Tensions continue to simmer

Botswana has defended the practice of caning people, including illegal immigrants, convicted of petty offences, despite protests from neighbouring Zimbabwe over the "primitive" punishment handed out to some of its citizens. Tension between the two countries has been simmering in recent years as increasing numbers of Zimbabweans enter Botswana, both legally and illegally, in a bid to escape the economic crisis at home. On Monday Zimbabwe's official Herald newspaper quoted Junior Security Minister Nicholas Goche as saying: "The act of flogging law-breakers in public is primitive and unruly. We have even stopped flogging our children in schools here in Zimbabwe, and feel Botswana should move with the times." The practice of caning had to be "aborted", he said. Zimbabwean officials have previously objected to Botswana court decisions sentencing Zimbabwean immigrants to corporal punishment, but Botswana has reiterated that its laws are applied universally within its borders and are not targeted at Zimbabweans. Presidential spokesman Jeff Ramsay told IRIN that "flogging under certain circumstances is allowed and it would apply to anybody, it is not targeted to any one group of people". However, "certain categories of people, such as the youth, women, the elderly ... are excluded" from the sentencing option of corporal punishment. There were "two parallel legal systems" in Botswana, and "most of the floggings have been in the context of customary courts run by traditional authorities [deliberating] on minor cases", he explained. "In the original case that caused something of a stir, the people who had been caned happened to be Zimbabwean and admitted their guilt and opted for caning. Some of the Zimbabweans [familiar with Botswana's customs] ... frequently take the option of customary courts because they are quicker, and people don't want to go to jail for petty theft," Ramsay said.