2006

Bushmen Win Legal Case; Diamonds Not Involved

December 2006

The Bushmen in Botswana won a court ruling for "wrongly being evicted" from their ancestral land. Some of the Bushmen’s representatives had said the evictions were due to diamonds.

However, Justice Unity Dow, who ruled in favor of the Bushmen, said, "While diamond mining as a reason for the CKGR relocations might be an emotive rallying point… the case before this court does not fit that bill. It would be completely dishonest of anyone to pretend that that is the case before this court. Those looking for such a case will have to look somewhere else."

Sheila Khama, chief executive of De Beers Botswana said, "De Beers has always maintained that diamonds were not the reason for the relocation. I am pleased that all of the judges in the case have recognized and unanimously confirmed this."

None of De Beers’ concessions in the CKGR currently show any signs of generating an economically viable deposit, and even if a viable diamond deposit were found and mined successfully, there would be no need to arbitrarily remove or resettle any communities, De Beers noted.