Botswana’s President Mogae visit to London this week is expected to be marked with peaceful protests of his regime and its policy of aggressive relocation of indigenous Gana and Gwi 'Bushmen' and Bakgalagadi from their homes in and around the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Mogae is visiting Britain, where his maltreatment of the Botswana Bushmen is currently being featured in the Imperial War Museum’s permanent exhibition on Crimes Against Humanity. Created in 1961, the Reserve was emptied of its indigenous inhabitants in 1997 by the government. Many Bushmen returned home only to be evicted a second time in early 2002. Mogae remarked in 2001 to the U.S. National Press Club that “Botswana diamonds have always been conflict free.” But rights groups such as Survival International contend that the Bushmen’s plight is directly linked to the government’s plan to clear the Reserve for lucrative diamond concessions The bleak resettlement camps have been internationally condemned, and the Bushmen continue their efforts to reclaim their land.
