The suffering grass :: Mmegi Online

Going by the widely circulated news coverage from the recent United Nations human rights sessions in Geneva known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Botswana is inexorably sliding towards becoming yet another failed African State where political and personal freedoms are crushed and citizens live in abject fear of their government.

Shortly after the most recession review held towards the end of March in Geneva, popular South African media outlets, Newzroom Afrika and News24, ran strikingly similar reports on Botswana’s “backsliding civil and political rights” as well as “anti-democratic repression and a rising tide of political persecution and violence”.

A look beyond the headlines reveals that the primary source of both articles rather than being facts established or accepted by the United Nations, is actually presentations made by Omnia Strategy, a UK-based law firm that “specialises in dispute prevention and resolution around the globe,” according to its website.

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The suffering grass

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