Witches murdered in Shangri-La
Witchcraft brings murder to Pacific paradise Once hailed as an untouched Shangri-La, the mist-shrouded highlands of Papua New Guinea are undergoing a dramatic resurgence in sorcery and witchcraft. Age-old beliefs in black magic and evil curses are back with a vengeance in jungle-clad mountain valleys which were unknown to the outside world until the 1930s. Suspected witches – mostly women but including some men and even children – have been subjected to horrific torture before being hanged or thrown off cliffs.
A growing Aids crisis and the collapse of health services have sapped villagers’ faith in Western medicine and prompted a return to ancestral beliefs. Barely educated villagers living in remote mountain valleys are blaming the increasing number of Aids deaths not on promiscuity or a lack of condom use but on malign spirits. When Raphael Kogun’s uncle died two years ago, his family blamed a middle-aged married couple who they were convinced had become possessed by evil spirits.
“We chopped their heads off with an axe and a bush knife,” said the 27-year-old farmer from Goroka, in Eastern Highlands province. “I felt sorry for them but they were witches, they deserved to die. If they were still alive they could hurt people with their magic. We buried the bodies but then the police found out and started digging them up.”