Chief Justice Attacked as Sorcery -Related Violence Escalates
Police say Sir Salamo Injia targeted in ambush because his tribe had not paid compensation for the death of a man said to have been killed with sorcery.
Achief justice has been ambushed and attacked in another incident related to Papua New Guinea’s escalating problem with sorcery-related violence.
The ambush followed the kidnapping and torture of two women from the judge’s tribe, who were accused of killing a man with sorcery.
Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia was traveling from his home in Enga province’s Wapenamanda district on Monday when he and his Police escort were stopped at a makeshift roadblock.
The acting Police ommander, Epenes Nili, said both vehicles were attacked by a large group of men in what he believed was a preplanned ambush.
“They didn’t listen to the Policeand started attacking the Police vehicle, and throwing stones and rocks at the chief justice’s vehicle,” he told Guardian Australia.
The cars fled the scene and returned to Injia’s home, Mr Nili said.
The chief justice was not hurt but was shaken after the incident.
Mr Injia was targeted because his tribe had not paid compensation for the death of a man said to have been killed with sorcery, Nili said.
Last December an elderly man died from an illness and his tribe falsely accused two women from a neighbouring village – home to the chief justice – of sanguma, or sorcery.
The two women were kidnapped and tortured with hot metal rods, before being rescued.
The man’s family demanded compensation from the women’s tribe.
“When that news reached my office, I instructed a postmortem and a medical report to be obtained, so we could inform the relatives of the elderly man about his death,” Mr Nili said. “But the man’s tribe disobeyed my directive, and they went ahead without our knowledge and buried him, high up in the mountains. The same day they covered the grave with concrete, making it hard for Police to exhume the body.”
Sorcery accusations – and violent summary attacks – occur with increasing frequency in PNG, but little action is taken.
PNG’s foreign minister, Rimbink Pato, who is also the MP for the Wapenamanda district, condemned the attack on Injia, particularly as it was against “one of the most respected citizens of our great country”.
Mr Pato called for the perpetrators to face the full force of the law, and said it was “time that accusations based on sanguma are dismissed by one and all as arising out of superstition”.