MALARIA: Police arrest woman with body parts

By (Xinhua):  December 11 2010

MAPUTO: Police in Mozambique’s western province of Tete arrested a 68-year-old woman for trafficking human body parts, local media said on Saturday.
The woman was carrying a dried human foot when she was arrested. She confessed it belonged to her grandson who had died of malaria a week earlier.
She said she has been engaged in the trafficking for the past five decades.
The woman told the authorities that she took her grandson’s organs after his funeral, selling some parts in neighbouring Zambia and leaving the foot for purposes of witchcraft.
Holding the foot, she explained to journalists on Friday that the body parts were dried first then eaten, sold or used for superstitious purposes.
Despite not knowing exactly how much she profited from the trade, the woman said so far she had amassed about 100 head of cattle.
She claimed she had learned the trade from her grandfather. The woman claimed that also she worked with three other people, all Zambians.
Police arrested the woman after she was denounced by relatives, who accused her of witchcraft and blamed her for the disappearance of children.
In Mozambique, cases of murder and trafficking in human organs, mostly genitals, all linked to witchcraft, are alarmingly frequent.
In October, the Zambezia Provincial Court in central Mozambique, sentenced two men to 20 years in prison after finding them guilty of gouging out the eyes of a 12-year-old boy to sell to a witchdoctor in Malawi.
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POVERTY: Child witchcraft allegations on the rise

DAKAR, 16 July 2010 (IRIN) - Accusations of child witchcraft are on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa - spurred on by urbanization, poverty, conflict and fragmenting communities, creating a "multi-crisis" for already vulnerable children - says the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). A wide spectrum of children are at risk, including orphans, street-children, albinos, those with physical disabilities or abnormalities such as autism, those with aggressive or solitary temperaments, children who are unusually gifted; those who were born prematurely or in unusual positions, and twins. Broadly-speaking, the notion of sorcery can be translated as the ability to harm someone through the use of "mystical power". Most of the accused are boys and most aged 8-14, says the report, Children Accused of Witchcraft; an anthropological study of contemporary practices in West Africa. [http://www.unicef.org/wcaro/2009_5473.html] Some of the countries with the highest prevalence rates include Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Nigeria, according to the report. [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=48287] No comprehensive study has been undertaken to indicate the extent of the phenomenon, says Joachim Theis, UNICEF's child protection adviser in West Africa. However, according to discrete studies, "thousands" of children have been accused of witchcraft and subsequently thrown out of their homes in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi in the DRC; Mbanza Kongo capital of Zaire Province, Uige and Luanda in northern Angola; and a large number in Akwa Ibom state in southeastern Nigeria. Accused children end up being attacked, burned, beaten, and sometimes killed, according to the researchers. Exorcisms can include forcing children to fast; pouring petrol into children's eyes or ears, beatings and being forced to swallow various substances. Many confessions are extracted under duress or violence, says the report. Modern phenomenon Contrary to wide-held perceptions in the West, child witchcraft in Africa is not an ancient "African tradition" but a relatively modern phenomenon dating back 10-20 years, says report author Aleksandra Cimpric. Before this, elderly people, and particularly women, tended to be accused. The increase in accusations seems partly associated with the growing economic burden of raising children, linked to urbanization, separation of families and the weakening of family structures, says UNICEF's Theis; it is reinforced by the emergence of Pentecostal or revivalist churches in many of the affected countries. Exploitative pastor-prophets claiming to be able to identify witches and offering exorcisms provide additional legitimization for witchcraft accusations. Their lucrative vocation complements the work of traditional healers, who also fight against the malevolent forces of the "other world", the report noted. In a televised case in Nigeria, "Bishop" Sunday Ulup Ay in Akwa Ibom state in the southeast made a personal fortune through exorcisms, charging $261 per child. He has since been arrested. [http://www.iheu.org/un-publishes-iheu-statement-witchcraft-africa] Sorcery in Africa is not a uniform belief, says Theis. "It has spiritual, economic and social drivers... It gets blurred with all sorts of other beliefs, but it cannot always be put into one box." Protecting children Child protection agencies cannot try to shape beliefs in witchcraft but must take a strict child protection approach to combat accusations, says Theis: "We're not trying to eradicate a belief in witchcraft that we cannot necessarily understand. But we are saying violence and abuse against children is wrong and must stop, and we must use every method to stop it." He continued: "We can use some of the same methods we've already developed to address other forms of violence and abuse against children." Many accused children are abandoned street children and require the same kind of rehabilitation and reintegration as they do, he said. Some of the methods proven to work - as played out in Katanga Province, in southern DRC - include raising awareness among (and by) communities; negotiating with families, children and religious leaders on individual cases; finding allies in local churches who can help spread the word; providing services for vulnerable children; and enforcing the law; according to UNICEF. Putting in place better basic services to cater for children's needs and helping to strengthen the protective structure of the family can also reduce the risks associated with witchcraft accusations, says the report. Legislation Rather than legislation to protect children, in Cameroon, CAR, Chad and Gabon practicing witchcraft is outlawed, leading, in CAR's case, to a large number of child witchcraft cases being brought to the family courts. Many of the children end up in prison. "We want laws against accusations of witchcraft against children," Theis told IRIN. "It may not be possible to change attitudes, but we can raise awareness among families, legal professionals, doctors, change legislation, mobilize - all of this can have an impact. Witchcraft beliefs were deeply entrenched in Western countries for many years, and take a long time to disappear," said Theis.