Boycott De Beers

The Bushmen of the central Kalahari have been thrown off their land after diamonds were discovered there. De Beers and the Botswana government jointly run all the country's diamond mines. The head of De Beers in Botswana welcomed the eviction of the Bushmen. Join us in boycotting De Beers and their conflict diamonds. More »

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What the Bushmen say |

What the papers say

Bushmen appeal again to Leonardo DiCaprio The Bushmen have appealed again to Leonardo DiCaprio after diamond... read more »
December 11th, 2006
Corporate Watch: Diamonds aren’t a girl’s best friend Corporate Watch writes about the Bushmen evictions in their November... read more »
December 8th, 2006

December 2006

The Bushmen appeal to Leonardo DiCaprio »

BBC Special Report on the Bushmen evictions.
Watch now »

In May 2007 De Beers sold its diamond deposit at Gope (on the lands of the Kalahari Bushmen) to Gem Diamonds, for $34 million. Gem Diamonds' chief executive called the Gope deposit 'a problematic asset for De Beers' because of the Bushmen controversy. Survival International has therefore called off its De Beers boycott.

Although De Beers had claimed that the find was 'sub-economic', Gem Diamonds plans to develop a mine at Gope as quickly as possible, and estimates that it contains more than $2.2 billion-worth of diamonds.

Gem Diamonds is currently formulating its policy regarding obtaining the Bushmen's free and informed consent before the Gope mine goes ahead. Survival has made it clear that such consent cannot be freely given until the Bushmen are allowed back on to their land, and are in a position to talk as equals.

Survival is continuing closely to monitor developments at Gope.

For more information, go to www.survival-international.org/bushmen

For more information, go to
www.survival-international.org/bushmen