Sorcery in PNG can be a force for good

ABC

A three-day conference addressing witchcraft and sorcery killings in Melanesia is taking place at Australia's National University in Canberra.
Jeffrey Buchanan from UN Women in PNG says there is concern that the death penalty may push sorcery and witchcraft related attacks back behind the veil of silence.
"I have concerns about woman who are raped that ... [it] may lead to their murder," he said.
"The perpetrator may think [about] the evidence and he will kill the woman ... there is evidence internationally that that has happened where there is the death penalty."
Sorcery and witchcraft are mostly seen as a negative force, but not all of the beliefs are bad for society.

PhD candidate Salmah Eva-Lina Lawrence from the female-focussed matrilineal society in Milne Bay Province says there are fewer cases of violence in the region and women hold great knowledge.
"On traditional method of contraception or how to control their fertility, of course, this allows women to control their bodies so they have an enormous amount of freedom in that respect," she said.
"So to talk about sorcery and witchcraft only having negative connotations it is completely untrue where I come from."
Dame Carol Kidu agrees sorcery can be a force for good and she even employed one during her political life when she lost her voice while campaigning.
"I had to find someone to lift the blockage that had been put on me," she said.
"So I found someone who mixes Catholicism and traditional sorcery and he mixes both together ... and the blockage got lifted.
"Obviously the blockage got better for some reason ... whether it was the man who assisted in lifting the blockage ... my campaign team and manager had said, 'you have got no choice, you have got to do it'."
The forum has already heard that the growing level of inequality is fuelling the increase in the number of attacks, especially in PNG's highlands where there are hundreds of incidents a year.

Death penalty not a solution for sorcery killings: Dame Carol Kidu

By ABC Canberra correspondent Karen Barlow

Long-serving Papua New Guinea parliamentarian, Dame Carol Kidu, says the death penalty will not help solve the problem of sorcery-related violence in the country.

PNG's government last week voted to enforce the death penalty for a number of capital offences in an attempt to deal with the problem.
Dame Kidu has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat she is horrified by the recent sorcery-related killings in the country, which have mainly targeted women.
"There's a mass hysteria around it. What appears to be almost a reluctance of people to intervene, which would indicate that they also are afraid of sorcery and its implications," she said.
"Traditionally, in the few societies that I know about, whenever a sorcerer was killed, it was normally done by maybe a group of three people who would go out and kill them in the night in secrecy.
"It wasn't a public event ... that is completely new in the way that it's happening."

Audio: Dame Carol Kidu speaks to Pacific Beat (ABC News)

Dame Kidu says she is concerned about the impact public killings have on children in the communities.
"Children run to see the witch being burnt," she said.
"It's very worrying because that's their socialisation process, and that's why we have to find ways to counteract this as quickly as possible."
However, she believes re-introducing capital punishment is the wrong way to tackle violent crime.
"I, personally, do not support the death penalty as a solution to this, or as a solution to crime," she said.
"Global experience and research has shown it is not a solution to crime, and state-sanctioned killing does not, in my opinion, help bring us into a society for peace, prosperity, for the future.
"There is enormous scope for people being wrongfully killed because of the limited capacity for investigation in Papua New Guinea."
Dame Kidu is backed by human rights groups and the United Nations, which say any resumption of executions may affect PNG's international standing.
Dame Kidu believes in educating the public to recognise the killings as a crime.
"We've got to work in early childhood, too, in ensuring that we influence the educational processes into ... rejecting [their belief in sorcery] being manifested in this way," she said.
"This is wilful, premeditated murder and it has to be recognised as such."
Dame Kidu says it is also necessary to work on "transformative processes" to move the communities forward.
"I believe very strongly that we've got to introduce community conversations right throughout the country, and get communities taking control of these types of situations ... with very responsible structuring of the community conversations," she said.

PNG move on death penalty raises concerns for asylum seekers

AAP and Bianca Hall

Asylum seekers on Manus Island will be subject to the death penalty, the department of immigration has confirmed.
Papua New Guinea's parliament on Tuesday passed laws allowing execution by a range of methods, including hanging, electrocution, lethal injection, and firing squad, while repealing its contested sorcery act.

Janet Kemo Fogodi was victim of a brutal attack in which a family member tried to murder her due to "sorcery". Changes to PNG laws will prevent people who commit violent acts from using sorcery as a defence. Photo: Brendan Esposito

It also vowed to extend the long-dormant death penalty to cover rape, robbery and murder.
Immigration department spokesman Sandi Logan said on Twitter that asylum seekers detained on Manus Island were subject to PNG laws "100%", but declined to comment further.

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Amnesty International deputy director for the Asia-Pacific, Isabelle Arradon, said the reintroduction of the death penalty was counterproductive.
"Papua New Guinea has taken one step forward in protecting women from violence by repealing the sorcery act, but several giant steps back by moving closer to executions," she said.
"The taking of a life - whether a person is beheaded by villagers or killed by the state - represents an equally abhorrent violation of human rights.
"The government has failed to heed calls from civil society to not start killing prisoners again."
Capital punishment is currently in place for treason, piracy and wilful murder but Papua New Guinea has not carried out an execution since 1954.
Amnesty says at least 10 people are on death row.
As well as reviving the death penalty, parliament also repealed its 1971 sorcery act, which provided a defence for violent crime if the accused was acting to stop witchcraft.
It means any black magic killings will now be treated as murder punishable by death following a spate of horrific public killings of women accused of sorcery, in which there is a widespread belief in PNG.
According to Amnesty, more than two-thirds of all countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice with the last known execution taking place in the Pacific in 1982 in Tonga.
Arradon said countries were moving away from the death penalty, in part because there were no assurances it was an effective deterrent to crime.
"By passing these death penalty laws, Papua New Guinea will find it is on the losing side of history," she said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/png-move-on-death-penalty-raises-concerns-for-asylum-seekers-20130529-2nbdl.html#ixzz2UiLG5VCg

Amnesty rejects PNG death penalty bid

AAP

Amnesty International has criticised a move by Papua New Guinea to revive the death penalty as a regressive step for the poverty-stricken Pacific nation, branding it state-sanctioned violence.

The country's parliament on Tuesday passed laws allowing execution by a range of methods, including hanging, electrocution, lethal injection, and firing squad, while repealing its contested sorcery act.
It also vowed to extend the long-dormant death penalty to cover rape, robbery and murder, actions that Amnesty's deputy director for the Asia-Pacific Isabelle Arradon said were counterproductive.
"Papua New Guinea has taken one step forward in protecting women from violence by repealing the sorcery act, but several giant steps back by moving closer to executions," she said.
"The taking of a life - whether a person is beheaded by villagers or killed by the state - represents an equally abhorrent violation of human rights.

"The government has failed to heed calls from civil society to not start killing prisoners again."
Capital punishment is currently in place for treason, piracy and wilful murder but Papua New Guinea has not carried out an execution since 1954.
Amnesty says at least 10 people are on death row.
As well as reviving the death penalty, parliament also repealed its 1971 sorcery act, which provided a defence for violent crime if the accused was acting to stop witchcraft.
It means any black magic killings will now be treated as murder punishable by death following a spate of horrific public killings of women accused of sorcery, in which there is a widespread belief in PNG.
According to Amnesty, more than two-thirds of all countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice with the last known execution taking place in the Pacific in 1982 in Tonga.
Arradon said countries were moving away from the death penalty, in part because there were no assurances it was an effective deterrent to crime.
"By passing these death penalty laws, Papua New Guinea will find it is on the losing side of history," she said.

Whitehaven's Rodney Pora returns to Papua New Guinea

by Martin Morgan 

News & Star

Last updated at 08:52, Tuesday, 28 May 2013

Whitehaven prop Rodney Pora has returned home to Papua New Guinea to be with his young son, who is seriously ill in hospital.

Rodney Pora

The experienced international had been due to feature for Haven in yesterday’s Championship clash with Barrow Raiders, which they won 30-18. But on learning of his son’s condition, the club supported his decision to fly home.
“We wish him well, and hopefully everything will be all right,” coach Dave Woods said, post-match. “He’s at the airport waiting for a flight.
“It is disappointing that he’s had to go, but his family must come first, and we have to make sure we look after him that way.
“It’s very important that he gets home for his family.”
On Twitter, hooker Carl Sice later dedicated the derby win to Pora and fellow front-rower Dave Houghton, who also missed the game. Pora missed Haven’s pre-season regime and had been working hard on his fitness over recent weeks, rewarding Woods with his debut try last week.
“Jordan Hand stepped up and did a great job, and we brought in Bradd Crellin, who looked after the back-row area, so it worked out all right for us,” added Woods, who saw Crellin justify his selection with a dummy-half try yesterday.

PNG parliament passes use of death penalty

By Eoin Blackwell, AAP Papua New Guinea Correspondent

 

Rape, robbery and murder will attract the death penalty in Papua New Guinea after the country's parliament passed a series of measures aimed at deterring violent crime.
PNG's parliament on Tuesday also passed laws allowing for five types of execution - hanging, lethal injection, medical death by deprivation of oxygen, firing squad and electrocution.
The parliament also repealed the controversial 1971 Sorcery Act, meaning those convicted of killing accused "sorcerers" will be sentenced to death, Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's spokesman, Daniel Korimbao, said in a statement.
"These are very tough penalties, but they reflect the seriousness of the nature of the crimes and the demand by the community for parliament to act," he said.
"Which method (of execution is) to be used will be determined by the head of state on advice from the National Executive Council (cabinet)."
Death by hanging has been part of PNG's criminal code since before independence from Australia in 1975, but has not been enforced since 1954.
Under the new amendments, the death penalty will be enforced for crimes such as aggravated rape, pack rape, or where the victim is a child under 10 years of age.
Kidnapping will carry a prison term of 50 years without remission or parole, while kidnapping for ransom carries life imprisonment without parole.
Theft of money between 5 million kina ($A2.4 million) and 9.99 kina million will attract 50 years without parole.
Theft of money or property worth 10 million kina or more will be punished with life imprisonment.
A series of violent murders and sex crimes this year prompted the PNG government to enact the measures in an attempt to deter crime.
In particular, women accused of being witches have been killed in increasingly gruesome public show-trials.
In one incident, a young mother, Kepari Leniata, was stripped and burned alive in a public market, while in another, a former teacher, Helen Rumbali, was beheaded.
Some killings have been carried while police were present, with officers powerless to intervene against large crowds of armed attackers.
UN Women, a division of the United Nations, has welcomed the repeal of the Sorcery Act, but declined to comment on the use of the death penalty.
"UN Women congratulates government on repealing the Sorcery Act and looks forward to new initiatives that will counter the rising violence against women and men, and bring an end to extra-judicial killings," an agency spokesperson said.
Church groups and civil libertarians have objected to the measures and pointed out police have trouble enforcing current laws.
"We have got current systems and structures in place that are not working, we can't even prosecute a shoplifter, and here we are trying to impose the death penalty," women's rights campaigner Esther Igo recently told Radio Australia.
"We believe that we should get our structures, the current enforcement system, working before we can look at an extreme penalty."
Mr Korimbao told AAP tougher drug penalties, alcohol licensing rules and stricter penalties for home brew have been temporarily deferred.
"They are still being worked on," he said.
Two weeks ago, Mr O'Neill apologised to women in PNG for the high levels of sexual and domestic violence they experienced and pledged to pass the stricter penalties - penalties he described as "draconian."

Rotary helps in PNG

Kiama Lake Independent Times

A SISTER club partnership between two Rotary clubs from different countries will be further cemented soon with the arrival of a shipping container in the Papua-New Guinea city of Madang.
Following a long association over several years, the Rotary Club of Kiama in District 9750 and the Rotary Club of Madang, Papua New Guinea, in District 9600 decided to take this step last November.
"Along with the mutual benefit for both clubs by the successful achievement of projects, this partnership is now happening in a practical way," Rotary Club of Kiama past president John Kenny said.

Kiama Rotarians Noel Edgell and Alan Schofield pictured packing the final items into the shipping container when it was bound for Madang.

"Taking pride of place in the container is a 'state of the art' barbecue trailer which will help significantly the Madang club's fund-raising efforts, as well as its community service activities."
"Several club members arrived around the same time as the container last week and the locals are delighted with the contents. In fact the barbeque as actually christened with a good old-fashioned Aussie barbeque last Sunday, much to the delight of the locals.
According to Mr Kenny, the barbecue trailer is an example of the power of Rotary to inspire community co-operation as a local Kiama business donated the trailer as a thank-you to the club for sponsoring a family member to the Honeywell Engineering Summer School.
"TAFE students completed the fitout as part of their practical training, and a local resident and Friend of Rotary met the costs of the barbecue units as well as providing a substantial share of the shipping costs."
A team of Kiama Rotarians and volunteers will be travelling to Madang in May.
"That will be a great occasion for a good old Aussie barbecue - PNG style," Mr Kenny said.
While in Madang the team will visit a school in Brahman, where the Kiama Club has previously built a girls' dormitory, to determine what other help may be needed.