WUNRN
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/05/paraguay-witch-burned-alive_n_6108646.html
PARAGUAY – INDIGENOUS WOMAN ACCUSED OF WITCHCRAFT AND BURNED
ALIVE
11/05/2014 -
ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — An indigenous woman was burned alive in Paraguay
after being accused of witchcraft, a local prosecutor confirmed Wednesday.
Prosecutor Fany
Aguilera said that members of the Mbya Guarani ethnic group tied 45-year-old
Adolfina Ocampos to a wooden pole and shot arrows at her before they burned her
alive. Ocampos was sentenced to death last week by the community's chief in
Tahehyi, a village some 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of the capital,
Asuncion. The date of the killing was unclear.
Aguilera has
charged nine men in the village with first-degree murder, and they have already
acknowledged killing the woman.
A report by the UN
Refugee Agency estimates that thousands of people worldwide are accused of
being witches every year. The UN says they are often abused, cast out of their
families and communities and sometimes killed.
But the case here
is unusual.
"I've been
working in Paraguay for 40 years and I can't remember a similar episode of an
execution for alleged sorcery," said Jose Zanardini, an Italian
anthropologist and Catholic priest. "The tragic death of this woman is
isolated and out of the ordinary within the coexistence of Paraguay's 20 ethnic
indigenous groups. In general, the Indians are very peaceful and
tolerant."
The state agency
for the protection of indigenous peoples said in a statement Wednesday that "although
the indigenous communities are ruled by customary law, their acts cannot violate
the constitutional rights of respecting the life and the liberty of
people."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________