Thursday April 19 10:04 AM ET

Villagers Kill Woman Seen As Witch

PORT MORESBY (Reuters) - Villagers in the Papua New Guinea highlands killed a woman accused of sorcery with axes, knives and a shotgun, the AAP news agency reported on Thursday.

The agency quoted Chimbu province police commander Superintendent Simon Kauba as saying another suspected witch survived the lynching in the village of Segima.

Kauba said the attack was ``gruesome and barbaric.'' The murdered woman, who was accused of causing the death of a boy, was hacked to pieces and her remains thrown into a river.

Lynchings are common in the Papua New Guinea highlands and are often linked to allegations of sorcery, belief in which remains widespread. Some tribes in the remote mountainous interior still live in very primitive conditions.

-- (sad@sad.sad), April 19, 2001

Answers

“Axes, knives and a shotgun”

Shotgun? Sounds like the same bunch of Pigmy’s that tore up Cincinnati last week.

-- More (stupid@burrhead.shit), April 19, 2001.

The murdered woman, who was accused of causing the death of a boy, was hacked to pieces and her remains thrown into a river.

Sounds like she was convicted by a jury of her peers and sentance carried out. What's the problem here? She won't be killing any more kids, that's for sure.

-- Justice (Is@Served.folks), April 19, 2001.

This "It takes a village" deal has a definate downside.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), April 19, 2001.

Justice, it looks as if she was merely accused but it doesnt say proven. This is how those salem witch hunts worked. Someone accuses and then mass hysteria follows. People are often wrongly convicted merely because they are "different".

I suggest you watch "The Crucible" and "The Green Mile".

-- (cin@cin.cin), April 19, 2001.