Peaceful Societies

Many citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) believe that having sex with a Mbuti woman can cure a backache, or intercourse with a young Mbuti virgin can heal diseases. These superstitions prompt Congolese men to rape the pygmy women in the Goma area, where many have resettled due to the violence they have endured in their traditional homes to the north, in the Ituri Forest.

The Mbuti, however, are speaking up for their own rights. Joseph Itongwa Mukumo, coordinator of the Program for the Integration of the Pygmy People in North Kivu (PIDP), points out that the very term “pygmy” is itself derogatory. He was quoted by a reporter last week as saying that about 23,000 pygmies currently live in the province of North Kivu, not including Mbuti who may subsist in more inaccessible areas and conflict regions.

Mr. Mukumo added that “many consider pygmies to be backwards, just having come out of the forest. The integration of pygmies as an equal population group remains a great challenge, as they face discrimination and rejection due to their cultural and social difference[s].”

A Mbuti woman, who didn’t want her name to be used, emphasized the discrimination she often feels. “When I pass by people, they hold their noses claiming I stink. It’s so hurtful.” This woman, who lives in the village of Rusayo, outside Goma, dislikes the prejudice that many Congo people feel toward the Mbuti. Because they are physically distinct from the rest of the citizens of their country—they have very short statures—they are subject to constant discrimination.

Justin Shamutwa Masumbuko, who coordinates an NGO that promotes the protection of pygmy rights in the DRC, similarly denounces the prejudice that he and other Mbuti experience. He claims that not only are their wives and daughters frequently raped, but rebel groups, guards in the nearby Virunga National Park, and ordinary citizens commit various crimes against them. People frequently violate their property rights, he says.

He condemns the government of the DRC for having no policies to help the pygmy people effectively integrate. “There is no pygmy in Parliament, nor [do] any hold an important position in government,” Masumbuko adds.

Mukumo says that because they are human beings, the Mbuti should have the same equal rights as everyone else. He cites the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the basis of that assertion. He adds that they intend to “continue to denounce all types of discriminations against pygmies and fight for their rights, especially the right to equal treatment as Congolese citizens.”

The Ju/’hoansi are a good example of a peaceful society that has problems with neighbors, but the ones in Namibia have legal ways of dealing with invaders who settle on their lands.

A news story last week in the Namibian paper the New Era, written from the point of view of the invaders, indicates that a previous chief of the Hai-khom San gave groups of invaders permission to settle near Tsumkwe, a town that has developed in the heart of the traditional Ju/’hoansi territory. Those newcomers have built homes and have been living there ever since 1987, long before the most recent invasion of Herero from Gam. Their residence thus predates the ascension of the current Ju/’hoansi chief, Tsamkxao, who took office in 2000. The current chief has been demanding that the settlers must leave, and the laws of Namibia appear to back him up.

Juda Nganjone, the spokesperson for the settlers, told the press that they originally came from Ovamboland, Gam, the Kavango Region, and other areas of Namibia. They own nearly a thousand sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and donkeys. They do not know where they will go if the Ju/’hoansi are successful in forcing them to leave. Some of the younger people were born near Tsumkwe.

Nganjone named various officials that they have approached, but none of them were very responsive. One official, Rukoro Masheshe, the Tsumkwe Constituency Councilor, responded that they must leave. He told them, according to Nganjone, that their “animals must not come to town [Tsumkwe].”

The settlers claimed that they had approached the Governor of the Otiozondjupa region, Rapama Kamehoze, but he brushed them off. They claimed, to the paper at least, that the governor had brought the invaders from Gam in 2009, since he was looking for a place to settle them. That bit of information, of the governor’s complicity in the invasion, was not reported in the earlier news stories. It is possible that the New Era reporter did not read the news reports about the 2009 affair.

The 2009 invasion of herders from Gam, south of the Ju/’hoansi-managed Nyae Nyae Conservancy, posed threats to their territory. The Ju/’hoansi fought—peacefully—to resist the invaders and have them expelled. The Herero farmers who cut the fences and brought in their cattle could have exposed the entire beef industry of Namibia to a worldwide boycott due to the threat of foot and mouth disease, which may be present among the wild ungulates in the Conservancy.

After a lot of disputes, the involvement of various government officials, and much posturing, the case appeared to be closed in April 2011 when a final settlement was reached in a Namibian courtroom. It was not clear when the Herero would be required to move out of the Conservancy.

The news report last week indicates that the traditional chief of the Ju/’hoansi, Tsamkxao=Oma, has demanded that all of the non-Ju/’hoansi settlers in the Tsumkwe area must leave with their herds. Earlier news reports gave his name as Bobo Tsamkxao or just as Chief Bobo.

The Ju/’hoan chief sent a letter to 22 settlers, including Nganjone, the spokesperson, informing them that the Conservancy would take legal action against them if they don’t leave. “I want to notify you that as Chief Tsamkxao =Oma, empowered by the Communal Land Reform Act 2002 and the Traditional Authorities Act 2000, I have not given authority for the grazing of livestock, building of any structures or to settling on the Nyae Nyae communal lands other than by Nyae Nyae community members,” he wrote.

Nganjone has continued to seek audiences with Namibian government officials, but without any successes.

Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee has just been celebrated on the remote island of Tristan da Cunha by 262 British subjects, who are among the world’s most enthusiastic supporters of the English monarchy. The quiet, judicious style of the Queen has endeared her to her subjects, including those on Tristan. The celebrations commemorating her 60 years on the British throne have captured news headlines worldwide, including those of the South Atlantic UK territories of Tristan, St. Helena, and Ascension Island.

On Tristan, Chief Islander Ian Lavarello lit a beacon on Monday this week. The framework for the beacon was built out of limbs from non-native trees ripped off by a gale in May. The rest of the beacon consisted of debris from invasive species that the Tristanians have been clearing as part of an effort to restore the indigenous flora of the island. New Zealand flax, loganberry, and other invasives were cut and their woody remains piled up for the bonfire. The islanders did not use any of Tristan’s only native shrub, called the Island Tree (Phylica arborea).

The islanders felt that this burning, a practical way of helping restore the native plant habitat, would be a good way to symbolize the Queen’s jubilee. Mr. Lavarello commented about the construction of the beacon that “living in such a remote place we never waste anything, so this seemed a very good way to let us be part of the world-wide lighting of the beacons and protect the very special environment of Tristan da Cunha.”

The Tristanians erected their beacon on the lava flow at a spot where it would be easily visible from the Settlement. The solidified lava where they built the beacon came from a volcanic cone that erupted near the Settlement in 1961. The eruption that year forced the British authorities to evacuate the islanders to England for over a year.

According to Peter Munch’s book Crisis in Utopia, the Tristanians had to learn to negotiate with colonial officials in London in 1962, during their exile, to pressure the government to let them return to their beloved island. Their incredible unity—they voted 148 to 5 to reject the comforts of UK life in order to go back to their familiar, peaceful community in the South Atlantic—evidently impressed the officials so much that they stopped trying to block them from returning.

The islanders have continued to be fiercely loyal to England and to the Crown ever since. Mr. Lavarello commented, “we are thrilled and we’re honoured that we can celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of our Queen here on our home, the most remote inhabited island on Earth.”

The Tristan da Cunha Association has opened a page on its website devoted to the Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Tristan on June 4th, complete with many photos. The plans for the celebration included a Service of Thanksgiving at one of the churches, a flag parade, a 21 gun salute, presentations of Diamond Jubilee medals to members of the Tristan da Cunha Emergency Services, a jubilee dance in the Prince Philip Hall, and, at 10 pm on Monday night, the lighting of the Jubilee Bonfire. However, a Tristan man was accidentally caught by a wave on a beach and washed out to sea on Saturday. The Islanders held their church service Monday morning and lit the Jubilee Beacon Monday night, but they postponed the other activities.

The website has many photos of the erection of the bonfire beacon on the island and the church service. The web page also includes some interesting historical information about the connections of the Tristanians to the English monarchy. While no reigning monarchs have ever visited, the second son of Queen Victoria, Prince Alfred, then the Duke of Edinburgh, visited on August 4, 1857. The Settlement was named “ Edinburgh of the Seven Seas” in his honor.

The current Duke of Edinburgh, HRH Prince Philip, also visited on January 17, 1957. He laid a cornerstone at Prince Philip Hall in the Settlement. He also attended, as guest of honor, the Tristan da Cunha Quincentenary dinner at the Royal Geographical Society in England on November 3, 2006. Thus, with the celebrations this week, the Tristanians continue to treasure and reinforce their strong connections with the mother country.

A news story last October revealed that a Dariusleut Hutterite colony near Lewistown, Montana, had agreed to be filmed by the National Geographic Channel. The resulting weekly television series “American Colony: Meet the Hutterites” just had its debut on Tuesday evening, May 29th.

The location of the filming, not revealed when plans were being made, turned out to be at the King colony, located nearly ten miles west of Lewistown. To judge by the Associated Press review of the first installment, the series appears to be quite sensitively produced.

The focus of the series is on Bertha Hofer, a 52 year old widow and mother of three children who is seeking to balance her religious beliefs with the realities of life that her youngsters must face. David Lyle, the CEO of the channel, said that “when you look at Bertha, she’s a very good, committed member of this community, and she’s struggling to be one of the best parents I’ve seen on TV.”

Jeff Collins, producer of the show, says that one of the primary struggles of young people in the colony concerns access to modern technology. They see adults using farming equipment that their ancestors did not have—so why can’t they have things like iPads? Colony homes have cell phones and computers but the children are restricted from using them.

The show lets viewers see what goes on in the colony. Members are shown drinking alcohol, and they are heard to use curse words. But they also wear modest, conservative clothing. They have a lively sense of humor and do a lot of teasing, according to the newspaper article.

The program was developed by Trever James, a young filmmaker who grew up near the colony and had close connections with its members. The King Colony agreed to the filming when they learned that National Geographic would be responsible for it. Mr. Collins said that one of the selling points of the project to the Hutterites was the assurance that there would be no feeding of lines to participants to exaggerate dramatic events. It would be a very real type of reality TV.

According to Collins, “David [Lyle] and I said, ‘Let’s not ruin anyone’s life here. They’re interesting enough.” Mr. Lyle said that he and Collins both found that the world of the Hutterites—their emotions and challenges—relates to the lives of the rest of us. It is not clear how the members of the King Colony have reacted to the initial segments, which were planned for 10 installments. A spokesman for the colony had no comments.

Mr. Collins told a Montana reporter that while Hutterites are doubtless familiar figures in the streets of their towns, local Montana people had probably not been inside the colonies. He was most impressed by the technology that the Hutterites avoid. “These people really do live a lifestyle that is a throwback to 150 years ago,” he said. “It was a bit of something to get used to for somebody like me, who is from Los Angeles.”

When the officials visited the King Colony, they showed the Hutterites a National Geographic magazine issue from 40 years ago that had carried a feature about them. The National Geographic Channel has a website for the series which includes an episode guide, photos, an introduction to the cast, and short video segments from the series.

Since the Piaroa settled into permanent communities and stopped shifting their garden plots from one tract to another, the farms they established have tended to degrade the land and deplete the forests. The people in the village of Gavilán, Amazonas State, Venezuela, are working to improve the situation.

The Small Grants Programme (SGP) of the Global Environment Facility, which is the world’s largest international source of support for environmental programs, is hoping to change the gardening practices in Gavilán. The new project the agency is supporting in the community should help preserve natural forest resources and enhance food security for the Piaroa.

Goals for the project have been to prevent forest fragmentation, minimize soil erosion and sedimentation, preserve river banks, support the use of indigenous crops, retain traditional land use practices, and help recover degraded lands.

During the first year of the project, 2011-2012, according to a news release last week, the agency supported the work of 15 families in the village, 128 people, who built and maintained patches devoted to agroforestry and started plant nurseries. The people of Gavilán introduced sustainable management practices on about 12 ha. of land, soil which they protected from harsher farming methods. The community matched the U.S.$46,620 which the agency provided with $60,000 of their own in cash and gifts in kind.

The plant nurseries will be able to produce up to 2,000 plants from 13 different species native to the Orinoco basin forests. The Piaroa farmers set out about 4,000 plants per hectare, including annual, biennial, semi-perennial, and perennial varieties of crops.

The aim of the project is to diversify and increase productivity in the gardening plots used by the Piaroa farmers. During the first year, village farmers grew between 2,000 and 5,000 kg/ha of their primary food crops: roots and tubers such as yucca, sweet potatoes, mapuey, and acumo. The crop yields have not only satisfied village food needs but they have provided enough surplus to sell in the markets of Puerto Ayacucho, the state capital.

Previous food production was much less productive—not nearly enough to satisfy the needs of the village, much less allow extra for sale. The increased supply of food, the SGP hopes, should help protect the remaining forests from being cut to open up still more land for cropping.

The people of Gavilán have participated enthusiastically in the project. People from neighboring communities—Sardi, San Pablo, and San Pedro de Cataniapo—participated in the project in Gavilán and are requesting comparable support to replicate the work in their own villages.

The goal of raising Inuit children who are able to speak their native Inuktitut has just been undercut by the government of Nunavut, which has deleted funding for a preschool language immersion program in Iqaluit, the territorial capital. Despite comments by government representatives, it is not completely clear from a news report last week exactly what happened.

A free, half-day, preschool daycare program, called Aaralaat Ugariuqsajut, “language nest,” has been teaching Inuktitut for six years out of a donated school space. Funding by the territorial government’s Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth (CLEY) has paid for staff salaries. The agency just discovered, supposedly, that their regulations do not permit them to fund staffing salaries.

Mialia Lyta, the administrator of the agency, indicated to the preschool in a letter dated May 4th that it “cannot fund personal salaries according to our grants and contribution policy.” Leslie Payette, president of the non-profit language preschool, said the applications had been approved each previous year without any questions. The agency must have been aware of what the funds were supposed to cover.

Payette told the press that the normal cutoff date for funding requests is in March, so the school will have to layoff three staff members and close the program for 32 children. She said that the closing of the school will put a heavier demand on other daycare facilities in Iqaluit.

She also pointed out that the department has, as recently as its 2010-2011 annual report, been promoting the work of the preschool. “This pre-school Inuktitut immersion program fosters language and culture and builds strong foundations in participants’ first language,” it said. The report added, “This success of bilingualism in Nunavut is dependent on the young population and this program is undeniably a step in the right direction.”

Ms. Payette had her own terse summary of the situation. “With all due respect, I find it truly hypocritical.” She added that the program has been helping develop children’s literacy and comprehension of Inuktitut, which affects later literacy rates and graduation successes.

An intriguing feature of the story is that the granddaughter of Eva Aariak, the Premier of Nunavut, who also serves as Education Minister, attended Aaralaat Ugariuqsajut last year. Payette says that she sees the Premier as a leader who is committed to early childhood education. “I kind of would like the government to put their money where their mouth is,” she said.

Emily Woods, the press secretary to the Premier, said the government will be looking into the matter. “Early childhood education and language are a priority for the Premier,” she said. “The deputy minister of CLEY has committed to review this specific case, and we look to have more information shortly.”

Nearly ten months ago, a surprise landslide buried three homes in the Semai community of Sungai Ruil, killing seven people. The government of Malaysia reacted with compassion and promptness, but questions remain about the causes of the tragedy. The landslide occurred during the evening of August 7, 2011 just a few km. above the major resort town of Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. It was widely reported in the news.

Two months later, on October 8, 2011, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Seri Najib Tun Razak, announced in his 2012 budget speech to parliament that “to ensure the safety of those affected [by the landslide], the government allocates RM 20 million [US$6,376,000] for relocation to new housing areas.”

Shortly after the landslide, authorities had quickly blamed unusually heavy rains for causing the steep hillside above the village to suddenly sweep down into the town. The tragedy was a natural disaster, most sources said. But a video posted on the Web last week suggests that that may not have been the case.

The video, “Deadly Landslide at Sungai Ruil Cameron Highlands: God Made or Man Made,” makes the argument that a large construction project on the hillside may, in fact, have been the primary cause of the landslide. The four and a half minute video opens with footage of the disaster scene of August 7, 2011. The narrator says that the MP for the Cameron Highlands, who was on the scene, quickly pronounced it to be a natural disaster. It was the first time an accident of that magnitude had hit the village.

Viewers are then treated to scenes of dramatic earthworks across the skyline above the community. Captions tell us that it is the construction of a massive township project. The distance from the project to the landslide is less than 70 metres, the video claims, as the camera moves along in a vehicle next to the earthworks.

Those claims are nothing new. A reporter for the independent news portal Free Malaysia Today on August 9 last year interviewed a local policeman who said, in contrast to statements in other press accounts, that it was not, in fact, raining that fateful Sunday night when the hillside gave way. He pointed toward the construction project and suggested that the blame was on the developer. That reporter interviewed others who said the same things.

A European photographer, Angelique Gross, who is spending six months traveling around Southeast Asia, reported on her photography blog about visiting Sungai Ruil on January 23, 2012. Along with many quite charming photos of the community, including some wonderful shots of cute Semai kids, Gross wrote about her visit.

She describes the village as having 45 houses. With its 1,300 residents, it is the oldest Orang Asli community in the Cameron Highlands. She describes taking a long walk up out of Tanah Rata to the village and feeling quite welcome in the community, particularly since she included a local guide to help her along. The people “were happy to let me take their portrait[s],” she writes, though some of the children were quite shy of her at first.

She indicates that the villagers were determined to not leave their community. It is where they have lived for a long time. Because of the long walk up from Tanah Rata, she writes, few tourists visit the village. But that may change. A new resort is under construction “right next to the village.”

Ms. Gross worries that, although resorts and tourism in the Cameron Highlands undergird the local economy, all that tourism may adversely affect the village. At least as of now, the people give visitors a warm welcome. She does not comment about the landslide last August, or whether it may have been the construction of the resort that prompted the tragedy.

The Paliyans are a “relatively non-violent peace loving innocent” tribe that once lived in the interior forests of western Tamil Nadu state, in southern India, according to a new blog about the people. Mr. A. Muthuvezhappan, the author of the blog, writes that they used to be a nomadic hunting and gathering people who subsisted in the interior forests on the eastern side of the Western Ghats mountain range before they settled into stable villages near the plains people.

Back in February, Muthuvezhappan posted his first entry about the people he refers to as Paliyar, which is the plural form in the Tamil language of the singular noun Paliyan. Last week he posted a photo of himself. He indicates in the credits at the bottom of the February post that he is the Deputy Director of an Indian Government agency, the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Institute (MSME-DI), located in the Tamil Nadu state capital, Chennai.

Much of the information he provided in his February 20 post is quite interesting. What he writes parallels the descriptions provided by the anthropologist Thomas Gardner in his many writings about the Paliyan, but Muthuvezhappan provides some new and useful details.

He writes that the Paliyan did not wear any clothing until the early 1950s when they began to leave the forests and come in contact with the peoples of the plains, the Tamils. The men formerly wore their dottis before giving them to the women to use for dresses.

The Paliyans used to perform poojas, the Hindu worship services, quite openly, but the Hindus of the plains put a stop to that. However, the Paliyans defy them and continue to go into the forests with their families to offer their own poojas.

They still worship forest deities, particularly the goddesses Vanadevadai and Ananthavalli. Muthuvezhappan indicates that they often go with their families into remote spots in the forests to offer prayers to Vanadevadai and to worship a god named Karuppan. They believe that these deities will help protect them.

The Paliyan marriage customs have changed since the people settled into communities at the edges of the hills. The bride used to wear what the author calls a Tharanippu garland at the marriage feast “as a token of love and affection and a symbol of marriage,” but that custom has mostly died out. The men continue to marry the daughters of their maternal uncles in simple ceremonies right within their own communities—they rarely search for marriage partners in other Paliyan villages. “Their life style is very simple and sacrosanct. They love to live with nature,” Muthuvezhappan writes.

The author decries the fact that the Paliyan lifestyle, traditional social system, and economy is virtually doomed. They no longer do much hunting, but they can still gather minor forest products to sell. The traders, to whom they sell their forest produce, may use unscrupulous business practices with them and they have little recourse. Some of the Paliyans owe money to the traders, who use the debts to dominate them and to pay them only the absolute minimums.

The situation is not entirely hopeless, however. Muthuvezhappan praises the work that an organization called RAMCO, in Rajapalayam, Tamil Nadu, is doing to help and protect the Paliyans as they adjust to more modern conditions. Along with MSME-DI, the two organizations have adopted the people and are working to create micro enterprises which will be based on the uses of minor forest products in a sustainable, eco-friendly fashion. Their objective, he writes, is to “save forest and save future.”

The leading project seems to be to create a diverse herbal garden in each community with the hope that the traditional Paliyan knowledge of herbs and their sustainable uses should protect the rich biodiversity in the long run. The two organizations will support training for the tribal people in scientific ways of collecting and using plant products. The Paliyans will also be trained in ways to produce forest products for sale.

The author describes other goals articulated by these groups. One is to create a Paliyan website, called Paliyar Tribal Empowerment, which has already been accomplished. That website gives information about the Paliyans and, more to the point, it describes the products that they sell: Paliyan honey, tamarind, mushrooms, and organically farmed fruits and vegetables. The website provides contact information.

Some of the profits from the projected small-scale enterprises will be invested in the futures of the young Paliyan, who can have funds either to support their educations or to establish their own businesses based on sustainable uses of forest resources. The project, he concludes, will continue to be run by the Paliyar Tribal Movement, and supported by RAMCO and MSME-DI, until it can be operated entirely by the Paliyan communities themselves.

This is the second blog to begin publication in early 2012 as a focus for efforts to support the Paliyan. The other was described in news sources back in February.

While most of the literature about Ladakhi peacefulness focuses on India’s Leh District, the primarily Buddhist portion of Ladakh, the Muslim district called Kargil after its principal town appears to have a culture that is just as nonviolent.

The two districts are populated with basically the same people who have many similar customs. They differ in that most of the inhabitants in the Kargil District, the northwestern part of Ladakh, converted to Shi’a Islam in the 16th century, while the southeastern portion closer to Tibet, the Leh District, remained primarily Buddhist.

Several worthwhile articles appeared in major Indian newspapers last week which focused on Kargil, the less famous district. One story described a new film festival being held in Kargil this coming weekend, May 19 and 20. The Awam ka Cinema, which allows free admission for viewers, will offer films in three categories: documentaries, short fiction, and animated shorts.

According to an entry on a Yahoo groups message board, the first Kargil Film Festival will follow the same goals of peace and brotherhood as the earlier Indian film festivals the organizers have held, starting in Ayodhya in 2006. The organizers write that they hope to inspire “social and cultural change” in their country.

“The main motive behind this initiative,” the message states, “has been to create a dialogue between people from different sections of society and country through the medium of art and cinema. This will open up a platform for people to express, share and understand each others’ joys and sorrows, situation[s] and condition[s] in life, a platform that will have infinite space for humanity. In an age and time when the pillars of democracy such as the parliament, legislature and even the media are ambitious about money rather than for the genuine issues of the people, the only hope for the people to develop cultural unity is through such efforts.”

Others consider the problems of Kargil in different ways. The Daily Pioneer, an English language paper, carried an article last week examining the effects of the Line of Control, the cease fire line partitioning India and Pakistan, on the divided peoples in Ladakh, especially Kargil. The division has caused constant conflicts between the two nations and a lot of internal strife among the local citizens.

The partition divided Kargil from the mostly Muslim peoples of northern Pakistan, which used to also be part of Ladakh. Skardu, the major town in what is known as Baltistan, is north northwest from Kargil, down the Indus River valley a distance of 173 km. Driving over the mountains by way of Srinagar and crossing into Pakistan, then northeast to Skardu, is a distance of 1,700 km. In essence, the same Ladakhi people are divided by the militaries of the two countries along the Line of Control.

The argument made by the author of the piece, Zainab Akhter, is that a restored road along the Indus River could become an important trade and tourism route, which would be open 12 months of the year. Adventure tourism, trekking, mountain biking, river rafting, and high altitude mountain skiing all could develop in the region if a good road were open and safe for travel.

Akhter writes that the Hill Development Council in Kargil strongly favors the concept of a Greater Ladakh, the historic approach to the region, which would include Kargil, Baltistan, Skardu, and even Gilgit, still farther to the northwest in Pakistan. Akhter, a research scholar with the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi, argues that opening up the border in the region might begin to pacify, if not to really solve, the Kashmir conflict.

A third article last week in The Hindu, one of India’s major papers, describes in more detail the history of the Kargil District, which was carved out from the Leh District in 1979. The author argues that the problems of the inhabitants do not receive much attention from the rest of India. The people are mostly farmers who keep livestock, the same as rural folks in the Leh District. But it is a poor region, with inadequate infrastructure.

A tunnel is under construction, which will transform the Srinagar-Kargil highway into a 12 month route across the Himalayas. The highway over the Zoji-La, a high pass over the Himalaya Range, is now closed during the winter due to heavy snow. Opening a better road into the district will permit the development of tourism, which has transformed the Leh District. Leh has an airport but Kargil does not. The high mountains, which suggest the possibility of snow sports, are barriers to any economic benefits from Kargil’s winter weather.

The very word “Kargil,” to many Indians, brings back bad memories of the Kargil War of 1999, according to a fourth newspaper article last week. During that war, the Pakistan Army advanced to a position in the mountains directly overlooking the town of Kargil. Their military forces were able to fire down onto Indian troops moving along the highway below. The author of that article interviewed a press photographer who had been assigned to get photos of the war to send to the Indian media back in 1999.

He took as many pictures as Indian army officers would allow, then hurried over the Zoji-La and into Srinagar to process and forward them to the Indian press. He expressed a sense of pride in his ability to record the events of the war, but he was very disturbed by the casualties. “I saw wounded Army personnel; some did not have hands, some had lost legs. It was a very, very sad sight,” the photographer reminisced.

While none of the four newspaper articles directly discuss the peacefulness of the Ladakhi people of Kargil, they all, in various ways, suggest the hope—the possibility—that peace can come to this less known section of Ladakh.

The Botswana police forces are once again harassing the San in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), despite the fact that they have the legal right to live there. The San societies in the CKGR include the peaceful G/wi.

Map of Metsiamenong Survival International reported last week that the Botswana police established a permanent camp close to the village of Metsiamenong, where they are arresting and intimidating the inhabitants. The dispute seems to be about hunting game animals. Police, paramilitary forces, and soldiers are in the CKGR, and so far they have arrested five people after they found evidence of meat in their homes. The San have the right to hunt inside the reserve, but the government hassles them by illegally refusing to issue hunting permits.

After many years of struggles, the San in 2006 won the right from the Botswana High Court to leave their resettlement camps, to which they had been forcibly moved, and return to their old homes in the CKGR. As a result of its loss in that court, the government sought to prevent the people from having any access to water. It closed previously usable bore holes and refused permission for people to drill new ones. Metsiamenong was in the news over that issue when one woman died as a result of the lack of water.

The San overcame that obstacle in 2011 when they prevailed in a law suit that forced the government to allow them to drill new wells for water. It appears as if the government may be trying still another strategy for keeping the people away from their traditional homelands.

One San person living in the CKGR told Survival, “since the arrests, the lives of the Bushman have changed significantly. The government has sent in armed forces to intimidate us, making our lives very difficult. We depend on the natural resources of the CKGR for our food. How are we expected to survive if we cannot hunt?” The individual might have mentioned that they have been sustainably hunting and gathering foods in the Kalahari for millennia, long before other peoples arrived and began trying to dominate them.

Stephen Corry, the Director of Survival, said, “we are extremely concerned by reports that Botswana’s security forces have set up a camp close to Metsiamenong. This is a clear attempt to intimidate and undermine the human rights the Bushmen battled to save. It will not succeed.”

Peaceful Societies

Peaceful Societies

Mbuti Cite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Illegal Settlers in Ju/’hoansi Territory

Tristan da Cunha Celebrates the Diamond Jubilee

Hutterites on the National Geographic Channel

Piaroa Agroforestry

Inuit Preschool for Language Training

Follow-up on the Semai Tragedy

Paliyans Cherish Traditions But Adapt to Modernity

A Peaceful Future for the Kargil District of Ladakh

Botswana Again Persecutes the San

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