NGO Calls to Boycott Botswana Diamonds

De Beers, which doesn’t mine at the Kalahari Bushmen lands, expressed puzzlement over the demonstration outside its store Photo: Survival

(IDEX Online News) - A group of celebrities responded to Survival International’s call for a boycott of Botswana’s diamonds over the government’s alleged treatment of the Kalahari Bushmen and joined a held protest outside De Beers’ flagship diamond store in London.

According to Survival, which is also urging the public to boycott tourism to Botswana, the Bushmen were illegally evicted from their ancestral lands in 2002 to make way for diamond mining.

Gem Diamonds bought De Beers’ 50 percent stake in the Gope concession and is currently in negotiations to construct a mine on those lands, the NGO said. The demonstration and renewed campaign is in response these negotiations.

It’s not clear why the group is targeting De Beers’ retail stores. “We are surprised to be targeted by Survival International today as De Beers has no commercial interests of any kind in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Our closest mining and exploration operations are well over a hundred miles distant,” De Beers Spokeswoman Lynette Gould said.

Gillian Anderson, Quentin Blake, Joanna Lumley and Sophie Okonedo are amongst the celebrities who have pledged not to travel to Botswana or wear its diamonds until the Bushmen are allowed to live on their ancestral lands in peace.

Survival’s director, Stephen Corry, said that “far from being an expensive token of eternal love, Botswana diamonds are a symbol of the nasty oppression of southern Africa’s first people.”

According to De Beers, the Bushman communities in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and relevant government agencies are presently in discussions to jointly develop a sustainable plan for the future of the Reserve.

In economic terms, diamonds are the life line of Botswana, with diamond revenues accounting for over 50 percent of the country’s national budget.

De Beers said it is proud of its partnership with Botswana, and proud of the “hugely” positive role that diamonds have played in transforming Botswana from one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world to Africa’s most stable, peaceful and prosperous democracy. “Four out of every five dollars generated by De Beers mines in Botswana go to the people of Botswana,” the firm added.