Albinos 'murdered' for good luck
2008-04-03 08:26
Dar es Salaam - Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete on Wednesday announced measures aimed at protecting albinos from witchdoctors who murder and mutilate them for good luck.
"I am told that people kill albinos and chop their body parts, including fingers, believing they can get rich when mining or fishing," Kikwete said during his monthly televised address to the nation.
"This is senseless cruelty. It must stop forthwith," he said, adding that 19 murders and two unresolved disappearances were recorded over the past year.
The police had been instructed to step up the hunt for witchdoctors involved in the murders and provisions made for all albinos in the country to be registered in order to increase security around them, he said.
A Tanzanian albino group recently complained they were being targeted by witchdoctors, following a string of murders.
In 2007, police reported several cases of people exhuming the freshly-buried bodies of infants to remove organs, in many cases the genitals, to make potions used in witchcraft rituals.