of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen of
Botswana, De Beers is sponsoring the launch of a new book about the
Bushmen of southern Africa, 'Voices of the San'.
However, the
managing director of De Beers' Botswana arm, Debswana, has publicly
welcomed the Bushmen's eviction from their ancestral land. De Beers has
told Survival since that it does not recognise indigenous rights in
southern Africa, as such recognition would lead to 'apartheid'.
De Beers holds
the concession on a large diamond deposit on the ancestral land of the
Gana and Gwi Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana, and
is prospecting for more. The exploratory mine shaft sunk by the company
lies in the middle of a Bushman community called Gope. The Gana and Gwi
were evicted from their land in 1997 and 2002 by the Botswana
government.
Bushman
spokesperson Roy Sesana says, 'We are worried about De Beers
because they just come to our ancestral land and do surveys and get
concessions, without consulting the people on the ground about what they
are doing. They just make agreements with the government and do whatever
they want... There should be no mining in CKGR while we are evicted. We
have to go back first and then we can decide whether mining can take
place or not.'
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''Voices of the
San' is launched in London on 17 November.
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