Botswana Cites Disease Outbreak for Closure of Parts of Reserve

The Botswana government has temporarily closed the southern and central parts of the Central Kalahari game reserve, saying it was needed to contain an outbreak of disease among domestic goats that has endangered other animals.

Presidential press secretary Jeff Ramsay said the closure of parts of the park followed the identification of a highly contagious outbreak of sarcoptic mange, also known as scabies, among herds of domestic goats and sheep illegally brought into the reserve by Bushmen who fought against relocation.

He said travel into and out of the reserve had been restricted in order to minimize the spread of the disease to other populations of animals until authorities could contain the infection.

British human rights group Survival International, however, says the closure is really aimed at restricting the movement of the Bushmen, who are trying to fight eviction from their ancestral homelands by authorities who want to exploit the vast area's mineral and diamond potential.

Rafael Runco, chairman of Survival International, said the government was putting guards around the reserve to block it off and stop Bushmen going in to hunt to provide food for their families. He said there had been a number of arrests and one of the Bushmen's leaders had died from torture during interrogation -- an allegation government officials have denied.

The government claims the Bushmen's continued presence on the reserve is a danger to the area’s wildlife.

Diamonds were discovered in Botswana in 1967 and account for half of government revenues and around 75 percent of all export earnings.