Bushmen's champion de beers loses face yet again - Supermodel quits

Bushmen's champion de beers loses face yet again - Supermodel quits

Edward Simpkins The Sunday Telegraph (Canada)

July 20, 2005

Lily Cole, the new face of De Beers diamond giant, quit after learning that the Bushmen of Botswana are being evicted to make way for mines.

LONDON - The Bushmen of the Kalahari have a new and unexpected protector -- Lily Cole, the supermodel who is the face of De Beers, the diamond giant.

Survival International, the pressure group that campaigns for tribal peoples, says she is refusing to work again for the company after learning of allegations the Bushmen are being evicted from their homes in Botswana to make way for diamond mines.

She is only the latest model to take a stand after being told about the forcible relocation of about 2,000 Bushmen -- also known as the San or Basarwa --from land close to where the world's finest diamonds are mined. Ms. Cole's predecessor, supermodel Iman, quit for the same reason.

Diamond producers spend vast sums marketing the gems as symbols of love, purity and constancy. "Diamonds are an eternal celebration of life's perfect moments," says De Beers' Web site.

But that image of unadulterated beauty has been challenged. The existence of "blood diamonds," stones mined by militias linked to murderous civil wars in Africa, has been deeply embarrassing for the diamond industry.

It led to the adoption of a worldwide certification system to enable each stone to be traced back to a specific mine.

The reform was huge and costly. But now, just as De Beers is putting its years as a monopoly supplier behind it and settling into a new role as a leader in the luxury goods industry, up pops Survival with new allegations.

"It is so frustrating as we are trying to prove a negative," says Rory More O'Ferrall, the company's director of external affairs.

"We are simply not involved in the relocation of the Bushmen, and we have had assurances from the government of Botswana that it has absolutely nothing to do with prospecting for or mining diamonds in the Kalahari."

He says Survival's campaign to get Botswana to reverse its policy of resettling the Bushmen is being dishonest and opportunistic in seizing on diamonds as the cause of evictions.

In his view, De Beers, as the mining partner of the Botswana government, is a soft target for Survival, providing the group with a ready means of applying pressure on the African administration.

On the other hand, diamonds and De Beers are very important to Botswana. Debswana, a 50:50 joint venture between De Beers and the government, generates nearly 70% of Botswana's foreign earnings, about a third of its gross domestic product and half the receipts of its treasury.

Debswana is also important for De Beers. Last year it produced 31.1 million carats, about 66% of the company's output. De Beers sold rough diamonds worth US$5.7-billion, but the Botswana stones are thought to have contributed more than 66% because of their high value.

It is also the second largest employer after the government. The income it produces pays for a health and education system that is the envy of other developing African countries.

In fact, Survival argues the relationship is so close it is justified in bashing De Beers when it wants to hit the Botswana government. It also claims that reversing the forcible settlement of the Bushmen justifies the tactics.

"The people that have been most damaged are the Bushmen," says Stephen Corry, director of Survival International. "I'm not too worried about whether De Beers is damaged as well."

He insists that diamonds lie behind the evictions. "We think it is because there is an acknowledged diamond find in the central Kalahari. It has been test-drilled by De Beers and we say that the root cause of the evictions is the diamonds."

The Botswana government tells a different story. Its Web site says, "There has never been any forceful relocation of Basarwa from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). There is no mining nor any plans for future mining anywhere inside the CKGR."

For its part, De Beers says it cannot dictate social policy to a democratically elected government although it has been trying to alert the Botswana government to the sensitivity of this issue.