Harare — NOW that the three Botswana rangers have been released from custody after a Hwange Magistrates' Court found them guilty of illegal entry into Zimbabwe and fined them US$100 each, it is necessary to examine whether or not the two countries reacted in a manner that promotes good relations.

Botswana sought to create a major diplomatic incident over the arrest of the three wildlife officers who claimed to have unintentionally strayed into Zimbabwe carrying firearms.

As would happen in any other country, they were arrested and investigations had to be carried out to establish their intentions.

Once arrested, the process of releasing them or continuing to detain them would have to involve the courts. But it could be speeded up at a diplomatic level if the two countries had communicated over the matter, without playing to the international gallery as Botswana sought to do.

Yesterday, Zimbabwe's Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi issued a statement denying that Zimbabwe had refused to co-operate over the release of the three rangers as claimed by his Botswana counterpart Phandu Skelemani.

His version of the story appears credible given that the two ministers actually met at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, reportedly without the Botswana minister raising the issue.

It really would have been improper for the matter to be handled at presidential level without first being attended to by the two foreign affairs ministers or their home affairs counterparts.

We doubt if the same public spate would have occurred had the rangers been from Zambia or Mozambique.

There is still a lot of suspicion and mistrust between Zimbabwe and Botswana, some of it of a security nature.

What all this shows is that there is work to be done to restore Zimbabwe-Botswana relations to their former status.

A lot has happened in the past decade, including the change of leadership in Botswana, the rise of opposition politics in Zimbabwe and increased interest and influence by Western powers in the region, which has strained relations between the two countries.

There has been an exchange of very undiplomatic communication between the two countries over the years.

But when an incident such as the one involving the rangers occurs, we begin to see that it pays for neighbours to maintain good relations and open communication lines.

We would not want to speculate on the intentions of the three rangers or whether or not it is possible that such trained men can stray into another country without noticing that they are no longer in their territory.

Given that Zimbabwean police officers have previously strayed into Botswana, one can give the Tswanas the benefit of the doubt on their claim that they did not know that they had crossed into Zimbabwe.

What is not disputed is that when the Zimbabwean police officers were arrested, they spent months in jail and were only released after the judicial process had been exhausted.

We therefore find it strange that Botswana would not want Zimbabwe to follow the same process when their officers err.

But both incidents could have been solved quickly and amicably had the two countries invested heavily in promoting their relations as was the case in the first two decades after Zimbabwe attained its independence.