July 26, 2007

Witch Murders in Papua New Guinea

In the past year, about 500 women in Papua New Guinea have been attacked or murdered by mobs of people claiming they are witches who have cursed the Pacific island nation’s younger generation with AIDS. The main evidence against the women, according to one report, is that they walk differently from others. Papua New Guinea accounts for 90% of all infections in the Oceania region, in part because of high rates of violence against women.

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