IT seems possible that the existing laws addressing sorcery should be abolished and any deaths of alleged sorcerers should be treated as willful murder.
That may be the only way to bring an end to the appalling wave of killings sweeping the country.
We know there are many in our country that see sorcery as a form of religion and others who defend the killing of supposed sorcerers as part of the traditional customs and beliefs of the people.
Cannibalism was a traditional custom of some tribes in Papua New Guinea; it has long ago vanished from our communities.
We have written on this subject many times.
We’ve expressed the point of view that there are forms of sorcery that exists in our villages that are benign; in other words, they can assist people rather than supposedly bring about illness and death.
There is nothing in our traditional customs that could justify the tragic picture of the girl holding a baby in The National yesterday as she told policemen how a gang attacked and murdered her father on a flimsy allegation of sorcery.
Her father’s body is still hidden in the house and the youngster was trying to secretly bury her father when the police arrived.
How can we tolerate such atrocious killings in our midst?
How long will that girl and her two young brothers survive?
We are more than tired of hearing weak-kneed justifications for these criminal practices, justifications that seek to place a gloss of traditional respectability on practices that are sub-human.
If we want our nation to become part of the world beyond our shores, then this kind of behaviour is intolerable.
Who makes up the membership of these supposed death squads?
Our informants suggest that they are nothing more than shiftless youths led by one or two older warped personalities and their killing agendas are based simply on personal dislikes.
We have long suggested that many of these killings of alleged sorcerers are nothing more than a karamap for pre-meditated cold-blooded murders.
We further suggest that it is often impossible for our judges to determine whether the laws relating to sorcery are applicable in a particular case, or the laws more usually used to determine charges of willful murder.
There are few witnesses to these grisly rituals.
Who is courageous enough to stand up and give evidence when they can be almost certain that by doing so they will be next on the death squad list?
This is nothing but rule by terror, where many of our normally peaceful and law-abiding villages are being turned into charnel houses, while the rest of the community cowers in fear.
This situation cannot, must not be allowed to continue.
We want no more excuses, we want action.
We want an organised campaign by our police force to go into these villages, root out these death squads and offer some hope to what appears to be an increasing number of terrified citizens.
We want our Christian churches to show some of the bravery historically associated with their religion.
Where are the voices of the church in this situation? Where are the strong and courageous PNG Christians prepared to fight this battle?
We are aware of individual church figures who have fought strongly to try and defeat this sorcery epidemic – but they are far too few in number and the risks are huge.
Only a great united body of the whole Christian community in the affected areas of our country can hope to deal with this plague.
There has been an unexpressed attitude of tolerance towards sorcery in recent decades, one that seeks to condone the co-existence of traditional sorcery and Christianity.
If the terrible stories that flood our newsrooms day after day represent the new face of PNG sorcery, then such a co-existence cannot and must not be tolerated.
The silent wall of fear that is snaking its way through province after province, ensuring that nobody has the courage to speak out, must be smashed for all time.
In the name of the many who have died agonising deaths as accused sorcerers, we urge our judges and magistrates to take a skeptical view of these cases.
This blood-bath must stop.