Time to prosecute perpetrators

Editorial

ANOTHER woman accused of sorcery was tortured by men and left to die in her village in Hela last week.
She was accused of causing the death of her half-brother, who had drowned while swimming across a river.
A month ago, three women in Karinz, Southern Highlands, were accused of sorcery.
They were hanged and forced to take responsibility for the death of a young man.
In January this year, police recovered three bodies, two women and a man on Dec 31, Jan 4 and 5 in the banks of Mendi River.
They were believed to have been killed in sorcery executions in Karinz.
Their bodies were dumped in the river and was brought downstream near Mendi town.
In February, police rescued two women from the jaws of death in another sorcery-related violence and mob attack in Lae, Morobe
The women were in the midst of being tortured, slashed and burnt with iron rods.
The mob had alleged that the two women practised sorcery and caused the death of a woman.
That was the second sorcery-related violence and attack in Lae this year.
Also in January, a woman in her 30s, was rescued by Omili police in the nick of time after they were tipped off on the torture by a social media post.
Police rushed to the neighbouring Peter Block and took her to safety. She was slashed and survived an attempt to slash her throat.
In East Sepik, a young man was suspected of practising sorcery and his two legs were chopped off.
Belief in sorcery or witchcraft is deeply entrenched and widely held in different forms across PNG.
Violence related to accusations of sorcery or witchcraft is a real problem.
A Catholic priest in Southern Highlands Fr Pius Hal during the international awareness campaign against violence advocacy in sorcery-related accusations said in Southern Highlands, there was no natural death. Every death there should at least involve sorcery-related accusations.
Doctors were the ones trained and qualified in such matters, not the bush doctors, glassman or bamboo man.
Many women suspected of sorcery were vulnerable and had no strong support from their families.
Relatives do not report to authorities in fear of retaliation.
Women are tortured almost every day in provinces that still believe in sorcery and only a few were reported while others were forced to run away, leaving their families and villages.
Sorcery is deeply rooted in PNG societies hence it would require a change of behavior followed by a shift of belief.
The Government developed a comprehensive Sorcery and Witchcraft Accusation Related Violence (SARV) National Action Plan in 2015 to address the problem of sorcery accusation-related violence.
To date, this plan is not fully implemented.
PNG repealed its Sorcery Act in 2013 but expanded its use of the death penalty.
Under the new legislation, killings linked to allegations of witchcraft (SARV) will now be treated as murder.
Unless prosecution actually takes place, sorcery-related violence and killings will continue in PNG.

One thought on “Time to prosecute perpetrators

  • There is a slogan that goes, if there is smoke or a smell of smoke, it simply means there is definitly a fire. I personally think we really need to check that smoke if there is real fire burning. Why not be like the story of thomas in the bible, seeing and feeling is believing so why not ask a sorcer to perform sorcery on you live so to prove otherwise only then you can prove those killings wrong or right.

Comments are closed.