WUNRN
Women News Network
August 19, 2009
Zambia - Acid Crime Survival
Women face extreme violence from acid
- Correspondent SALLY CHIWAMA – Women News
Network – WNN
Artwork by sculptor Theo Junior - 2009
“I didn’t realize that the tongue skin was
also peeling off. The young girl was pushing something in her mouth. I opened
her mouth to see and found that almost the whole tongue had come off. I had to
pull it out like you do with a cow and only a little red thing (tongue)
remained.”
These excruciating words by a girl’s older
sister describe the aftermath of the worse physical attack a 13 yr old could
ever experience.
What happened to 13 yr old Fridah Mwansa
(not her real name) has been happening to women and girls at an ever increasing
rate in
__________________
Acid - A Weapon of Choice
Nitric acid, sulphuric acid and/or
hydrochloric acid in the Central Asia and
Known to chemists as HNO3, nitric acid was originally
used in secret rocket fuel formulas by development scientists in
Today it is still one of the ingredients
used in jet fuel propellant. Nitric acid is also used primarily in the
manufacture of fertilizer, or in gold jewelry manufacturing to separate gold
from other metals.
“Red Fuming Nitric Acid,” is a key
substance used in the manufacture of Iraqi military Scud, Guidline, Silkworm
and Kyle missiles. Controversies with the toxic effects in causalities in the
use and deployment of these weapons of war increased during the US Gulf War
era. Today these weapons are still in use. The production of acid in chemical
manufacturing facilities has also held some of the
responsibility for troubles with today’s global acid rain.
Although nitric acid is actively being
manufactured worldwide, especially in
“World nitric acid production in 2006 was
estimated at about 51 million metric tons,” says CHE – the Chemical Economics
Handbook Program, one of the world’s leading chemical reporting and marketing
agencies.
But how easy is it for anyone to buy? In the
“In Dhaka (
__________________
Interviewing an Acid Survivor
Interviewing an acid survivor is tricky.
The damage to victims is so severe, as a journalist myself, it’s hard not to
react personally to the story.
As Fridah’s sister, Annette, narrated her
excruciating story to me, her little sister Fridah sat close on my side, as if
she needed some kind of protection. She looked scared, vulnerable and alone. I
asked her if she wanted to tell me her whole story. Her answer came swiftly as
a tear dropped from the one good eye she had left.
“I don’t want to talk about it; I’m really
tired of this,” she said flatly.
I wondered; should I press her to tell me
exactly what she was tired of?
“It brings back very painful memories,” she
declared. “I can see the whole incident all over again, and very clearly, like
it happened yesterday”.
I sat patiently. All I could do was listen
and watch and take notes. She looked like her pain was excruciating. Half her
face was missing.
In 2002, in a small village 80 kilometers
from Lusaka, in the village of Mpika boma, 11 yr old Fridah was doing her
homework when she suddenly found out from her parents she was now “engaged” to
be married to a man many years her senior.
Her parents had already received the “insalamu” (dowry)
for their daughter, so the agreement was done. Two years, after Fridah
completed her primary education, the child would be handed over in a bridal
ceremony to her new husband, Thomas Chileshe.
With Fridah’s difficult news her older
sister, Annette, had another idea. She made plans for a rescue. Annette helped
Fridah move to the capital of
But Thomas Chileshe had other plans too,
even after the news that Fridah’s family wanted to annul all the marriage
arrangements, in a series of calculated moves he would do everything he could
in an attempt to force Fridah to be his wife.
“Listen Thomas, this relationship was made
in the village and not in
Thomas was hoping to take Fridah back home
to live with him right away. “This girl is here for school, so please make this
your last visit,” repeated Annette sternly to Chileshe.
__________________
Acid Crime and the Law
The need to pay attention to stories about
the brutal forms that acid attacks take is evident. Increasing numbers of
humanitarians and global rights activists are now rallying worldwide to bring
legislative sanctions to global acid violence perpetrators, underground acid
resellers, acid distributors and manufacturers.
The first case of reported acid attack in
the world happened in
To battle acid crime,
According to the Bangladesh Acid Crime
Control Act, if investigators of the crime neglect their duties in properly
collecting evidence or making witness reports, the investigators and
enforcement officers can also be sanctioned. The Acid Crime Control Tribunal in
___________________________________
Deception – Lies and
Intimidation
“He told me his mother was very ill and had
traveled to
“I asked him why his mother wanted to see
me and he said because she wanted to hear from me in person; to know whether it
was actually true that I wanted to discontinue the engagement,” added Fridah.
“He assured me that visiting her would only be for a short while. He would make
sure I got home safe and in good time.”
But lies come easy.
When Fridah arrived at the place where
Thomas was staying he invited the young girl quickly inside. As soon as she sat
down, Chileshe locked all the doors as he wrestled Fridah’s mobile phone from
her hand. In her youthful naïveté Fridah asked to see Thomas’ mother, but
Chileshe told her that she wasn’t in the house, that she was far away and
nowhere near them. She was back home in the village.
Fridah Mwansa before and after acid attack.
Image: Sally Chiwama
By that time, “my sister was (frantically)
calling me to try to find out my whereabouts,” said Fridah describing the
incident. “Thomas had gone outside with my phone locking me up inside,” Fridah
continued. “He dialed Annette, telling my sister that she would never see me
again because I was now his wife.”
At that point there was no going back.
In a chilling move, Thomas began using
Fridah’s mobile phone, in a form of texting crime, calling her bank of
relatives; her bothers, her sisters, her “Aunties;” telling them all they would
never see Fridah again; and that they shouldn’t bother looking for her because
he had married her.
Back at Annette’s home, Fridah’s sister was
in a panic as she called the Lusaka Police Service to report Fridah’s abduction
to the Victim Support Unit (VSU). “No, she didn’t know Chleshe’s location.”
The police thanked Annette for the
notification. The night was long and full of tears.
Next day, Thomas Chileshe’s sister-in-law
went to the house where Fridah lay captive. She tried to reason with her
brother-in-law through a window in the house asking him, why was he keeping
this child trapped without the consent of her guardians? She pleaded with him
to let the young girl go.
It worked. Thomas opened the door freeing
Fridah to walk home from her ordeal.
But Thomas never did let go.
“I went home alone and reported the entire
incident to the VSU,” said Fredah. “My family tried to find out if Thomas had
raped me. I told them the truth; that he never slept in the house while I was
there, but they wouldn’t believe me. In fact, I am still a virgin,” said Fridah
tearing.
It was after this that the text messages began.
“Nag banana Chachiine nkakwipaya,” was the
first message that suddenly appeared one afternoon on Fridah’s phone. It
translates a chilling message, “If it is true that you have denied me, I will
kill you.”
This message and the ones that followed
were reported one by one to
At first Fridah and her sister didn’t take
the messages seriously. They even laughed about many of the threats. But the
messages didn’t stop. They came more and more frequently as the ongoing tone of
violence from Thomas became more and more urgent.
Fridah tried to ignore the urgency in the
words. With each text message she tried to decide if she should save it and
show it to the VSU. She wished the whole thing would just wear off and go away.
What else could she do? The police could make no promises.
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.