A group of Bushmen today won the right to return to their diamond-rich ancestral lands in the Kalahari desert.

Bringing Botswana's longest running court case to an end, the country’s High Court ruled by two votes to one that some 1,000 Bushmen had been wrongly evicted from their hunting grounds.

Judge Mpaphi Phumaphi, who delivered the deciding vote in the case, said Botswana had been wrong to force the Bushmen out of the Kalahari reserve by cutting off their livelihood.

"In my view the simultaneous stoppage of the supply of food rations and the stoppage of hunting licenses is tantamount to condemning the remaining residents of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to death by starvation," he said.

About 100 Bushmen - some wearing animal hides on top of their clothing - gathered at the small courtroom in Lobatse about 40 miles south of the capital Gaborone to hear the final verdict.

The Bushmen’s lawyer, Gordon Bennett, said the court had opened the way for them to return to lands that their ancestors had lived on for some 20,000 years.

"It’s about the right of the applicants to live inside the reserve as long as they want and that’s a marvellous victory," said Mr Bennett.

The court said it saw no grounds for out-of-court claims by the Bushmen that the government and diamond giant De Beers wanted to clear the land for diamond mining - the basis for a major publicity push by western pressure groups who have backed their cause.

Activists say more than 1,000 Bushmen want to go back to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, an area of desert the size of Belgium which the government has set up as one of Africa’s largest protected nature reserves.

Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo, the country's top judge, delivering a minority opinion ahead of the verdict, had said the case should be dismissed.

"The contention of the applicants that the government unlawfully deprived them of their land... must fail," he said.

But Judge Unity Dow disagreed, saying Botswana’s government had, "failed to take account the knowledge and the culture" of the Bushmen when it expelled them.

In 2002 they were dispossessed forcibly, unlawfully and without their consent, she said.

Backed by the British-based advocacy group Survival International the Bushmen took the Government to court accusing it of evicting them illegally in order to exploit the diamond and mineral potential of the vast area.

The Government denies this, saying that the bushmen agreed to move as part of efforts to make the Central Kalahari a game reserve. It says they received compensation for their land.

Most of the Bushmen have moved to two new settlements. Officials say that their living conditions have improved recently with the provision of drinking water, schools and medical facilities.

But representatives of the Bushmen argue that they have suffered from the disruption to their traditional way of life and have fallen victim to scourges like alcoholism and HIV/AIDS.

Survival International said that at least 12 per cent of the original 239 bushmen who joined the lawsuit have since died in government resettlement camps. This year, 135 more applicants asked to be added to the original petition.

Botswana is the world’s largest producer of diamonds, and the bushmen appealed for help from the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, whose film "Blood Diamond" depicted how the gem trade financed civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.

Botswana says that Western activists, who have won the backing of Archbishiop Desmond Tutu and that British actress Julie Christie, have romanticised the Bushmen's lifestyle.

It says the Basarwa, also known as the San, abandoned their traditional way of life long ago and are now a danger to wildlife. The Government also argues the reserve is a poverty trap that stops the San integrating into society and denies them access to healthcare and education.

Survival International has waged an aggressive campaign against Botswana and diamond miner De Beers, and portrayed the case as a clash between indiscriminate development and the rights of indigenous people to choose their own destiny.

De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond mining company, denies any plans to extend operations into the Kalahari reserve.The Government has resettled about 2,000 bushmen mostly in 1997 and 2002 and says all but about 24 had voluntarily left the reserve. About half of southern Africa’s 100,000 surviving bushmen live in Botswana.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Indian Army spends10m rupees on golf buggies
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating