04 March 2009

Tanzanians to name albino killers

Tanzania is launching a nationwide exercise urging the public to identify those behind dozens of murders of people with albinism.

In the secret "referendum", citizens will be invited to write down on slips of paper the names of those they suspect of involvement.

Legal officials will gather the names and pass them to the police.

President Jakaya Kikwete said the public should not fear retribution for naming the culprits.

The killers reportedly sell albino body parts - including limbs, hair, skin and genitals - to witchdoctors who make potions promising to make people wealthy....

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week decried the albino killings during his official visit to the country.

Last week, in neighbouring Burundi, assailants reportedly dismembered a six-year-old albino boy in his home in front of his parents, the eighth albino killing in that country.

The government issued a ban on all traditional healers in January in an effort to stop the killings and several have been arrested since then on suspicion of flouting the order.

Last month, a pastor was charged in Tanzania with being found in possession of the body parts of an albino.

Read the full article at BBC News.

I get sick every time I read a headline about these albino killings. We have had several here in Burundi since we arrived and it's rumored that they have to do with the Tanzania trade. What century is this? Sorcery?

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