Bushman leader Roy Sesana went to Downing Street yesterday to deliver a letter from his people to Prime Minister Tony Blair. On Wednesday he addressed MPs and peers at Westminster to ask for their support.
Bushman leader Roy Sesana will meet with British MPs at Westminster this Wednesday 23 May to seek support for his people’s ten-year struggle to return to their land in the Kalahari desert, Botswana.
The Botswana government has announced that access to the country for the top UN human rights spokesman for indigenous peoples will be restricted.
A Reuters report published on CNN yesterday cites the governments treatment of the Kalahari Bushmen and the banning of 17 people including Survival International staff as evidence of Botswanas eroding democracy.
The UKs Daily Telegraph newspaper yesterday published a damning report accusing the Botswana government of betraying the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari.
The Botswana government has banned the Kalahari Bushmen from using their own water as UN World Water Day approaches on 22 March. A Bushman leader is travelling to London this week to protest against the ban.
A copy of the landmark ruling made by the Botswana High Court in the case of the Kalahari Bushmen against the Botswana government is now available online.
Six Bushmen have been arrested, starved and held for six days after police and wildlife guards accused them of hunting in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. They were then released without charge.