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Botswana Court Declares Bushmen Eviction Unconstitutional
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?r=279&c=742972&l=1009&ctl=154E700:A6F02AD83191E16043F74D60815D13199574F7DCC14957C0 Botswanan
government says eviction necessary to improve Bushmen's access to
health care and education





Women of the Basarwa tribe, nomadic hunter-gatherers who have survived
for over 20,000 years in stark desert plains of central Botswana, rest
by their hut in Kaudwane settlement outside Kalahari Game
ReserveBotswana's top court has ruled that the so-called Bushmen of
the Kalahari were illegally evicted from their ancestral land.

A three-judge panel issued a two-to-one ruling Wednesday in favor of
the Bushmen.  The ruling says the government illegally expelled the
tribe from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002.

Earlier Wednesday, Botswana's chief justice rejected the Bushmen's
claim to the land.  But two other judges disagreed in separate
opinions.

The Botswanan government has said the eviction was necessary to
improve the Bushmen's access to health care and education.

But opposition groups accuse the government of evicting the tribe so
it could use the land for diamond mining instead.  The government has
denied that accusation.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.


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