But what does it really means to be in custody for a starry-eyed 10-year-old who is scared beyond his wits by a towering big-bellied bellowing police officer with a mighty stick? Many of the children have said that police simply pounced on them. There is the story of the little Thamaga girl that the police snatched as she walked home from the wake of a dead schoolmate; then are the Molepolole children, many of whom have said the police swooped on them as they walked home from school; there is the Ramotswa case where a councillor had to enlist the services of a lawyer to get the children their freedom from the police. Now we have the rather impertinent Mochudi police who snatched children from their home environments. Children's Act (CAP 81 (1) - 82 (4) stipulates that a child under the age of 14 years shall not be presumed to have the capacity to commit a criminal offence unless it can be proved that at the time of committing the offence the child had capacity to know that he or she ought not to do so. The Act further exhorts police officers to engage social workers when dealing with children. Thus the law appreciates that a "reasonable person" standard cannot be applied in the case of children that young.
The ongoing detentions of children are a bellwether on the status of children's rights in Botswana. Even worse it is an indicator of just how far Botswana is sliding away from adherence to the law and the long held ideal of botho into a police state. The arrests attests to the condescending attitude of the police: For in exerting their authority over grade-school children without the knowledge or consent of custodial adults or that of the social workers the police show the lack of respect for the law and the custodians of the children. What sort of questions do they ask the children? If the police believe that the "reasonable person" standard should apply to the children, do they read them their rights? Do they advise them that they have a right to an attorney? We ask these questions to show just how ridiculous it is to arrest and detain children in the first place. A 10-year-old would have no inkling what the blithering officer wants when he stiffly spells out her rights. All she would know is that she wants to go home to her "daddy" or "mommy". Having said that, there is no debate about the fact that the children's rights have been violated. We hope that the police and those authorities responsible for detaining these children will realise their folly and immediately release the children and refrain from such further treatment of the children. Thus we urge that all children in police custody should be freed. There is a proper legal process for dealing with child offenders in Botswana. Unless indeed the police no longer see the Constitution of this country as worth paying attention to. We warn government to release the children for you cannot negotiate with a lioness whose cubs you have taken. We call upon all rights organisations, Members of Parliament (MPs), the Ombudsman and embassies in this country to join us in condemning this action by the police. There is no question the police's treatment of the children will scar them for life. Botswana is not a police state. It is not a military state and we should not allow it to slide into one.
