Navy Pillay was quoted yesterday by local reporters as saying that the government should act to stop the vicious killings and discrimination of Albinos.
Albino is a person who lacks normal pigmentation, with the result being that the skin and hair are abnormally white or milky and the eyes have a pink or blue iris and a deep-red of the eyeballs.
The mutilation and murder of people with albinism is often linked to witchcraft in Tanzania and other places in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Statistically, some 72 Albinos have been killed in Tanzania since 2009 which President Jakaya Kiwete described that the murders had brought shame to Tanzania and launched a national campaign to end the persecution of people with albinism.
Ms. Pillay chronicled the various attacks on Albinos withing 16 days in Tanzania and describe as fellows in the document she submitted to the Tanzanian government:
1. The murder of a seven-year-old boy, Lugolola Bunzari, on 31 January at Kanunge village in the Tabora region. His attackers slashed his forehead, right arm and left shoulder, and chopped off his left arm just above the elbow. The boy’s grandfather, aged 95, was also killed in the attack as he tried to protect his grandson;
2. A seven-month-old baby, Makunga Baraka, narrowly escaped death on 5 February after armed men attacked his home in the Simiyu region. Villagers chased the attackers away and surrounded the house to protect him. The baby and his mother were taken to the police station the following morning and given temporary sanctuary;
3. A 39-year-old woman Maria Chambanenge was attacked on 11 February by five armed men, allegedly including her husband, in Mkowe village in the Rukwa region. They hacked off her left arm while she was sleeping with two of her four children. The five suspects were subsequently arrested and the victim’s arm recovered – their trial is reportedly under way
4 .A 10-year-old boy, Mwigulu Matonange, was attacked on his way home from school and his left arm chopped off above the elbow by two unidentified men in Msia village in Rukwa. Three men have been arrested in connection with the attack.
“These crimes are abhorrent, people with albinism have the right to start living, like anyone else, without fear of being killed or dismembered,” Ms Pillay said.
“I am deeply alarmed by the general discrimination and social exclusion many people with albinism suffer, as a result of their skin color, not just in Tanzania but in other countries as well,” she said.
Only five people have been convicted in Tanzania since 2000 for killing people with albinism which the United Nations says is not enough to serve as deterrent to others.
Some witchdoctors say that magic charms are more powerful if they contain body parts from people with albinism – this has led to a lucrative criminal trade in these body parts in Tanzania and other parts of Southern and Eastern Africa.
Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News
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