Survival International has called for a boycott of Botswana diamonds over the government’s treatment of the Kalahari Bushmen. The tribal peoples’ rights organization is also urging the public to boycott tourism to Botswana.
The diamonds boycott has been launched with a protest and letter hand-in outside De Beers’s flagship diamond stores in London and San Francisco tomorrow. De Beers is part-owned by the Botswana government.
London: De Beers, corner of Old Bond St and Piccadilly, London W1S 4QT.
Time: 3 November, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm (GMT)
San Francisco: De Beers, 185 Post St, San Francisco, CA 94108.
Time: 3 November, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm (PDT)
Gillian Anderson, Quentin Blake, Joanna Lumley, Sophie Okonedo and Mark Rylance are amongst the celebrities who have pledged not to travel to Botswana or wear its diamonds until the Bushmen are allowed to live on their ancestral lands in peace.
Celebrated jeweler, Pippa Small, said, “As jewelers, we have for years made sure that we do not use blood diamonds. Now we also need to boycott Botswana diamonds until the Bushmen are allowed to live and hunt freely on their land.”
In 2002, the Bushmen were illegally evicted from their ancestral lands to make way for diamond mining. At the time, the government denied a significant diamond deposit on their land existed. However, eight years later, Gem Diamonds, which bought the concession from De Beers, is in negotiations to construct a $3.3 billion mine at one of the Bushman communities.
While Gem Diamonds, in which jewelers Graff has a stake, pushes forward with its mine, the Bushmen are being starved off their lands. Despite winning a high-profile legal battle allowing them to return home, the Bushmen have been banned by the Botswana government from using a well which they rely on for water, and are prevented from hunting for food.
At the same time as denying the Bushmen access to their well, the government drilled new ones for wildlife only, with funding from the Tiffany & Co Foundation. It also allowed ‘ethical’ travel company, Wilderness Safaris, to open a luxury tourist lodge on Bushman land, complete with bar and swimming pool.
Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry, said today, “Botswana’s diamond industry is the ‘Siamese twin’ of the government. People should know that far from being an expensive token of eternal love, Botswana diamonds are a symbol of the nasty oppression of southern Africa’s first people.”
About Survival International
Survival International is a human rights’ organization formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous people and uncontacted tribes, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples’ fight to keep their ancestral lands, culture and their own way of living. Survival works for the people who they call “some of the most vulnerable on earth”. A part of their mission is to educate people from misconceptions that help justify violations of human rights against indigenous people, and the risks that they face from the advancement of corporations, governments and also good intentions based on an idea of “development” that is forced upon them. Survival believes that in fact their alternative way of living is not lacking, they represent a model of sustainability in the environment that they are a part of and they possess a rich culture from which we could learn. For more information, visit www.survivalinternational.org.
Source: Survival International Press Release dated November 2, 2010.
