The President of Botswana’s visit
to the Oxford Union on Friday 14 October was interrupted by 25 protesters from
Survival International, some of whom were Oxford Union members.As President Mogae, an Oxford graduate in
Economics, arrived at the Union buildings, he was greeted by protesters asking
"Why are you persecuting the Bushmen?" The question referred to
people of a tribe, commonly known by westerners as Bushmen, that have been
asked to leave their land by the government of Botswana.Aliya Nanji, an undergraduate at
St Anne’s College who attended the event said, "Halfway through [the
question and answer session], one girl asked about a shooting of Bushmen, then
took off her jumper, along with another girl, and they were wearing t-shirts
saying ’Botswana
police shoot Bushmen’. Then they were asked to leave." She added that
"six or seven people were wearing [the t-shirts] later".Nanji felt that "the
President sounded a little upset towards the end" and accused the
protesters of giving completely one-sided arguments.The organization the protesters
were representing, Survival International, has accused Botswana of
ethnic cleansing and continues to accuse the government of forcing the Bushmen
to leave their lands. Dr Jeff Ramsay, Press Secretary to President Mogae,
stated, “We are used to this, we are always asked about the Barsawa (the native
term for Bushmen). At LSE in 2003 we had a similar incident, and the last time
[the President] came to Oxford.”Dr Ramsay went on to add that
Survival International “is accusing us of forcing [the Barsawa] out”, but he
informed Cherwell that all but 17 of the Bushmen “agreed to compensation
packages and moved out”. Dr Ramsay explained that the shooting the t-shirts
referred to was a “sad incident where rubber bulletswere fired at people trying to
enter Kalahari [a closed off region in Botswana]. One bullet hit a personin the jaw, but he survived and
is fine.”Survival International issued a
press release taking responsibility for the protests and saying the protesters
were “bundled out of the Oxford Union by burly security guards”. Chris Farmer, President of the
Oxford Union, defended the removal of protesters that asked controversialquestions, saying, “In a high
profile event, the Union hands over security matters to Special Branch and the
police…unfortunately we did not have any control over it.” Witnesses of the event say
everything took place in an orderly fashion, and that after the talk was over
the protesters were handing out CDs and leaflets.One Union member said, “The Union
is supposed to be a bastion of free speech; if people aren’t allowed to express
their opinions in a peaceful manner, then what is the point of holding a
debate?”Farmer said the event "was
all very peaceful and calm, and was a real success.” He reasserted the Union’s stance on freedom of speech and freedom of
belief, saying, "Everybody’s allowed to think what they want to
think." He added that the President "specifically picked people that
had come from the group [to ask questions]", showing his own support for
freedom of speech.In an article in The Independent,
the director of Survival International said of the event, “I’ve been a
campaigner since 1972 across the world, including in places like Colombia, not
known for their human rights, and never been manhandled like that before.”Farmer asserted that security
footage would be examined before taking the matter further. President Mogae was the first of
two heads of state addressing Oxford students
this week, the President of the Czech
Republic, Vaclav Klaus
visited the European Affairs Society on Tuesday.ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005
Union speech protestors ousted by ‘burly’ officials
