Papua New Guinea students share video appearing to show women tortured for 'witchcraft' | World news | The Guardian

As the Independent notes, "Papua New Guinea, a small, mostly unexplored nation off Australia’s north-eastern coast, has consistently recorded endemic levels of violence against women. A 2013 study in The Lancet found 41 per cent of men on Bougainville Island, PNG, had raped a non-partner."

A shocking video has emerged which purports to show the torture of four women suspected of witchcraft in a Papau New Guinea village.

Sorcery-related violence and murder has long been an issue in the island nation, but government efforts to end it have failed to have an impact or even see one conviction.

The video shows at least four women who have been stripped, tied up, burned and beaten. They are prodded and threatened with machetes while being questioned by a group of men. The Guardian has obtained an edited version of the video but has chosen not to publish it.

The Guardian was told by two PNG sources the women were accused of sorcery after a young man fell ill in a village in Enga province in August.

Social media posts said the women were accused of “invisibly” taking the man’s heart, and then putting it back after they were tortured. In their attackers’ eyes this would also prove their guilt as sorcerers.
,,,
Belief in witchcraft remains strong in the country, particularly in the highlands, although it has been noted that with increasing intermarriage and travel between regions, the beliefs are spreading to areas where they previously didn’t have a hold.

Samuel Basil, the PNG deputy opposition leader, said whole communities were taking part in torturing suspected victims. “It’s very hard for police to act when whole community is involved, and there’s no witness to testify,” Basil told the Guardian.

Basil said PNG police departments – particularly in rural and remote areas – were hugely under-resourced and could rarely intervene in an incident even if they witnessed it.

Boosting police numbers to enforce laws and educating people about sorcery were key, he said.

Papua New Guinea students share video appearing to show women tortured for 'witchcraft' | World news | The Guardian