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BOTSWANA: San barred from ancestral land despite court victory

04 Jan 2007 12:48:03 GMT
Source: IRIN

JOHANNESBURG, 4 January (IRIN) - Despite winning their right to return home after a long-fought court battle, the San are not being allowed back in the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR), in the Kalahari Desert, according to an advocacy group. In December 2006 the High Court of Botswana ruled that the San, also known as the Bushmen, had been wrongfully evicted from their ancestral homeland in the CKGR in 2002.

"Two weeks after the court ruling, a group comprising 20 of us went to the CKGR to build some huts so we could move in with our families, but we were stopped by the park officials, who told us that they had not been authorised to let us in," said Jumanda Gakelebone, a former CKGR resident and spokesman for the First People of the Kalahari (FPK), an advocacy group for the San community.

The government intended setting aside the protected area for wildlife and tourism development and began relocating the San outside the CKGR in 1997. Rights groups claimed that the San community was forcibly removed from their ancestral land to make way for diamond exploration in the CKGR, and assisted 244 former CKGR residents to mount a legal challenge in 2002. The government has maintained that the emphasis has always been on persuasion and voluntary relocation.

"We are all angry and surprised that people were turned away at the gate. We are asking, 'why can we not go back to our lands as the court says?' We are very worried and sad. We have been separated from our land and ancestors' graves for too long. Many applicants in our court case have died. How much longer do we have to wait to go home?" asked Gakelebone.

IRIN's queries were referred to the attorney-general's office, where no official was available for comment. Gakelebone said they were meeting with officials from the reserve on Thursday to raise their concerns.

The landmark judgment in favour of the San, which ruled that the government had acted "unconstitutionally" and "unlawfully", was hailed as a model for other legal challenges being mounted by indigenous communities removed from their ancestral land in other countries.

The CKGR is a reserve about the size of Switzerland, created in the last days of British colonial rule before Botswana's independence in 1966, in which the San were guaranteed continued occupation of land their ancestors had lived on for thousands of years.

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Last updated:Thu Jan 4 12:49:19 2007