Enough of the Violence in Papua New Guinea, boycott the APEC

This petition is asking the global community and leaders to boycott the APEC in Papua New Guinea unless the government of the day take serious action to protect the human rights of ALL their citizens.

The below story is heartbreaking and sadly occurring too often.

Accusers Torture Innocent Child

Yesterday (November 17th 2017) in Enga Province a joint operation was carried out with Lutheran Missionary, Anton Lutz, and the Papua New Guinea Tribal Foundation to rescue a small girl who was falsely accused of sanguma and brutally tortured by several men in the Sirunki area of Enga Province. The child is now receiving medical attention for wounds and burns sustained all over her body from bush knives that were heated by fire.

The girl is thought to be about six years old and is the daughter of the late Leniata Kepari who was falsely accused of sanguma in 2013 and burned to death by a mob in Mt. Hagen. Leniata’s gruesome and public murder made international headlines and sparked the Women Arise movement that culminated in the passage of the Family Protection Act.

Unfortunately cases of torture and murder, especially for vulnerable women, based on false accusations of sorcery (sanguma) have risen across PNG dramatically since 2013. There were no prosecutions of the known killers of Leniata and now her own child has paid the price for the lack of justice.

Laws from both the Family Protection Act and the Lukautim Pikinini Act have been violated with the torture of this small child and the Papua New Guinea Tribal Foundation demands that the perpetrators in this case be arrested and prosecuted immediately.

Thankfully, Justice Minister Davis Steven took a strong stand against Accusation Based Violence in the media this week. Now it is time for words to become action.

The question at this stage is not whether or not sanguma is real. That is a pointless debate because people will believe anything they want to believe. The question today is, does anyone have the right for any reason to accuse another person of sanguma and then torture and or murder them? According to the Family Protection Act and Minister Davis Steven the answer is a very clear, NO. However, the problem is that very few arrests have taken place because of Accusation Based Violence and so the violence is being passed on to the next generation.

The only way to stop this barbaric behavior is through arrests and prosecution of those responsible. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY SUPPORTED AND REQUIRED UNDER THE LAWS OF OUR COUNTRY. Until this happens Papua New Guinea will be known as the nation that not only tortures falsely accused “witches” but now even tortures innocent children! It is time we Senisim Pasin! We are waiting for the arrests to be made.

Media inquiries regarding this post can be sent to contact@pngtribalfoundation.org

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We are posting a link to Loop PNG so you can see the photograph.

http://www.looppng.com/png-news/small-girl-allegedly-tortured-over-‘sanguma’-accusations-69750