PNG: Murders & brutal torture follow witchcraft/sorcery accusations - Christan pastors reportedly involved - women's rights advocates targeted

[Emily]

http://www.islandsbusiness.com/2013/5/cover-story/witchcraft-saga/

Witchcraft Saga
World condemns murders as PNG seeks answers
A surge in sorcery and witchcraft related murders in Papua New Guinea has drawn widespread condemnation from international groups such as the United Nations and Amnesty International. A growing culture of insecurity and fear has been blamed and there are concerns it will impact on the country?s economic development.

Women?s rights groups are also up in arms at the disproportionate number of women being targeted. Women are six times more likely than men to be subjected to sorcery-related violence in PNG. Pressure is now on the PNG government to take action against those justifying the killing of innocent people through sorcery accusations. Moves to repeal PNG?s Sorcery Act, enacted in 1971 while PNG was still a colony, have been made. This comes after a number of women accused of sorcery and witchcraft were murdered in recent months. In February, the world was shocked when graphic photographs circulated on the internet of a 20-year old mother being burnt alive in Mt Hagen in Papua New Guinea?s northern highlands.
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On March 28, six women and one man were branded with hot irons as part of an Easter ?sacrifice? in the Southern Highlands. Their fate is still unknown. A graphic image was also circulated of a woman from Wa village, outside Mendi town in the Southern Highlands Province. She was accused of practicing witchcraft and villagers stripped her naked and tortured her. Christian pastors reportedly took part in the torture. In April, two elderly women were beheaded after being tortured for three days. Four women were also kidnapped?one of them a teacher and women?s rights advocate, Helen Rumbali, was beheaded by a mob in Lopele in southern Bougainville. PNG prime minister Peter O?Neill condemned the killings as ?barbaric? and ?unacceptable?. But Shamima Ali, chairperson of the Pacific Women?s Network Against Violence Against Women is calling for more action from the PNG Government including the ?immediate disarmament of all civilians, including ex-combatants?. ?This barbaric act is yet another example of the unrelenting violence that women and girls are subjected to in Papua New Guinea. ?Women who stand up against misogyny and violence to try and help other women are being accused of sorcery in order to try and intimidate and silence them,? she explains. In the same month, two foreign women were raped; a visiting United States academic on Karkar Island in the Madang Province and a Filipino woman in Mt Hagen. These two cases were not related to sorcery, but it was further evidence that violence against women is endemic in PNG and foreign women were not immune...

 

[Emily]

Re: PNG: Murders & brutal torture follow witchcraft/sorcery accusations - Christan pastors reportedly involved - women's rights advocates targeted

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/06/10/witch-hunts-png/2407221/

Brutal witch hunts in Papua New Guinea tied to jealousy
1:44 a.m. EDT June 10, 2013
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Violence linked to witch hunts is an increasingly visible problem in Papua New Guinea ? a diverse tribal society of more than 800 languages and 7 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers. Experts say witch hunting appears to be spreading to parts of the country where the ruthless practices never took place before.

There is no clear explanation for the apparent uptick in killings in parts of the South Pacific nation, and even government officials seem at a loss to say why this is happening. Some are arguing the recent violence is fueled not by the nation's widespread belief in black magic but instead by economic jealousy born of a mining boom that has widened the country's economic divide and pitted the haves against the have-nots...

n this Feb. 6, 2013 file photo, hundreds of bystanders watch Helen Rumbali, a woman accused of witchcraft, being burned alive in the Western Highlands provincial capital of Mount Hagen in Papua New Guinea.(Photo: AP Photo/Post Courier, File)