Churches told to fight Gender Base Violance in Pacific.

The Anglican Church of Melanesia, "Events and Happenings":  10th PCC General Assembly
Churches must take act...:  10th PCC General Assembly Churches must take active roles in the fight against gender-based violence, a regional workshop was told....

Papua New Guinea Christians urge to practice Faith on sorcery.

Papua New Guinea Churches have been achieving serious soul searching treat on sorcery issues in this 21^st century. Should Papua New Guinea Government have strong laws for killing related to sorcery?  What do us Christians in PNG and South Pacific say about this?

Shocked by the reported brutal torturing and burning alive of a young woman on sorcery accusations on February six this year 2013, churches and their members are now urging Papua New Guinea Government to come up with a strong legislation to deal with growing sorcery-related killings.

According to reports, a 20 year old mother of one was burned alive in front of hundreds of people in Papua New Guinea on the accusation of using sorcery to kill a boy aged six years. That barbaric act was highly unacceptable in the 21^st century world. Papua New Guinea churches must take this issue seriously and besides tougher legislation, also launched an educational campaign in the country with assistance from Papua New Guinea religious leaders and Christians across Papua New Guinea to act.

It is indeed a very wrong action to deal spiritual problem physically. The power of Jesus Christ respects no man, no demon, not even satan and his cohorts. It’s too bad many have not experienced that power. I pray for those who continue to live in fear of things Jesus has disposed them under our feet. We all practicing God loving Christians must take responsibility on how we live our faith and how we share our faith.

Our God is powerful; we can confront sorcerers head on with no respect. The answer is not on government and church leaders alone. We practice Christians have the answer to demonstrate that power of God in our lives. There must be power encounters by practice Christians so that they should know that He that is in them is more powerful than he that is in the world.

 

We hear words such as Barbaric; uncivilized untamed animals; public justice – a law unto themselves; horrific; cruel, etc, etc. It brings down the name of a good and proud country, a country were love has been faded in the hearts of men!

Sorcery acused victim being abused

 

Case Study 1: au.news.yahoo.com

 

SYDNEY (AFP): PNG women tortured, burned alive in ‘sorcery’ case

February 8,2013

 

A young mother accused of sorcery was stripped naked, doused with petrol and burned alive in front of a crowd including school children in Papua New Guinea, reports said on Thursday.

 

The women, named by The National newspaper as Kepari Leiata, 20, was reportedly tortured with a branding iron and tired up, splashed with fuel and set alight on a pile of rubbish topped with car tyres.

 

According to the rival Post-Courier newspaper she was torched by villagers who claimed she killed a six-year old boy through sorcery, with police outnumbered by onlookers and unable to intervene.

 

A fire truck that responded to the incident, which took place on Wednesday morning in Mount Hagen city in the Western Highlands, was also chased away.

 

 According to the reports, which were accompanied by graphic front-page images of the women’s burning corpse, she admitted to killing the boy, who died after being hospitalized with stomach and chest pains on Tuesday.

 

Police said they were treating the torching as murder and preparing charges against those responsible.

 

There is widespread belief in sorcery in the poverty-stricken Pacific nation where many people do not accept natural cause as an explanation for misfortune, illness, accidents or death.

 

In 1971, the country introduced a Sorcery Act to criminalize the practice. But PNG’s law reform commission recently proposed to repeal it after a rise in attack on peoples thought to practice black magic.

 

Local bishop David Piso said many innocent people had been killed. “Sorcery and sorcery related killing are growing and the government needs to come up with a law to stop such practice,” Piso told the National.

 

The US embassy in the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby issued a statement strongly condemning the “brutal murder” of Leniata, who had an eight-month –old daughter, as evidence of “pervasive gender-based violence”.

 

“We add our voice to those of Papua New Guinea religious and civil society leaders who have spoken out against the brutality inflicted upon Ms. Leniata,” the embassy said.

 

“There is no possible justification for this sort of violence. We hope that appropriate resources are devoted to identifying, prosecuting and punishing those responsible for Ms Leniata’s murder.”

 

Police arrested dozens of people last year linked to an alleged cannibal cult accused of killing at least seven people, eating their brains raw and making soup from their penises.

 

There have been several other causes of witchcraft and cannibalism in PNG in recent years with a man reportedly found eating his screaming, newborn son during a sorcery initiation ceremony in 2011.

 

In 2009, a young women was stripped naked, gagged and burnt alive at stake, also in Mount Hagen, in what was said to be a sorcery-related crime.

 

Case Study 2: The National Newspaper

 

Sorcery killings widespread

 

The burning alive of the young mother for alleged sorcery in Mt Hagen is not an isolated incident in the country. Nor is it the first.

 

There have been similar incidents in other areas of the country which have remained unreported. Tolsep Ifitimnok, a man from Telefomin in West Sepik, told the National that the Mt Hagen incident prompted him to reveal similar killings in the district that were never attended to by the authorities.

 

He said in 2009, three men living in Tabubil suspected of practicing sorcery or witchcraft were flown in an aircraft from Tabubil to Feramin village, west of Telefomin where they were tortured and murdered. “Police in Tabubil and Telefomin were aware of this but nothing was done to arrest the suspects.”

 

Two years later, he said, a woman was assaulted by a group of men from Telefolip village. She was dragged out of a plane at the Telefomin airstrip and killed. The Telefomin men had suspected her of practicing sorcery. “This happened in front of policemen stationed in Telefomin but nothing happened,” he said.

 

Before the end of 2011, Iftitimnok said, five men suspected of sorcery were tortured and killed outside the Telefomin government station. “Among those murdered was a student selected to do Grade 11 at Vanimo’s Don Bosco Secondary school the following year. Once again this happened in front of policemen but nothing was done about it,” he said.

 

Case Study 3: The National Newspaper

 

Polye: Citizens perform poorly due to culture.

 

By David Wapar

Papua New Guinea is caught in a clash of culture of cultures which is causing them to underperform, Minister for Treasury Don Polye said this week. Speaking at the launching of Internal Revenue Commission’s (IRC) corporate plan in Port Moresby, Polye said PNG had evolved from a self-sustained to a near-sophisticated society, where most urban dwellers and public servants were yet to fully define their environment and what was required of them.

 

“We are not lazy. It’s just that we have not identify where we are and what must be done. “We are caught in an ever-changing world, a race between slow pacers and the fast.” Polye said. He challenged public servants to rise up and identify what was truly required of them so that they perform accordingly.

 

“The whole country needs to change its concept of thinking, he said, while pledging his support for IRC’s modernization plans. From a government perspective, human intelligent development was important, he said. Polye urged those who gathered to be true nationalists and work for the country and not to be bothered by short term material rewards. “Don’t sit and complain but rise up and do things on your own.”