Holiday makers urged to boycott Botswana

The Telegraph (UK)
Jolyon Attwooll
September 26, 2013.

Tourists have been urged to avoid Botswana in protest at the alleged mistreatment of the country's Bushmen. 

The conflict has focused on access to the 

Central Kalahari Game Reserve 

(Photo: Getty)

Survival International, which supports the rights of tribal groups around the world, accused the Botswana government of thwarting attempts to restore the Bushmen's free access to their ancestral homeland. 

In a press release, it said the government’s behaviour on the issue was “disgraceful”, reserving its harshest criticism for Ian Khama, the Botswana president. Stephen Corry, Survival’s director, described his treatment of the Bushmen as “illegal, inhuman and degrading.”

Survival International said it would ask supporters to join a boycott of the country, as well as write to its minister of tourism in protest. 

Campaigners have also written to tour operators including Trailfinders, Intrepid and Absolute Travel, urging them to stop running trips to the country.

The latest move was prompted by the rejection of an attempt to overturn a law requiring Bushmen to have permits to enter their traditional hunting grounds on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).

According to Survival International, Gordon Bennett, a British attorney, had been blocked from coming into the country to help the Bushmen’s legal case.

Read the rest here.

*****

Comment: Botswana's government is no friend to the Bushmen people.  A boycott is just the thing to make President Khama and his supporters pay attention.

See Survival International's website for more information.

Onward!