Peaceful protests are expected to dog President Mogae of Botswana throughout his visit to Britain this week. The Botswana government has evicted hundreds of Gana and Gwi Bushmen from their ancestral land and dumped them in bleak resettlement camps, earning worldwide condemnation.

The process of repatriating Angolan refugees living in Botswana is to move forward with the signing of an agreement on the issue this week. Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos began a visit to Botswana on Tuesday, where "the relevant Botswanan and Angolan ministers will sign a repatriation agreement with UNHCR (the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees)", said UNHCR Botswana Representative Benny Otim. Officially, Otim told IRIN, about 850 Angolans classified as refugees are living in Botswana.

Botswana is the first country in Africa to implement widespread distribution of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs through its public health system under a programme aptly named 'Masa' ("new dawn"), a symbol of hope for those living with HIV/AIDS.

In its latest bid to suppress any discussion of the rights of indigenous peoples, the government of Botswana has banned Survival International's human rights education pack from the country's schools. The Gana and Gwi 'Bushmen' and their neighbours the Bakgalagadi were evicted from their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002, and forced to live in grim resettlement camps.

The success of Botswana's "radical" antiretroviral drug program has made the country a "test case" for AIDS treatment in sub-Saharan Africa, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Botswana, which has the world's highest HIV prevalence rate - 38.5% of people between the ages of 14 and 49 are estimated to be HIV-positive - began offering treatment last year.

We have just emerged from a month of mourning and burial of a number of young women whose lives were abruptly cut short at the hands of young men they had come to know intimately. The incidences of murder of young women by husbands, lovers, fiancees or other male liaisons have become quite a regular occurrence in Botswana today with the increase in population density, rapid and frequent interaction, and ease of movement.

Productive land in Botswana is shrinking daily, but a new project aims to arrest the degradation of rangelands and address the deep poverty facing communities that depend on them. Botswana is one of three African countries that will benefit from a US $13.4 million five-year programme aimed at helping rural communities restore local plant life, improve depleted soil and create new job opportunities. Kenya and Mali are the other two countries to benefit.

I read your article “Diamonds: Forever or For Good? The Economic Impact of Diamonds in Southern Africa” with interest. Whilst I agree with a lot of what Ralph Hazleton wrote, I fear that he has let Botswana off the hook a bit too much.

Ian Taylor, University of Botswana

Survival has recently been labelled a 'terrorist' organisation by a senior figure in Debswana, De Beers's Botswana subsidiary. In a BBC interview Dr Akolang Tombale, who is both permanent secretary in Botswana's Ministry of Mineral Resources and Water Affairs, and deputy Chairman of Debswana, accused Survival of being a 'terrorist organisation', and of doctoring the government's own mineral concession maps.

Maps from the Botswana Government's own Department of Geological Survey show a massive increase in diamonds exploration concessions on the ancestral land of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen and Bakgalagadi, just months after the government evicted them from the region.

In a move considered a breakthrough for a country with high levels of stigma and discrimination, Batswana using antiretroviral drugs have come forward to tell their stories in a series of educational videos released this week.

Kalahari Diamonds Limited, formed at the initiative of, and partly owned by, BHP Billiton, has secured US$2 million funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to explore for diamonds in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), Botswana. The IFC, part of the World Bank, approved the project on Thursday. This is according to a press release from Survival International, a worldwide organisation supporting tribal peoples. The CKGR is the ancestral land of the Gana and Gwi 'Bushmen' and Bakgalagadi. After a 15-year campaign of persecution, the last Bushmen were evicted from their homes in February 2002.

A Pan-African workshop focused on using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support the education systems in Africa will be held in Gaborone from 28 April to 2 May 2003. An estimated 250 participants will be participating.

Botswana, like the rest of southern Africa, is bracing itself for a drought and its impact on food security. Only four percent of available land for cultivation was ploughed this rainy season, the Minister of Finance Baledzi Gaolethe warned in his budget speech.

Former department of roads director Kebonyekgotla Kemokgatla's freedom bid failed after the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal against a four-year jail term on Monday. Kemokgatla was convicted on a charge of corrupt practices by a Gaborone magistrate's court and sentenced to a custodial sentence of four years, two and a half years of which were suspended on condition he was not convicted of a similar offence during the period.

Botswana plans to treble its distribution of condoms in a bid to curb the spread of AIDS in the country, which has one of the world's highest infection rates, the health minister said on Thursday. The aim of a new government drive is to hand out enough condoms so that most of the African country's 1.7 million people will not have to go more than a kilometer to get hold of one.

Thirteen 'Bushmen' who were being prosecuted for allegedly 'over-hunting' have had the case against them dropped after Botswana authorities refused to produce a witness to confirm their accusations. The men, from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, were tortured by wildlife officials and police when they were first arrested in August 2000.

The crucial case for the 'Bushmen' of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) has been referred to Botswana's High Court to be heard as 'a matter of urgency'. The court will consider the case brought by over 200 Bushmen and determine if they were deprived of their land by the Botswana government forcibly, wrongly or without their consent. At least 1500 Bushmen have been evicted from the CKGR in the last six years.

The Botswana Centre for Human Rights joined the international community in commemorating International Human Rights Day. The organisation Ditshwanelo and the Botswana Red Cross Society launched the Botswana HIV/Aids and Human Rights Charter 2002 in recognition of the day.

Two years into the five-year African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership, Botswana is learning what big money, free drugs and strong leadership can and cannot do to halt the epidemic. "We're making astounding progress, and it's astoundingly inadequate," said Ernest Darkoh, a physician and former management consultant for McKinsey & Co. who runs Botswana's antiretroviral program.