Women accused of sorcery saved

By Muhuyupe Soranzi
ENGA police yesterday rescued three of four women accused of practising sorcery from their torturers at Sirunki village in Lagaip Porgera District.
According to provincial police commander Chief Inspector George Kakas, the fourth woman died three days before police arrived.
Kakas told The National that the women were accused and tortured after the death of two prominent leaders and the hospitalisation of another who is also a candidate in this year’s election.
“Three were rescued when police were sent in but unfortunately one of the women was already killed three-days ago,” he said
Inspector Kakas said the one that was killed had been accused of eating the hearts of the two leaders.
Kakas condemned the killing and said accusing people of practising sorcery was a new tradition brought from other provinces into Enga.
“If the people believe in sorcery and say that a dead person’s heart was eaten by those practising sorcery, then come and report it to the police so we can assist in doing a postmortem to identify the real cause of death instead of taking away innocent lives.”
He appealed to the people of Enga not to believe in sorcery as it was not part of Enga people’s culture.
Kakas also appealed to the people not to take the law into their own hands when such cases of sorcery arose in the future.
He said there had been a lot of sorcery cases in Enga over recent years but many have not been reported to police because of fear.