By Laura Hirahara
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

GABORONE, Botswana- The Basarwa Bushmen who live in the Kalahari Game Reserve in central Botswana have been awarded the right to access existing water wells and drill new wells by an appeals court who called the government’s actions “degrading”.  This comes almost ten years after the government sealed wells in the Bushmen’s ancestral lands and barred them from digging new wells.  The Bushmen, who have been in a legal battle with Botswana’s government since 2002 when they were evicted from their land, see this ruling as a victory.  The government argued during the appeal process that allowing the Bushmen to use and create water wells in the reserve is incompatible with the preservation of Kalahari wildlife despite allowing vacation lodges to be built in the area and most recently awarding a three billion dollar mining contract to Gem Diamonds.  After this decision in late January, Jeff Ramsay, a coordinator for the Botswana Government Communications and Information System, said, “We are a nation that is governed by the rule of law and always have been. Of course we will respect the decision of the courts.”

Since the Botswanian government sealed the wells in the Kalahari, the population of Bushmen has declined.  Those that remained in the reserve have survived by rainwater and melons or making the long journey from their homes to taps and other water sources outside of the reserve.  Said Basarwa resident and advocate Amohelang Segotsane, “I am happy with the judgment but not completely happy. . .[the g]overnment was supposed to give us water without going through the legal process.”

For more information, please see;

BBC- Botswana Bushmen Win  Back Rights to Kalahari Water– 27 Jan., 2011

NY Times- Bushmen Win Water Rights– 27 Jan., 2011

AP- Botswana Court Gives Kalahari Bushmen Water Rights– 27 Jan., 2011

Impunity Watch– Botswana’s Bushmen Denied Access to Water– 24 Jan., 2011

By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

CAIRO, Egypt – On January 28, a week into Egypt’s ongoing protests, President Hosni Mubarak’s government ordered Internet service providers to sever all forms of communication, including Internet access, mobile networks and SMS. Though the Internet was restored as of last Wednesday, the blackout marked an unprecedented Internet milestone.

Egypt’s economy and society rely heavily on the Internet. A think-tank based in Paris, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, estimated that the Internet blackout cost Egypt’s economy about ninety million dollars.

More concerning, however, is the notion that a country as technologically advanced as Egypt was able to shut down all communications as quickly as it did. James Cowie, co-founder and chief technology officer of Renesys, an IT company in New Hampshire, told the Los Angeles Times, “Over a period of about 20 minutes, it’s as if each of the primary service providers started pulling the routes that lead to them. It wasn’t like a simultaneous withdrawal.

“There are private companies of varying sizes that own and operate their own infrastructure. But it seems they got a call so they turned it off,” Cowie said.

“What we are seeing in Egypt is a frightening example of how the power of technology can be abused,” said Timothy Karr, a campaign director for Free Press, an advocacy organization, said.

Such swift action brings to mind oppressive regimes such as that of North Korea, which forbids its citizens from accessing the Internet at all.

Even during the recent uprising in Tunisia, only specific services and websites were blocked.

And it seems that the United States aided with the shutdown. According to an article by Karr, a U.S. company based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Boeing-owned Narus, sold Telecom Egypt “real-time traffic intelligence” equipment, which may have been used by Mubarak’s regime to sever all communications. The equipment is more commonly known as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), technology that allows network managers to track content from users of the Internet and mobile phones.

Most disturbing about DPI technology, according to Karr, is that “[c]ommercial operators trafficking in Deep Packet Inspection technology to violation Internet users’ privacy is bad enough; in government hands, that same invasion of privacy can quickly lead to stark human rights violations.”

For more information, please see:

Arutz Sheva – Egypt’s Internet Crackdown ‘Had US Help’ – 6 February 2011

Information Week – Egypt Takes $90 Million Hit From Internet Blackout – 3 February 2011

Los Angeles Times – Egypt may have turned off the Internet one phone call at a time – 29 January 2011

Huffington Post – One U.S. Corporation’s Role in Egypt’s Brutal Crackdown – 28 January 2011

Telegraph – How Egypt shut down the internet – 28 January 2011