Bogus witchdoctors are demons: Kauba

By DAVID MURI

 

Highlands divisional commander Assistant Commissioner of Police Simon Kauba has issued a stern warning to people posing as witchdoctors or glasman to immediately cease their illegal practices, The National reports.

And he has directed a special police unit yesterday to investigate reports and possibly rescue two women being held captive at Bomrui village outside Mt Hagen.

The two women were allegedly detained for one week after the death of a young man, while villagers were searching for a witchdoctor at Kondopina village to confirm if the women had actually performed sorcery.

“Before any action is taken on these two women, we must save them. And we will arrest and charge those people who have unlawfully detained them.

“If they were threatened or assaulted, then appropriate charges will also be laid,” ACP Kauba said.

He said several sorcery-related killings in the Highlands were directly related to findings from hired witchdoctors whom he described as “demons” possessing a cargo-cult mentality.

ACP Kauba said the witchdoctors claimed to possess supernatural powers and were being hired to reveal the source of deaths in many villages in the region.

He said most revelations from these witchdoctors pointed to innocent people, especially women and elderly men.

“Witchdoctors are just as guilty as the murderers. They are directly responsible for the killings. They are lying and putting innocent lives to death,” he said.

He warned that these so-called witchdoctors would be arrested and charged for spreading false reports that lead to sorcery-related killings of innocent people.

ACP Kauba said the people must no longer believe in superstition but must seek legal avenues for justice.

He said witchdoctors could also be arrested and charged as principal offenders under the Criminal Code.

He said that for the greed of money and pigs, these witchdoctors accuse the wrong people who were then tortured, burnt alive or killed in the villages.

“They (witchdoctors) want to make quick money, so they name the wrong person. But the family of the deceased must think twice if these people are correct in their findings. This practice is ridiculous and dangerous.

“We will nail those behind it,” ACP Kauba said.

Mt Hagen rural local level government president Wai Rapa confirmed that he had heard of witchdoctors profiting from their illegal activities and asked police to curb the practice.

Mr Rapa said many people had been accused of sorcery and killed because of false information provided by the witchdoctors to make quick money.