Gabarone - Families of at least 20 convicts executed under the death penalty by the Botswana government have written to President Lieutenant-General Seretse Khama Ian Khama requesting access to their graves.
The letter written on behalf of the families by the Botswana Institute for the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Offenders (BIRRO) on May 31, is the first test case for the Botswana Prisons Act.
The Act prohibits all persons except the minister of Justice, Defence and Security and those authorised by him from accessing the graves.
The Act says the execution of the convicts is a high security process.
The Act prohibits visits until the convicts are executed and buried in special graves within the main prison complex in Gaborone.
This inadvertently keeps the family in the dark about the fate of death row inmates.
In the letter, copied to the Attorney-General and the Commissioner of Prisons, BIRRO appealed to President Khama to use his powers to allow the families to visit the graves of their executed relatives.
“As BIRRO, we will feel more blessed if His Excellency the President can use his powers to arrange for those who lost their loved ones through the death penalty to be allowed to see the graves of their sons, daughters, fathers, mothers among others,” read part of the BIRRO letter.
“We believe that this will be an important initiative as we look forward to Botswana’s golden jubilee (50th Independence Anniversary).
“It will be a greater move forward for both the government and the victims and it will also assure them that their beloved ones are indeed in their rightful place of rest. In this way they will give up and help in building and taking Botswana a step forward.”
BIRRO said accessing the graves would help the families to come to terms and make peace with the heartbreaks associated with the secretive execution and burial process of condemned prisoners.
The secretive administration of the execution, the burial and denial of access to the graves by family members has in the past been condemned as “inhuman and degrading” by the International Federation for Human Rights.
In Botswana, the families, lawyers and friends of death row prisoners are not officially informed of the dates of execution and burials.
They have to rely on public announcements which routinely come through print and electronic media outlets.
Even after the execution, the Prisons Act does not allow family members to visit the graves to pay their last respects.
– African News Agency