The BBC reports that a young woman, age 20, was accused of killing a young man. Her weapon of choice? Sorcery. The boy’s relatives stripped, tied, and covered her in gasoline. Then, they threw her into a fire. Nobody intervened, including police and firefighters.
The Post Courier newspaper said they had been outnumbered by the crowd and chased away. Both newspapers published graphic photos of the incident on their front pages.
Provincial police commander Supt Kaiglo Ambane told the National that police were treating the case as murder and would arrest those responsible.
Papua, New Guinea is evidently quite a superstitious place.
In parts of the Pacific nation deaths and mysterious illnesses are sometimes blamed on suspected sorcerers. Several reports have emerged in recent years of accused people, usually women, being killed.
In 2009, after a string of such killings, the chairman of PNG’s Constitutional Review and Law Reform Commission said defendants were using accusations of witchcraft as an excuse to kill people, and called for tougher legislation to tackle the issue.
Local Christian bishop David Piso told the National that sorcery-related killings were a growing problem, and urged the government “to come up with a law to stop such practice”.
Yes, coming up with a law against such things would be a good thing. Perhaps a bit of education would be helpful, too.
“There is no possible justification for this sort of violence. We hope that appropriate resources are devoted to identifying, prosecuting, and punishing those responsible for Ms Leniata’s murder.”
Agreed.
