http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44096&Cr=torture&Cr1=#.URVDVFoa-XQ
On February 6th, 2013,
Papa New Guinea citizen Kepari Leniata was killed after being accused of
sorcery. Kepari was accused of using sorcery to kill a six-year-old boy, whose
relatives were later the ones to burn her in front of a crowd in Mount Hagen,
Papa New Guinea. Sadly, this is not the first of such attacks in New Guinea,
but is a part of an emerging pattern of citizens being killed after being
accused of sorcery. This case very much reminded me of the cases of the Salem
Witch Trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Upon reading
about the trials, it was hard to imagine that people were at one time actually
accused of sorcery, and after reading this article, it was even harder to
believe that such accusations are still made.
The United Nations human rights
office urged the Papa New Guinea Government to take action against such crimes.
Cécile Pouilly, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
rights asked Papa New Guinea to “bring
perpetrators of attacks and killings to justice through thorough, prompt and
impartial investigations in accordance with international law,” (UN News
Centre). According to reports, police tried to intervene with Kepari Leniata’s
murder but were unsuccessful. This story reminded me to consider the different
conditions and customs that others are forced to live with. Things like the
Salem Witch Trials of 1692, something so far in the past that it seems unreal,
is happening today, in 2013, in Papa New Guinea. While many people living in
the United States and other parts of the world, including myself, would laugh
at an issue such as being accused of sorcery, others are forced to pay with
their lives for such an allegation. This article allows us to see how problems facing
other parts of the world are so vastly different from the ones that we face in
our day to day lives.
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