HARARE The Zimbabwe government has returned a car and rifles seized from three Botswana rangers in January as part of moves to ease tensions between the two countries, a Tswana government official said last week, as the two countries met to discuss bilateral relations. (Pictured: B
The rangers were arrested last month when they strayed into Zimbabwe while tracking wildlife and spent weeks in jail before they were prosecuted for entering the country illegally, a move that escalated a diplomatic row and further strained ties that have cooled in recent years.
Botswanas acting permanent secretary for defence, justice and security Augustine Makgonatsotlhe last Tuesday said the vehicle and rifles were now in Botswana. The two countries, which were represented at the bilateral meeting by their respective defence, justice and home affairs ministers, defence forces commanders and police commissioners, also discussed the hosting by Botswana of a relay station of Voice of Americas Studio 7 channel.
President Robert Mugabes Zanu (PF) party says the relay station broadcasts hate propaganda against the former ruling party and has constantly asked Botswana to shut it down. Botswanas President Ian Khama Seretse Khama was the first regional leader to openly criticise Mugabe when the veteran leader lost elections to the Movement for Democratic Changes (MDC) Morgan Tsvangirai in 2008 and refused to recognise the ageing leader as president after he was re-elected in a violent run-off.
Makgonatsotlhe said the Zimbabwe delegation had agreed to reconsider the prohibited status of the rangers and immediately withdraw an appeal against the sentence imposed on the rangers.
Zimbabwe prosecutors had charged the rangers with possessing dangerous weapons, but a magistrate acquitted them on the charges which had prompted Botswana to threaten to withdraw two of its senior diplomats in Harare by month-end in protest.
The ministers felt obliged to clear the atmosphere and restore the relations between the two countries following the detention of three wildlife officers in Zimbabwe, Makgonatsotlhe said last week.
Zimbabwe took the opportunity to raise concerns particularly with the relay station of Voice of Americas Studio 7 in Botswana, he said. In 2008, at the height of the countrys political crisis, Zimbabwe approached the Southern African Development Community to protest what it then called the illegal training of MDC supporters by Botswana to remove Mugabes government.
Zimbabwe intelligence operatives went on to detain and torture dozens of MDC and civil society members, including human rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko on banditry and terrorism charges but the Supreme Court has since ruled that the activists could not be prosecuted because their constitutional rights were infringed.
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