News | Friday 09th October, 2009 |
Witch suspect brutal murders
By DAVID MURI in Goroka
FOUR people, three sisters and a brother, were brutally murdered in a gruesome fashion in the jungle at the Northern outskirts of Goroka town yesterday.
FOUR people, three sisters and a brother, were brutally murdered in a gruesome fashion in the jungle at the Northern outskirts of Goroka town yesterday.
An eyewitness at the killing scene told this reporter that their bodies were severely mutilated and dumped off a cliff at Zauka. The elderly siblings were suspected of killing a young mother through sorcery at Komiufa village on Sunday.The four were killed when 26-year-old woman, Joki Robin, who was severely interrogated at a kangaroo court, testified that she witnessed the siblings sharing the young woman's heart
at the village.
at the village.
Those who died included Mrs Robin's own mother. I saw them eat the woman's heart and told villagers when they tried to kill me. They spared my life when I admitted what I saw, said Mrs Robin. When asked if she really saw her mother partake in the heart party, Robin replied: Yes, I saw her with her brother and sisters sharing it. They boiled it and ate it at a hut in the village, said the severely beaten woman, who lost her entire family in the tragedy. Her three little children were also missing. I don't know their whereabouts now, she said.
The witness said the four people were rounded up by the dead woman's relatives at midnight and led to the jungle where they were executed.
The young woman died at the Goroka Base Hospital on Sunday, allegedly from labour complications after delivery.
But her relatives immediately sought advice from a witchdoctor who pinpointed her death to have been caused by the family. The killing, being perpetrated by many in the village, took place after the young mothers body was laid to rest on Wednesday afternoon.
But her relatives immediately sought advice from a witchdoctor who pinpointed her death to have been caused by the family. The killing, being perpetrated by many in the village, took place after the young mothers body was laid to rest on Wednesday afternoon.
Provincial police commander Augustine Wampe was not aware of the multiple murders when contacted late yesterday. We've received no reports on the killings,he said.
Highlands divisional police commander Simon Kauba said he could not verify the reports but added that he was stunned by the attack on the four people. I am alarmed about this report. Police in Goroka are there to enforce the law and whoever saw what happened should have reported and those responsible should be arrested, Mr.
Kauba said. He called on community leaders in the area to help police apprehend those responsible for the barbaric act of genocide.
Highlands divisional police commander Simon Kauba said he could not verify the reports but added that he was stunned by the attack on the four people. I am alarmed about this report. Police in Goroka are there to enforce the law and whoever saw what happened should have reported and those responsible should be arrested, Mr.
Kauba said. He called on community leaders in the area to help police apprehend those responsible for the barbaric act of genocide.
This was reported in the Post Courier (one of the two national news papers in Papua New Guinea) on 9th October. One can make his/her own judgment after reading it.
