Four Sentenced To Death In Tanzania For Killing Albino

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The UPI and other news services are reporting that four people have been sentenced to death in Tanzania for killing an albino because they believed his body parts could be used for magic, authorities have stated.

The four men who were given death sentences this week in Shinyanga, who are to hang, were found guilty of the killing of 50-year-old Lyaku Willy. After killing Mr Willy the four unnamed men had removed their victim’s head and legs. They dumped his remains in a village close to Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania.

So far, seven people have been sentenced to death for the killing of more than 50 Tanzanian albinos, including children, in the past two years. Dozens more are awaiting trial.

Albinism,a congenital disorder, leaves its sufferers without pigment in their eyes, skin and hair, and some yet very rarely, just in their eyes.

CNN reports…Body parts of albinos are sought in some regions of Tanzania and other African countries, where some believe they bring wealth and good luck. Attackers chop off limbs and pluck out organs, selling them to witch doctors.

Killings have gone up in the east African nation, which has an estimated 200,000 albinos, according to the Tanzania Albino Center.

“People believe that albino body parts mixed with traditional medicine can make people rich,” said Franck Alphonse, the center’s director. “It is a thriving business … witch doctors are asking business people to bring the body parts of albinos, who are not considered human beings.”

The rate of Albino killings have gone up recently, as the financial resources are not available to help out as much as is necessary, as the killings happen mainly in remote and rural locations.

A police commissioner gave this statement on the drained resources, and what they are doing about it…

“We don’t have the resources in those places … it is not easy, but we are trying to map out locations where albinos live so that we can better protect them,” he said. “We are hoping the convictions will serve as a lesson for the killers to stop.”

The Albino killers are heartless, they kill their victims and harvest their blood and body parts such as hair, genitals and limbs for potions.

“We are glad that the family and friends of Lyaku can finally have a sense of justice after this horrific loss,” Peter Ash, founder of Under The Same Sun, a Canadian campaign group, told Reuters in an email.

“We urge the authorities to swiftly act on the sentence. Justice delayed is justice denied.”

With the latest verdict, seven people have now been awarded death sentences for killing albinos for their body parts in Tanzania since September.

Three other Tanzanians were sentenced to death in September for the killing of a 14 year-old albino teenager in December 2008. That incident happened in Bukombe district of northwestern Shinyanga province last December.

Peter Ash also left us with this closing statement and report about another horrific slaying….The albino community still lives in a state of absolute fear. Just last week (an) innocent 10-year-old was butchered to death in Geita. His father now fights for his life in hospital due to an attempt to save his son…

Here is a link to Peter Ahs’s albino rescue organization ‘Under the Same Sun”,and I urge you all to take a look at it, and investigate for yourself, the atrocities that have been visited upon the Albinos of Africa…

http://www.underthesamesun.com/about.php

This is a quote about them from the website…

The Under The Same Sun Fund is a Canadian federally registered non-profit organization founded in 2008 by Peter Ash (who is himself an albino), who also acts as Chairman of the Board for the fund. Peter is a passionate philanthropist and entrepreneur, holding an undergraduate degree in Theology and a Graduate degree in psychology. Peter’s background includes a decade of work in church ministry and subsequently a decade in business. Peter also has albinism, a genetic condition which results in significantly reduced vision. As a result of Peter’s faith background and his own disability his heart drives him to do whatever he can to provide resources to assist those most disadvantaged by disability, discrimination and poverty. The goal of the fund is to provide resources which allow these people groups to increase their quality of life and gain increased independence.  Assisting Peter in this endeavor is his brother Paul Ash who resides in Winnipeg…

I have been following these brutal witch doctor killings for just this year, and I have written about them before in my blog, and I a pleased that the attention has caused the authorities to act in any way at all. I believe that the dynamic that exist in the African society that would encourage the slaughter of human beings for their parts to be trinkets and good luck charms, is barbaric.

Education has got to be implemented to show these people that such things a lucky charms and potions are myths, and fabrications made up by religious zealots.It could happen in any culture,but must be halted in this one.

“We want to see justice done to everyone involved in the killings,”  “They (police) only pick those who slaughtered albinos, what about those who send these people to kill?”

The question above is key.If we only prosecute the killers,you still leave in place significant contributors to the total conspiracy.I do not know if mass executions will help resolve the issue, I just encourage a mass re-education of those that would contribute and condone such taboo behavior.

Religous freedom is a hallmark of our society, but it ends at the moment that it encourages murder of another human being as a religious practice, as well as contributing to the annihilation of opposing religious beliefs.

Other than that, people should be free to worship as they see fit.They also should expect capital punishment if their religious beliefs has made them kill another human being,…even if they personally do not consider a human being with a physical deformity, or a simple physical difference, as a human, but if a human is considered a human by the legal definition in any country, then justice must step in and be applied at the highest level possible.

I am not an authority on the details of this issue, but what I have found out this past 6 months I have been following this has been shocking.The thinking involved is so foreign to me,it just illustrates to me that education is the key to eradicating these types of ancient barbaric practices from our planet, no matter where they may arise.

Please follow the links included in this report, as well as my blog, because good people mobilized together, can end this hidden genocide…

http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=1121208&SMap=1

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE5A207520091103

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/11/06/tanzania.albino.convictions/

Here is a clip of Under the Same Sun from You tube…

The proper term is not Albinos, as used here in my articles,but it is people with Albinism,just to be correct. Sometimes I defer to popular terms,somewhat slang if I may, in order to communicate more effectively.

Please forgive me if you disagree, I get your point,…but try to see where I am coming from in the current society.My goal is to get all people focused on resolving this terrible situation for Africans with Albinism,and not the languaging.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albinism