Transcript
RUTH KISSAM: She's safe. She's much better now. Her wounds have healed pretty much so and only she has knife wounds on the back of her foot she has a knife wound and wounds on her back and on the back of her left leg. Those are the ones healing up slowly but otherwise her body is healed pretty much but we don't know the status of her mind and she is doing well but she has to be seen by someone like a counsellor to determine whether or not she is ok psychologically.
SARA VUI-TALITU: How did you become aware of her situation?
RK: Actually a call from my dad. My dad called me in the evening and told me that he saw her father, who then asked him how he was and then told him he was in the village for a week as his daughter was tortured. So that's when my dad called me that same night and told me his daughter had been tortured so he told me to fly up the next day. But I called my friend, Anton Lutz, who is a missionary up there in Enga and I called him up. I had dropped off Anton earlier during the day at the airport as he had come down to Port Moresby to fix his visa, so he'd been in Moresby for two days and I had dropped him off to the airport and the very next day I called him up and said he had to go to Enga to talk to the girl's family. I talked to the father and said the girl has to be released and he said those people up there might not release her and so we had to negotiate and my own dad did the same thing. So while I was talking to them on the phone while flying up to Hagen and wait for her, Anton was already on his way to her in the village and he had to spend another two hours negotiating with them so they could release the girl to him and he brought her down and I was still in Hagen waiting and we took her to a safe place and took her to a hospital and she was given the best treatment and she was in hospital for about 5 days or so.
SVT: How did she come to be accused of sorcery? Was it a matter of her family connection?
RK: Well one of her playmate friends got a fever. It was one of the kids she was playing with and that was how she came about to be tortured.
SVT: I understand some high profile people have spoken out about this girl's story. What have they said?
RK: Yes well there is a lot of condemnation going on, there is a lot. The Prime minister has actually made a call and condemned their actions and the Governor of the Province has also condemned their actions and it is good that the government is coming out and saying this. So we need more than words we need actions. We need the perpetrators brought to justice. We need actions to back up the condemnation. We just can't condemn and leave it at that. There has to be more done and unless things are done, these things will keep happening. We have to take action. Cumulative actions must be taken against perpetrators and in the strongest terms but then we have to back up our words with actions and that is something that still needs to be done. The perpetrators are still not arrested and then that is exactly what happened with the mum and we are living that old nightmare over again.
SVT: Is this particular girl's case one of the worst ones you have seen in relation to sorcery torture?
RK: I have seen worse but this is something I have never seen before particularly against a child.
SVT: So people accused of sorcery, are they normally adults?
RK: Yes it is normally against adults. But then there are some areas where children can be involved as well and this is those areas where there are still cultural beliefs and it died out. But it has now sort of picked up again and now it extends to just about anything, jealousy, greed and just a power play. In some cultures like in Enga it is not even a cultural practice. It is not something they even believe in they don't practice it, it is not even found in their province. It is an imported belief. Attacking a child is something that even in Enga tribal warfare when they go to war, they don't touch children, the women and children are not even touched. That is the whole cultural side of their tribal fight. But now this belief system is making them go crazy and they are attacking children.
