PRESS RELEASE BY DITSHWANELO ON THE CENTRAL KALAHARI GAME RESERVE (CKGR)

UN CERD RECOMMENDATIONS TO BOTSWANA

On 19 August 2002, DITSHWANELO – The Botswana Centre for Human Rights, presented a supplementary report to the submission of the Government of Botswana to the 61st session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Botswana ratified the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in 1974. DITSHWANELO’s report dealt with the Government’s position on and treatment of the Basarwa/San of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). DITSHWANELO presented this report to CERD, to encourage the Government of Botswana to consider, through continued negotiations, a rights-based approach to development for the Basarwa. CERD considered the submitted reports and expressed a number of concerns and recommendations for the Botswana Government on 23 August 2002.

CERD expressed “concern at the ongoing dispossession of Basarwa/San people from their land, and about reports stating that their resettlement outside the CKGR does not respect their political, economic, social and cultural rights…and recommends that no decisions relating to the rights and interests of members of indigenous peoples be taken without their informed consent.”

The Committee further recommended that “negotiations with the Basarwa/San and nongovernmental organisations be resumed on this issue, and that a rights-based approach to development be adopted”. The Committee expressed “concern at expressions of prejudice against the Basarwa/San people, including by public officials.”

It was also noted that “cultural and linguistic rights of the Basarwa/San are not fully respected especially in educational curricula and in terms of access to the media. The Committee recommends that [Botswana] the State Party (to) fully recognize and respect the culture, history, languages and way of life of its various ethnic groups as an enrichment of the State’s cultural identity, and adopt measures to protect and support minority languages, in particular within education.” Further recommendations were made regarding minority groups, (especially the Wayeyi), whose representative also made a presentation to CERD.

Since 1998, DITSHWANELO has been a member of The Negotiating Team comprising representatives of the residents of the CKGR, First People of the Kalahari (FPK), the Working Group for Indigenous Minorities of Southern Africa (WIMSA) and the Botswana Council of Churches (BCC). The Negotiating Team participated in a consultative process with the Government of Botswana, resulting, in May 2001, in the Third Draft Wildlife Management Plan. This plan contained the concept of Community Use Zones (CUZs) designed to allow the Basarwa to remain inside the CKGR with two main objectives in mind: 1) to maintain the integrity of ecosystems and promote biodiversity 2) to ensure the socio-economic sustainability of residents of the CKGR. Only the most sustainable hunting, gathering and farming methods were to be permitted within the CUZs. The Third Draft Wildlife Management Plan was approved by the Gantsi and Kweneng District Councils.

During late 2001, the Government announced its intention to terminate all services within the reserve on 31 January 2002. This decision was inconsistent with the Third Draft Management plan which was later replaced by a `Final Draft Management Plan’. The ‘Final Plan’ was produced by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in July 2002, without the involvement of the Negotiating Team, or the Gantsi and Kweneng District Councils. It is believed that it mainly considers CUZs adjacent to the new settlement areas of New Xade (9,500 km2) and Kaudwane (4,120 km2) as opposed to the area proposed by the Third Draft Management Plan (24,288 km2).

A copy of the Final Plan is not yet available to DITSHWANELO, the public or the press. DITSHWANELO requested a copy of the report in early August 2002, which to date has not yet been received. DITSHWANELO strongly recommends that The Final Draft Management Plan, which was noted by Cabinet in July 2002, be suspended to allow for further negotiations with the Negotiation Team, based on the contents of the Third Draft Management Plan.

On 28 August 2002, the Government of Botswana publicly refuted the position of a member of the delegation of The European Parliament on the issue of the Basarwa peoples of the CKGR. During their visit to Botswana (week of 19 August 2002), the recent position taken by EU Members of Parliament on sustainable development is consistent with that for which DITSHWANELO and the members of the Negotiating Team have been advocating, since 1998. CERD also supported the need for continued negotiations on appropriate participatory development for the Basarwa.

It has become abundantly clear that by cutting off the basic and essential services to the people in the CKGR, the Government of Botswana is causing human suffering. NGOs have been expressly forbidden by the Government from providing food and water to the remaining inhabitants. These actions have the effect of forcing the remaining inhabitants, many of whom are elderly, to leave the land where they have lived for thousands of years.

The Basarwa regard the CKGR as their ancestral land. Like other Batswana, the Basarwa should have a right to their traditional lands.

DITSHWANELO, as part of The Negotiating Team has consistently encouraged the Government of Botswana to enable the participatory process of negotiation to be re-opened. DITSHWANELO believes that this issue need not be a matter of international embarrassment for the country. The local negotiation process, began in 1998, had achieved much progress towards a vision shared by the Government and the Basarwa peoples of the CKGR. It would be a tragedy for all which had been gained to be lost.

2 September 2002
Gaborone