Three officers from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) are still detained in Zimbabwe after they crossed into the country by mistake last week.

The armed Botswana officers, travelling in a government vehicle, were tracking lions that had killed two cows in Lesoma village along the border between the two countries. The Botswana High Commissioner in Zimbabwe, Gladys Kokorwe said yesterday that the matter has been reported to her office and that the officers were supposed to appear in court for mention yesterday afternoon.

She was not sure whether they appeared in court because of poor communications between her office in Harare and the police station that detained the three in Victoria Falls.

Kokorwe said that she will send an officer to the town today to get more information.The two towns are over 800 kilometers apart and the officer will have to fly to Victoria Falls, as it would take more days by road, the High Commissioner said. 

She stated that they plan to engage a defence lawyer to represent the officers.President Ian Khama is not aware of the detention as he just resumed duty yesterday after a long holiday, his spokesman Sipho Madisa said.

The detention of the three officers follows another incident mid last year when several Batswana women and children were detained in Zimbabwe for entering the country illegally.

The group was collecting thatching grass when they found themselves in a foreign land.The borderline between the two countries is difficult to identify because there is no fence or markings.  In 2006, former Botswana Television reporter Beauty Mokoba and a cameraman were arrested in Zimbabwe on charges of illegally entering the country. The two were fined and released after a day in police custody.

By Mmegi Online