Survival International Relaunches Anti De Beers Campaign
October 16, 08
Survival International announced that it is relaunching its campaign against De Beers, saying it discovered that the diamond miner has returned to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana. “Its new diamond exploration program will be devastating for the Bushmen, and the reserve’s ecology,” the NGO said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the organization, the area De Beers is investigating is around the Bushman community of Metsiamenong.
Survival called for a boycott of De Beers in the past, when it held an exploration license in the CKGR. It has since sold it to Gem Diamonds for $34 million.
“We are dismayed that De Beers feels that it can now return to the reserve whilst the situation with the Bushmen is still unresolved,” Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said in the statement. “Presumably it hoped noone would notice.”
“We intend to do everything in our power to help them, which will include targeting De Beers and trying to persuade people to boycott De Beers until the Bushmen have access to their lands and water,” Corry warned. “The Bushmen cannot conceivably give their free and informed consent to mining whilst most of them cannot even go home.”
De Beers was not immediately available for comment.