15 convicted for circumcisions
2008-05-16 19:57
Ouagadougou - A court in West Africa's Burkina Faso has convicted 15 women for carrying out female circumcisions on 14 infants aged between three and 16 months, a prosecutor said on Friday.
"The tribunal sentenced Karidjia Zerbo (who carried out the mutilations) to two years in prison on May 7," Didier Hien, prosecutor for the provincial court of Dedougou west of the capital Ouagadougou, told AFP by phone.
"The 14 other women, the mothers of the 14 girls who were circumcised, each got a suspended prison sentence of one year."
Female circumcision is also known as female genital mutilation (FGM). The UN World Health Organisation says FGM - the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia and related injury - is recorded in 28 African nations, and it opposes the practice on medical grounds.
According to the prosecutor, the mothers of the circumcised children were not sent to prison because they all had young babies.
"We have received a letter from the authorities that asks us to be strict with women who circumcise because FGM and child trafficking are recurring events in the region," Hien said.
Since 1996 Burkina Faso has had a law punishing FGM with up to five years in prison, but the practice remains widespread.