Botswana Government has at long last written to the United Nations Special Rapporteur for extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions promising that they will be submitting a detailed and comprehensive response on the matters surrounding alleged attempts on the life of former president Ian Khama.
The former president had reported Botswana Government to the office alleging several incidents of attempted assassination against himself.
Sunday Standard broke the story, chief of which of which were concerns expressed by the Special Rapporteur that Botswana Government was not cooperating.
On 13th July, 2021 following a Sunday Standard article the Botswana Government wrote to the United Nations. The government said they had only seen communications from the Special Rapporteur only two days earlier.
The letter from the special Rapporteur was dated 26 March 2021.
According to the special Rapporteur it had been close to three months waiting for a response from Botswana Government. But none was forthcoming.
Following the Sunday Standard article, the Ministry of International Affairs and Cooperation issued a rebuttal saying they were registering a concern with the article “which appears to draw content from a letter dated 26th March 2021, circulating on social media platforms reportedly originating from the office of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or arbitrary Executions….”
The Ministry said among other things that president Khama had not reported his allegations to the police, which a timeline of events has shown to be patently untrue.
The ministry says all insinuations in the article to the effect that Botswana Government has not cooperated with the Special Rapporteur on the alleged issue, are “completely inaccurate.”
“Contrary to this misleading narrative, Botswana is cooperating with the Special Rapporteur.”
The Ministry further said Sunday Standard reports were “false and scandalous.”
They expressed a commitment to fully cooperate with the United Nations mandate holders on the basis of good faith and openness. But did not give a timeframe.
The Special Rapporteur had kept the contents of the letter confidential for 60 days prior to publishing it online.
Sizing on the latest developments, the office of former president Ian Khama ha issued a long communication questioning the seriousness of Botswana government to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur.
Urgent Appeal letters from the UNSR are sent to Government representatives in Geneva, Switzerland, where Botswana’s embassy is a ten-minute walk from the main United Nations building. Governments have embassies in Geneva precisely to ensure effective and efficient communications with the United Nations.”
Former president office says it beggars belief that Government of Botswana did not receive the UNSR’s letter until 12 July 2021.
“In the event that this is true, it suggests the Government is incapable of maintaining proper channels of communication with the United Nations. One would have to ask why such diplomatic basics are beyond Government, and what else might be going missing in the post, misfiled or ignored upon receipt.”
The office says the alternative is that Government received the letter from the UNSR almost four months back and chose to deliberately do nothing about it and is now “lying to deflect from its inaction and what is this reveals about the values and priorities of this government.”
The Khama office says the former president has on two different occasions reported the matter to the police.
“And nothing happened.”
