San 'ethnic cleansing' denied

2005-10-13 23:05

Pretoria - Botswana's foreign minister Mompati Merafhe on Thursday denied claims by Britain's survival international that it had launched an "ethnic cleansing" of San people from their ancestral land in the Kalahari.

"Nothing could be further from the truth than those malicious allegations being marketed around by a one-issue organisation called survival international," Merafhe told reporters in Pretoria.

"We are probably the only government in the whole world being taken to task for trying to improve the lot of its people," he said after meeting with his South African counterpart Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

"In all other situations the reverse is the case. Governments are taken to task for not looking after their people," he said.

The British non-governmental organisation issued a statement on October 8 accusing the government of completing the "ethnic cleansing" of the San and forcing them out of their homes "at gunpoint" and burning down their huts.

The Botswana government has resettled about 2 000 San at a new settlement called New Xade, set up in 1997 west of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Some San have claimed they had been forced out because the government wanted to tap into the sanctuary's tourism potential.

The minister said the San had been moved to allow them to "continue to commune with fauna and flora in the park instead of getting into the mainstream of our society".

"They can no longer be regarded hunter gatherers. They possess sporting rifles.

"If we allow them to stay in the park, they will decimate the wildlife which is an important resource for any country," he said.

The Botswana high court is in the process of hearing a related case by 240 San who were relocated to New Xade in 2002 and who are waging a land claim battle in the court.

That case is scheduled to resume in February.

- AFP