Rodolfo Stavenhagen, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, recently spoke out against the Botswana government's eviction of the indigenous San from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, noting that officials should have consulted with the hunter-gatherer tribe prior to their forced relocation. The San, commonly known as Bushmen, maintain that they were forced out of their territory in 2002 due to a government-sponsored project of diamond mining—a claim that has been repeatedly denied by government officials and head overseers of mining. In April 2002, the San filed a lawsuit against the Botswana government for the right to live, hunt, and gather on the reserve, that has yet to be resolved by Botswana's High Court in Lobatse.
The Botswana government has argued that the indigenous San posed a threat to area wildlife. However, several government witnesses have admitted that no evidence exists to support this claim. Stavenhagen has promised to closely examine the issue in an effort to facilitate talks between the San people and the Botswana government. "I think the San people in Botswana have a legitimate case in terms of not wanting to be evicted from their homeland . . . Therefore, I think negotiations are extremely important," Stavenhagen said, according to Rapaport News.
