Botswana’s government won’t let the Kalahari Bushmen use their own well, but tourism company Wilderness Safaris has built a luxury lodge on their land with a bar and swimming pool. Sign the petition for the Bushmen to return to their homeland and live in peace.
The Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana number around 1,000 people. The government of Botswana forced them off their ancestral land and most now live in resettlement camps. Since being relocated they have problems with drinking, violence and HIV/AIDS. Many of them are dying in the camps. When they try to hunt or gather they are arrested and sometimes tortured.
In December 2006 they had a historic victory in the Botswana courts. The judges ruled that forced relocation from their land was unlawful, and that they have the right to go back and hunt there as they have always done. However, despite the judgment, the government won’t let them hunt and is stopping them using the water borehole on their land. While the Botswana government is denying the Kalahari Bushmen access to their own water, Wilderness Safaris has opened a luxury tourist lodge on their land, complete with bar and swimming pool.
Tell Wilderness Safaris that you won’t be going on holiday with them while their lodge is on Bushman land without permission and the Bushmen are being denied water, and that you won’t holiday in Botswana at all until the Bushmen are treated with respect.
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