Following a call by the London-based human rights organization, Survival International that celebrities should boycott Botswana diamonds over its treatment of the Basarwa or Bushmen, Botswana on Thursday dismissed the call as propaganda.
Survival International has launched its call for a boycott of Botswana diamonds over the government’s treatment of the Kalahari Bushmen and also held a protest outside De Beers’ flagship diamond store in London this week. The organization is also said to have handed in a letter at the De Beers San Francisco store.
Survival is also urging the public to boycott tourism to Botswana in protest at its treatment of the Bushmen.
But the Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Environment, Kitso Mokaila said in a brief interview that the call was a fund-raising campaign at the expense of a whole people. He added that the main target were not diamonds but the welfare of the Basarwa.
Survival’s director, Stephen Corry described Botswana’s diamond industry as the ‘Siamese twin’ of the government. “People should know that far from being an expensive token of eternal love, Botswana diamonds are a symbol of the nasty oppression of southern Africa’s first inhabitants”.
Source African Press Agency
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com
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