posted here on 13/3/2015.
200 witchdoctors arrested in Tanzania crackdown
16 hours ago
Women carrying their albino children on May 5, 2014, in Dar es Salaam (AFP Photo/Bunyamin Aygun)
"Some of those arrested were found in possession of items like lizard skin, warthog teeth, ostrich eggs, monkey tails, bird claws, mule tails and lion skin," police spokesperson Advera Bulimba said in a statement.
Bulimba said the police campaign would target the entire network of gangsters, traders and witchdoctors, adding that 97 of those detained had already appeared in court.
The statement also appealed to religious leaders, traditional elders, politicians and journalists "to continue the awareness campaign against superstitious beliefs that are holding back the development of our country."
The announcement comes after President Jakaya Kikwete said the ongoing attacks against people with albinism, whose body parts are used for witchcraft, were "disgusting and a big embarrassment for the nation".
In the most recent reported attack, a six-year-old albino boy's hand was hacked off with a machete and his mother assaulted as she tried to protect him.
On Tuesday police said seven suspects had been arrested in connection with that attack, which left the boy and his mother hospitalised.
Last
week a Tanzanian court sentenced four people to death for the murder of
an albino woman whose legs and right hand were hacked off with an axe
and machete.
The killers who were convicted also included the husband of the murdered woman.
President Kikwete met with albino activists last week, promising to do more to stop the wave of violence.
"The
government has long tried to do everything possible to stop the
killings, we are very serious with this," the president said in a
statement.
"But we still need
to enhance our efforts to bring to an end these killings, which are
disgusting and a big embarrassment to the nation."
At
least 76 albinos have been murdered since 2000 with their dismembered
body parts selling for around $600 and entire bodies fetching $75,000,
according to United Nations experts.
A
further 34 albinos have survived having parts of their bodies hacked
off while still alive and grave robbers have dug up at least 15 more,
seeking buried limbs and bodies.
Albinism
is a hereditary genetic condition which causes a total absence of
pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes. It affects one Tanzanian in
1,400, often as a result of inbreeding, experts say.
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