PNG missionary calls for campaign against sorcery claims

Transcript

A missionary in Papua New Guinea says the country needs a nationwide awareness campaign to stop the killing of people accused of sorcery or witchcraft.

Anton Lutz's comments follow an intervention in Enga province to save the lives of 17 women and children accused of being witches by villagers.

Mr Lutz, of the Lutheran Church, says during the intervention the person responsible, known as a witch finder, agreed to retract the accusations and admitted she had been bribed.

He told Amelia Langford while that was a success, there is still a long way to go in PNG.

Anton Lutz says an outbreak of measles triggered the accusations against the 17 women and children.

ANTON LUTZ: The outcome of the intervention at the village was largely that the police officer who came with us, the deputy commander of Enga province, was able to really lay down the law and tell them that this is known to the province and known to the country and known to the world what they're up to and will not be tolerated and they will face very severe consequences if they do anything to these people in the future.  At the moment it has now been more than a week since this took place and one of the women has hiked to another village with her daughter and is safe there and another is planning to leave.  I think maybe they're not quite as confident that there is a permanent change of heart but the cold water on the fire as it were has given them space to be able to move and hopefully it's given   other people in the community the space to think about what they've done and what they will do in the future.

AMELIA LANGFORD:  Obviously this is just one incident and there are many more, what do you think needs to be done overall to sort of stop this happening?

ANTON LUTZ:  This is a good start.  I think many people are not fully aware of what the law of the land is and they're not absolutely sure that they do not have the right or legal ability to take the law into their own hands and kill people.  We're seeing that all through the country.  People think just because they're angry or just because they're frustrated that they have the right to kill people.  I think that level of awareness has to be increased through the country.  I think there is also the issue of resourcing for police in terms of training and getting out to places like this.  I think in general for the people of this country and especially in rural and remote places there has to be education.  There's a long way to go in some of these communities where even the victims of this, the women, the children, were not sure themselves that they were not infected by this spirit that was killing other people.  They seemed to think, 'maybe I do have it, maybe it is in me'.  Even for the people that were facing death by this, they were not convinced that they were innocent in this, so there's a long way to go.

AMELIA LANGFORD:  What would you like to see the government do?

ANTON LUTZ:  I think there has to be a co-ordinated response similar in some ways to the one that we had to the Aids crisis in this country.  Where there is billboards and education and the health sector is involved and the law and order sector.  The sort of comprehensive nation-wide fight or campaign I should say, to address this and say this what our country stands for and this is what we as a people stand for and this is what we will not tolerate and this is what we will and this is what we aspire to.  Having the vision come from the top will allow many people who right now are sort of standing on the fence not sure how they can be involved or what their role is, will help them know what they have to do as individuals to work on this.