Local prosecutors in Paraguay have confirmed that a woman accused of
having witchcraft has been burned alive. Prosecutor Fany Aguilera said
that members of the Mbya Guarani ethnic group tied 45-year-old Adolfina
Ocampos to a wooden pole and shot arrows at her before they burned her
alive.
Huffingtopost world reports:
Ocampos was sentenced to death last week by the
community’s chief in Tahehyi, a village some 180 miles (290 kilometers)
north of the capital, Asuncion. The date of the killing was unclear.
Aguilera has charged nine men in the village with first-degree murder, and they have already acknowledged killing the woman.
A report by the UN Refugee Agency estimates that thousands of people
worldwide are accused of being witches every year. The UN says they are
often abused, cast out of their families and communities and sometimes
killed.
But the case here is unusual.
“I’ve been working in Paraguay for 40 years and I can’t remember a
similar episode of an execution for alleged sorcery,” said Jose
Zanardini, an Italian anthropologist and Catholic priest. “The tragic
death of this woman is isolated and out of the ordinary within the
coexistence of Paraguay’s 20 ethnic indigenous groups. In general, the
Indians are very peaceful and tolerant.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment