Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Licence needed for work use Learn More

World Video | Defence | Foreign Affairs | Natural Events | Trade | NZ in World News | NZ National News Video | NZ Regional News | Search

 

De Beers Diamond Company Explores Botswana Reserve

Survival International Press Release

15 October 2008

De Beers Returns To Central Kalahari Game Reserve: Survival International Relaunches Campaign

Revealed: De Beers diamond prospectors at work in Bushman reserve in Botswana

Survival International is relaunching its campaign against De Beers after the discovery that the company has returned to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. Its new diamond exploration programme will be devastating for the Bushmen, and the reserve’s ecology. The area it is investigating is around the Bushman community of Metsiamenong.

De Beers’s previous attempts to mine for diamonds in the reserve led to a massive international campaign. Survival called for a boycott of De Beers, successfully persuaded supermodels Iman and Lily Cole to stop working with the company, and protested outside the openings of its stores in London and New York.

The campaign ended when the company sold its $2.2 billion deposit to Gem Diamonds for $34 million.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘We are dismayed that De Beers feels that it can now return to the reserve whilst the situation with the Bushmen is still unresolved. Presumably it hoped no-one would notice. Hundreds of Bushmen still languish in relocation camps, unable to return home because the government won’t let them hunt or use their water borehole.

‘We intend to do everything in our power to help them, which will include targeting De Beers and trying to persuade people to boycott De Beers until the Bushmen have access to their lands and water. The Bushmen cannot conceivably give their free and informed consent to mining whilst most of them cannot even go home.’

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Two years ago the Bushmen won a landmark court case over their right to live in the reserve, which is their ancestral land. They had been evicted by the government. The court recognized they have the right to live there, and to hunt and gather.

The rich diamond deposits in the reserve were widely thought to be behind the government’s determination to evict the Bushmen. The boom in diamond mining and exploration in the reserve threatens one of the largest game reserves in Africa, despite the fact that Botswana’s President, Ian Khama, is on the board of US-based Conservation International.

ENDS

We help tribal peoples defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures.

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
World Headlines

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.