‘Suffer
not a witch to live’; yes that’s a popular verse in the bible.
But I don’t remember the bible telling us to kill our fellow human beings……that
exactly doesn’t exist. This story sure reminds me of the Aluu 4 killing only it
happened in another country. Read below the touching story of how this woman
was brutally murdered and be-headed as she was accused of being a witch. Read below:
On a tropical island where most people live in huts, assailants armed with guns, machetes and axes stormed the wooden house by night. They set the building on fire and took away four female relatives to be tortured. Their alleged crime: witchcraft.
On a tropical island where most people live in huts, assailants armed with guns, machetes and axes stormed the wooden house by night. They set the building on fire and took away four female relatives to be tortured. Their alleged crime: witchcraft.
Helen Rumbali was beheaded.
Her older sister and two teenage nieces were repeatedly slashed with knives
before being released following negotiations with police.Rumbali's assailants
claimed they had clear proof the 40-something former schoolteacher had used
sorcery to kill another villager who died of sickness: The victim's grave bore
the marks of black magic, and a swarm of fire flies apparently led witch
hunters to Rumbali's home.
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.
Continue after the cut..............
"Jealousy is causing a
lot of hatred," said Helen Hakena, chairwoman of the North Bougainville
Human Rights Committee, which is based in the area Rumbali was killed.
"People who are so jealous of those who are doing well in life,
they resort to what our people believe in, sorcery, to kill them, to stop them
continuing their own development"That was definitely a case of jealousy
because her family is really quite well off," Hakena said.She said
villagers were envious because Rumbali's husband and son had government jobs,
they had a "permanent house" made of wood, and the family had
tertiary educations and high social standing.
Another possible explanation
is the spread of particularly vicious sorcery beliefs that before were just
seen in the highland province of Chimbu, said anthropologist Philip Gibbs, a
sorcery specialist and Roman Catholic priest who has lived in the wilds of
Papua New Guinea for the past 41 years.
In Chimbu, people bury their dead in
concrete so that the bodies will not be eaten at night by small demonic animals
that they believe can possess the living. Villagers pay witch doctors to divine
who among them are possessed by these demons, which they believe leave the
person's body at night and take on the form of any small animal.
Gibbs said those suspected
of being possessed are often tortured to make confessions and are sometimes
killed.
"That form is spreading to other
provinces where it's never existed before and we're asking the question
why,".Accused families abandon their small farms in a hurry, usually
taking only what they can carry in a bag. The villagers must then decide who occupies
the vacant land."That's where the jealousy and the greed can come
in," Gibbs said
The country’s Sorcery Act
allowed for a belief in witchcraft to be used as a partial legal defense for
killing someone suspected of black magic. The government repealed the law last
month in response to the recent violence.Which explain why no arrests have been
made
“There’s no doubt that there are really genuine beliefs there, and in
some circumstances that is what is motivating people: the belief that if they don’t
kill this person, then this person is going to continue to bring death and
misfortune and sickness on their village,”
Said Miranda Forsyth, a
lawyer at Australian National University
Culled from Associated press
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