Julie Christie Leads Anti-De Beers Protesters at London Museum Picket

Film star Julie Christie was among around 50 protesters at the opening of London's Natural History Museum's Diamonds exhibition on Wednesday as Survival International supporters picketed in support of bush people who, the organization claims, have been removed to enable diamond exploration to go ahead.

The protest follows a similar one at the opening last month of a store by the De Beers LV venture on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

The six-month exhibition is sponsored in part by De Beers' sales and marketing arm the DTC, and features some of the most famous diamonds in the world, including De Beers’ 203.04 carat Millennium Star, and seven other unusual diamonds, including the Steinmetz Pink, the world’s largest fancy vivid pink, a flawless 59.60 carat diamond, and a replica of the Koh-i-Noor.

Survival claims the Bushmen have been turfed off their lands in order to enable Botswana and De Beers to carry out exploration work. The two reject Survival's claims and the issue is being heard by Botswana's High Court, which has yet to reach a decision.

Christie, a top film star in the 1960s and 1970s, said: “I am shocked that the Natural History Museum can ignore the plight of the Bushmen while taking money from De Beers. Boycott De Beers! You’ll have the destruction of the Bushmen on your conscience.”

De Beers has dismissed Survival International's claims, saying the relocation is aimed at providing welfare and other services to the bush people.

 "They [Survival International] claim, quite wrongly, that diamonds are the root cause of the relocation of Bushmen from a small area in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve," De Beers said.

"This is absolutely not the case and Survival International knows this. De Beers has received assurances from the Government of Botswana that the resettlement of Bushmen is being carried out to provide welfare facilities, including health and education, enjoyed by the rest of the population of Botswana. 

De Beers said Survival International’s claims are "misleading and dishonest" and were based purely on "supposition and hearsay". De Beers said it challenged the group "to provide any credible evidence to support their claims".