Unite against violence relating to sorcery

Letters

POLICE are handicapped with insufficient resources to deal with sorcery-related incidents.
Many people in the upper Highlands region have been suffering in silence as they are defenceless with immediate family members or tribesmen unable to support them due to pressures from relatives of the dead.
In the past, the upper Highlands region of Enga, Hela, Southern and Western Highlands were not known for many sorcery as the practice did not exist there until just recently.
While police are trying their best to stop the disastrous effects, it would be in the best interest to deploy the Defence Force soldiers to curb issues related to sorcery accusations.
In light of so many criminal activities such as rape, burning down of houses, destruction of properties, killings of innocent people and destroying public properties such as schools, health centres and churches are becoming a popular occurrence.
This events are happening constantly as people take advantage of the police’s inefficiency due to lack of adequate and in many instances, the command and control structure in many police stations are malfunctioning.
Police Commissioner David Manning should liaise with the Defence Force commander to establish a unit with powers to arrest and charge those spreading rumours by way of accusing innocent citizens of sorcery and causing the death of others.
We need the MPs from the upper Highlands region to work in unity to fight against sorcery accusation-related violence.
Introduce tougher penalties for the cowards who prey on innocent people and go on the spree of destroying properties worth millions of kina and killing of innocent people.

Dominic Kanea,
Recent victim