Diamonds in the Desert

Perhaps you've seen the new movie Blood Diamonds? I posted on conflict diamonds in November last year, and shared my concern about the forcible removal of the Kalahari Bushmen from their desert environment, ostensibly to provide them with improved health and education facilities. More cynical souls felt the interests of diamond mining companies might have had something to do with it.
Rare good news then early in December, as the Bushmen from the Kalahari desert won the court case in which they accused Botswana's government of illegally moving them from their land.

The court said the bushmen - or San people - were wrongly evicted from their ancestral homeland in 2002.

There's more detail on the story from the BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6174709.stm

Plus a sequence of pictures: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6176093.stm


Read my earlier blog on conflict diamonds and see the diamond ring Zing Picture that prompted those thoughts: Diamonds are a Soldiers Best Friend and With This Ring in November 2006