Namibian "poachers" killed

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Thursday August 9, 2012 00:00

 

The Botswana Defence Force (BDF) has confirmed shooting two suspected poachers who had crossed from Namibia into Botswana in a canoe.

Police in both countries are investigating the incident in which the Namibians were believed to be looking to kill elephants or rhinos without licences.  According to the army's Public Affairs Officer, Colonel Paul Sharp, the poachers were shot down along the Chobe River in the Ihaha area.

Sharp said it was the first incident in a long time in which lives were lost, adding that poachers were entering Botswana from all of the country's neighbours, prompting Botswana to take increasingly tough measures.

This has led to an anti-Botswana frenzy in Namibia, with newspapers there recently carrying stories accusing the BDF of killing Namibians 'in a brutal manner' never before seen in southern Africa, with a letter in one newspaper referring to Botswana as a dictatorship.  Sharp said he was aware of the reports on the shooting in Namibian media and confirmed that the latest incident was being investigated jointly by police from both countries.

'The police have the authority to take human remains and they have involved their Namibian counterparts,' he said. 'The bodies of the two suspects were taken to a mortuary in Kasane before they could be repatriated.'

Contacted for comment, the Namibian High Commissioner to Botswana, Hadino Hishongwa, responded curtly, saying he had never been informed of any shooting of Namibians in Botswana. The incident came at a time when the government of Botswana is in the process of repatriating Namibian refugees, some of whom have stayed in Botswana for nearly two decades.

The refugees were members of the Caprivi secessionist movement of the late 1990s whose leaders included Moses Walubita, a former Member of Parliament for the region.