Two men arrested, charged over sorcery killing

By HELEN TARAWA
Two young men have been arrested and charged with wilful murder of an old man from the Barisari area of Northern province, police commander Chief Inspector Lincoln Gerari says.
Gerari told The National that the incident occurred on Saturday at about 4pm when the old man had just returned from town and was sitting with his cousin sister telling stories and chewing betelnut.
He said the two young men had suspected the old man of sorcery and tried to cut him. As he ran away, they allegedly stabbed him in the chest.
Gerari said a post-mortem was carried out and it confirmed that the old man was murdered and the officers arrested the two brothers.
“I am calling on the Government to reintroduce the Sorcery Act because so many people are being killed in the province,” he said.
“People who are suspected of sorcery are being killed and we do not have much control over such incidents.
“Even in my village (Katuna) along the North Coast, an old man was almost killed because he was suspected of sorcery.
“Everyday, I get reports of cases relating to sorcery which I have to personally deal with and I wonder what the authorities are doing about the law.
“The legislation on the Sorcery Act needs to be reintroduced to prevent such senseless killings.
“There are many more cases happening which are not reported.
“Sorcery-related killings in the Highlands are reported and that’s why it’s more common there but the problem is occurring everywhere in PNG.
“Cases in coastal provinces like Northern are not often reported and people consider it to be normal and okay, but this is criminal,” Gerari said.
He said sorcery was a criminal offence and police had to deal with it but the law needed to be re-enforced to give police powers.
Gerari said even those who were suspected to be practising sorcery should be brought to the court of justice rather than people taking the law into their own hands.