15 Aug 2016

Botswana Police Service (BPS) has dismissed as baseless allegations by Survival International (SI) that “Botswana: Helicopter crashes after shooting at Bushmen” in a statement dated August 11. 

A media statement from the BPS states that allegations that people were shot at from a police helicopter is without any foundation.

“There has in fact never been any occasion in which Botswana Police have ever shot at people from a helicopter either in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) or for that matter anywhere else,” reads the statement.

It further states that the police dismiss as baseless the SI’s allegations that nine Bushmen were stripped and beaten while in police custody. “Further to the above, we find it most unfortunate that the authors of the statement have sought to use an unfortunate incident of the recent helicopter crash in the CKGR to advance their false and malicious propaganda,” says the police statement.

The police have reassured the public both in Botswana and elsewhere that the BPS is a professional law enforcement agency of repute that upholds fundamental human rights. ENDS