Demonstrators from the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG) added their voices to protesting the removal of several thousand Basarwa San from their homes in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve by the Botswana government. VIPIRG members protested outside the site of the World Diamond Conference on June 18, echoing the concerns of other public interest groups that the San have been relocated because of the government’s interest in mining parts of the Reserve. Since 1985, the government has forcibly moved thousands of San to settlements outside the Reserve.
