San 'forcefully' removed

2004-11-05 22:06

Gaborone - San Bushmen resumed testimony in Botswana High Court on Friday to challenge their resettlement from what they claim is ancesteral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, describing the removals.

Taking the stand for the first time since the case was postponed three months ago, Motsoko Ramafoko, a witness for the San, told the court that people were removed from the land against their will.

He said people did not want to be relocated to the town of New Xade, outside the park in central Botswana.

"We did not want to leave. We did not want to relocate to New Xade. There is nothing special about the place," he told the court.

He added: "First they took our wives, loaded them in the trucks and off they went to New Xade.

"Then they came for us men ... and forcefully removed us against our will," Ramafoko said.

Waged a 30-year campaign

A second witness for the tribe, Mongwegi Tlhobogelo, also told the court that Botswanan offcials "wanted us out of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve".

The San are asking the High Court to declare the government's 2002 decision to resettle the Bushmen in settlements outside the game reserve was illegal.

London-based Survival International, which has been waging a 30-year campaign in support of the rights of the San, maintains they were driven out of the Kalahari to make way for diamond mining, a claim the government has denied.

The Botswana government claims there are now only 17 Bushmen living in the reserve, but rights groups say 200 have gone back in defiance of Gaborone's campaign to resettle them outside.

The court case started on July 4 with high court judges inspecting settlements built by the state for the San outside the reserve. The defence presented its case in July.

The case was expected to continue for at least another month.

- AFP