‘Nine-year-old was not a poacher’

NAMIBIAN Lives Matters (NLM) movement has challenged the argument of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) that they are only killing suspected poachers by asking them how a nine-year-old boy they gunned down in 1998 could have been a poacher.

BDF allegedly killed a nine-year-old boy only identified as Tuwayape, in the Lizauli area of Zambezi region.

This was noted in a submission handed over by NLM regional coordinator, Charles Siyauya to the national council standing committee on home affairs, security, constitutional and legal affairs (HASCLA) on Monday.

HASCLA has started two-week public engagements with community members living along the Chobe and Kwando rivers in Zambezi region to assess the security situation in those areas.

Siyauya noted that from 1980 to 2021 the BDF claimed about 37 lives, including that of Tuwayape.

“The question is: when is this going to be enough? We have names and we demand justice, as well as compensation for the families of the victims from the Botswana government,” he said.

Siyauya added that they demand the Botswana government to arrest and prosecute the BDF soldiers responsible for killing Namibians, as well as an end to the shoot-to-kill policy they have adopted.

“We expect Botswana to recognise Namibia as a sovereign state and Zambezi region as part of Namibia, and not just an appendix finger of Botswana. We also want our land back, including Situnga and Mbala Island, which were taken during the signing of the 2018 border treaty,” he said.

As for the Namibian government, Siyauya noted that they want to feel at home, and be listened to, adding that they are Namibians too, therefore, president Hage Geingob should stop treating them like aliens.

Another concerned resident of Zambezi region, Boniface Limbore, recalled how the two bullets fired by a professional sniper from the BDF ended the life of Tuwayape, while in a canoe, saying nine other bullets hit the canoe.

Another pupil, Dias Masuku Sasa, was gunned down by the BDF while fishing in October the same year.

“Namibians’ blood is being shed and the BDF goes unpunished. The Namibian government is not doing much. In fact, if it were not for the mass demonstration countrywide after the killing of the Nchindo brothers and their cousin Munyeme, we would not be here today having these consultations,” he said.

Limbore said that on 9 February 1990 five southern African countries bordering Namibia resolved to respect the set colonial boundaries, but it seems Botswana does not have any respect for such boundaries, especially in Zambezi region pertaining to the Chobe, Linyanti and Kwando river borders.

The secretary general of Caprivi Concerned Group, Edwin Samati, in his submission called on the Namibian government to withdraw from the 2018 border treaty signed with Botswana, as it is not in line with the Namibian Constitution.

“The treaty is outside the law, and should not be protected by the Constitution. The treaty has resulted in islands and communal areas being taken over by Botswana. The residents’ right to own property were violated because their property was taken from them. This was done without consulting or compensating the affected communities,” he said.