Thirsty Still: Santa delivers Xmas gift to Botswana government from Kalahari Bushman

Thirsty Still: Santa delivers Xmas gift to Botswana government from Kalahari Bushman 10 December

Santa Claus delivers a bottle of water to the Botswana High Commission, London. © M. Cowan/Survival

http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/5352

Santa Claus made a special delivery to the Botswana High Commission in London today, UN Human Rights Day, on behalf of the Kalahari Bushmen.

Botswana officials received a gift-wrapped bottle of water labelled ‘Thirsty Still’, highlighting the fact that three years after the Kalahari Bushmen won a landmark court case affirming their right to live on their land, the Botswana government continues to deny them access to water.

The Bushmen took the Botswana government to court over their eviction from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002, in what became the longest legal battle in the country’s history. On 13 December 2006, the Botswana High Court ruled that the evictions were ‘unlawful’ and that the Bushmen could go home.

Three years later, the Bushmen have launched new litigation over their right to access water in the reserve. The government is promoting tourism in the reserve, and has allowed a safari company to build a tourist lodge with a swimming pool. But the Bushmen are not allowed to access a single water borehole, and must make a 400km round trip to fetch water from outside the reserve.

On delivering the gift of bottled water to the Botswana High Commission this morning, Santa Claus said, ‘I wish the Botswana government a very Happy Christmas, and I sincerely hope it will make the Bushmen’s Christmas by allowing them to exercise their most basic human right, to access water on their own land.’

Help the San people by contacting the

Embassy of Botswana 

1531-1533 New Hampshire Avenue, NW

Washington D.C. 20036

United States

City: Washington DC

Phone: (+1) 202-244-4990

Fax: (+1) 202-244-4164

Web Site: http://www.botswanaembassy.org

Email: pmajingo@gov.bw

 

© Survival International, 2009 | Registered charity no. 267444 | 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit

 

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs