'First Peoples' Gakelebone arrested, lawyer left stranded

Staff Writer | Thursday January 27, 2011 00:00

 

The arrest left the Basarwa's lawyer, who was in the reserve to consult his clients over a case currently before the appeal court, stranded in the desert without a guide or translator. Gakelebone, a member of Basarwa organisation, First People of the Kalahari (FPK), was arrested for travelling inside the reserve without a permit. FPK has been campaigning for the Basarwa's right to live on their ancestral land for years.

After he was released, Gakelebone told Survival International, '[the arrest] shows the government intention. I count [the reserve] as home.  That's where I was born. I do not need a permit'. Gakelebone was travelling through the reserve with the Basarwa's lawyer, Gordon Bennett, shortly after a crucial court hearing over the Basarwa's right to access drinking water on their land inside the reserve.

The Court of Appeal is expected to rule on the case tomorrow. The Basarwa were forcibly evicted from their land in the reserve in 2002, but after a four-year legal battle they won a landmark ruling allowing them to return.Since then the government has made life inside the reserve unbearable, banning the Basarwa from hunting or using a water borehole they had relied on for decades.

The water ban has been roundly condemned by, among others, the UN and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.Last week the government approved Gem Diamonds' application to build a $3 billion mine in a Basarwa community reserve.