Diamond Miners Exploit Land of the Bushmen

Botswana is letting mining companies explore for diamonds in parts of the Kalahari desert from which San Bushmen were recently evicted, renewing the accusation that the country's oldest ethnic group is the victim of a plot by the government and multinational companies.

Sections of the central Kalahari game reserve, which the government said would not be touched, have been opened only months after an assurances that relocating the Bushmen had nothing to do with diamonds.

Concessions to explore have been granted and one company, Kalahari Diamonds Limited, has got $2m from the World Bank to fly a surveillance plane over territory thought to be rich in kimberlite, one of the volcanic rocks associated with diamonds.

The London advocacy group Survival International, which opposed the Bushmen's removal, said yesterday that it had been vindicated in linking it to diamonds.

"There has been a complete explosion in the number of concessions given out, and this funding for the exploration is further proof that there is a link," its spokeswoman Sophie Thomas said.

But mining companies and a Botswanan group representing the dwindling number of Bushmen said they were moved for other reasons. The 15-year programme to move them from bleached scrub closer to settled areas ended in February last year.

The authorities said they moved voluntarily to benefit from better healthcare and resources, but critics said they had been coerced. Self-sufficient communities had had their water supplies cut off before being dumped in bleak settlements with derisory compensation.

The elected government, which is popular with western donors, repeatedly said it was not aware of the prospect of diamond mining in the reserve.

President Festus Mogae said in November: "There is neither any actual mining nor any plan for future mining inside the reserve."

Survival International has published maps showing a sharp growth in the number of exploration concessions made in the past 12 months, and has accused such companies as De Beers and BHP Billiton of complicity with the Botswanan government.

De Beers threatened to sue SI in November after its campaign, which included picketing its London shop, linking the evictions with the diamond concessions.

SI said yesterday that it was "dismayed" that the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank, had given credibility to the exploration by providing Kalahari Diamonds with $2m, and accused the bank of violating the requirement to consult local people.

Billiton, an Anglo-Australian multinational which part owns Kalahari Diamonds, said the funding had given "credibility and kudos" to the project, since it demonstrated World Bank approval.

A spokesman, Michael Campbell, said no mining had yet taken place. "Billiton was not involved in the removal of these people and we do not want to comment on something that does not involve us," he said.

"We are providers of the proprietory exploration technology to Kalahari Diamonds Limited, we are not the mining company on the ground."

Groups representing the Bushmen have criticised the evictions but not all agree it was related to diamonds.

Braam Le Roux, of the Kuru Development Trust, said nomads throughout the world had been deprived of land rights, and San Bushmen in Namibia and South Africa had been herded from territory which contained little or no mineral wealth.

"It is a pattern, a kind of paternalistic approach by governments. It's never a good idea to move people from land they've occupied for thousands of years but I don't honestly see a connection with diamonds."