Survival calls on Kate Winslet and Penelope Cruz to boycott Graff's jewels for Oscars
February 17, 2009
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Survival International today called on Oscar-nominated actresses Kate Winslet and Penelope Cruz not to wear Graff diamonds at this week’s Oscar ceremony. The jeweller is embroiled in controversy over its 9% stake in Gem Diamonds, which plans to open a diamond mine on the land of the Kalahari Bushmen in Botswana.
Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, ‘As long as it owns part of Gem Diamonds, Graff is unavoidably tainted by what is happening to the Bushmen, which is one of the longest-running scandals in Botswana. Preparing to mine on Bushman land without their proper consent would be illegal in many countries and should be illegal everywhere. It will destroy the Bushmen. Graff has to accept its share of the responsibility.’
Survival has also written to celebrities who wear Graff diamonds, including Victoria Beckham, Naomi Campbell and Elizabeth Hurley, asking them to stop wearing the jewels. A protest last week outside the company’s flagship London store on Bond Street attracted worldwide press coverage.
The Botswana government evicted the Bushmen from their land in 2002; many believe this was to make way for future diamond mining. In 2006 Botswana’s High Court ruled the evictions unlawful and affirmed the Bushmen’s right to live on their land, but the government has tried to prevent them from returning by denying them water and hunting rights. Many Bushmen remain in government resettlement camps, unable to go home.
The Bushmen face severe water shortages, and one has died of thirst, since the government closed their borehole. Yet the Botswana government, which is in the process of approving Gem’s mine, has said that the Bushmen will not be allowed to use any water boreholes drilled for the mine.
Gem Diamonds claims that the Bushmen are in favour of the mine, but the Bushmen have had no independent advice on its probable impact.
For more information please contact Miriam Ross at Survival International on (44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (44) (0)7504 543 367 or email [email protected]
