The Khwe and the Bakgalagadi 2000
The Hon F. G. Mogae,
President,
President's Office,
Private Bag 001,
Gaborone
Botswana
Date 6 January 2000
Your Excellency,
I have been following your government's recent policy towards the inhabitants of the Central
Kalahari Game Reserve with dismay. The eviction of 1300 people in 1997 from the CKGR
is without doubt a violation of basic human rights.
I understand that your government would gladly develop tourism in this area. I am sure that
a negotiated agreement with the Khwe and the Bakgalagadi that live in the CKGR would
be the best foundation on which to build tourism or any other business venture.
A just basis for such an agreement would certainly be recognition the right of the Khwe and
Bakgalagadi to own the lands that they have historically occupied, to hunt game in order to
feed themselves as they always have done, and to take a fair share of the water from under
those lands.
The most urgent matter is to reverse the 1997 evictions by providing transport for those
people, together with their possessions, that wish to return to the places from whence they
were evicted.
By treating with respect all those with whom we share the earth, and by giving them the
human rights that we ourselves expect, is surely the only sensible way for mankind to
progress in this new millennium.
Yours faithfully,
Owen Lydiard, Director, Have IT Now Limited