{"id":468978,"date":"2022-01-13T22:38:55","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T22:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=68653"},"modified":"2022-01-13T22:38:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T22:38:55","slug":"still-no-justice-for-png-sorcery-burning-victim-kepari-leniata-after-nine-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/13\/still-no-justice-for-png-sorcery-burning-victim-kepari-leniata-after-nine-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Still no justice for PNG sorcery burning victim Kepari Leniata after nine years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Rebecca Kuku in Port Moresby<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Nine years ago widespread publicity given to the public execution of Kepari Leniata, who was falsely accused of sorcery and burnt by a mob in broad daylight in Papua New Guinea\u2019s third-largest city Mt Hagen, shocked people around the world.<\/p>\n<p>The tragic death also highlighted the problem of <a href=\"https:\/\/dpa.bellschool.anu.edu.au\/sites\/default\/files\/publications\/attachments\/2021-03\/sorcery_accusation_related_violence_in_png_part_7_the_harm_of_sarv_dpa_in_brief_2021_05_miranda_forsyth_ibolya_losoncz_philip_gibbs_fiona_hukula_william_kipongi.pdf\">Sorcery Accusation Related Violence (SARV)<\/a> in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Leniata was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.findagrave.com\/memorial\/104807149\/kepari-leniata\">20-year-old mother of two accused of sorcery.<\/a> She was stripped naked, doused in petrol and burnt alive in front of hundreds of people on 6 February 2013.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/may\/03\/sorcery-related-violence-should-be-thought-of-as-profoundly-modern\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Sorcery-related violence should be thought of as profoundly modern<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2022\/01\/13\/png-post-courier-laughing-stock-sorcery-issue-way-out-of-control\/\">PNG Post-Courier: \u2018Laughing stock\u2019 sorcery issue way out of control<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>She was wrongly accused of killing a six-year-old boy that died at Mt Hagen General Hospital and the boy\u2019s relatives tortured her with a hot iron rod, stripped her naked, tied her hands and legs and threw her into a pile of burning tyres as hundreds watched.<\/p>\n<p>The gruesome photos of Leniata being burnt alive were featured on the front pages of both the country\u2019s national dailies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Policemen at scene<\/strong><br \/>\nSeveral policemen were at the scene but were helpless to do anything to save the women because they were outnumbered by the perpetrators.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_68658\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68658\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-68658 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Sorcery-burning-ET-400wide.png\" alt=\"Sorcery burning crime\" width=\"400\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Sorcery-burning-ET-400wide.png 400w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Sorcery-burning-ET-400wide-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Sorcery-burning-ET-400wide-80x60.png 80w, https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Sorcery-burning-ET-400wide-265x198.png 265w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-68658\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Papua New Guinea sorcery burning crime against Kepari Leniata on 6 February 2013. Image: Executions Today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Four years later, in November of 2017, Leniata\u2019s six-year-old daughter was tortured in Enga by several men after one of her friends became sick.<\/p>\n<p>She was tortured for a week before word spread and she was rescued.<\/p>\n<p>Her only crime was being the daughter of a woman accused of sorcery and burnt to death.<\/p>\n<p>To this date, the perpetrators involved in both cases still remain at large.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rebecca Kuku<\/em> <em>is a senior PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2022\/01\/14\/still-no-justice-for-png-sorcery-burning-victim-kepari-leniata-after-nine-years\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Rebecca Kuku in Port Moresby Nine years ago widespread publicity given to the public execution of Kepari Leniata, who was falsely accused of sorcery and burnt by a mob in broad daylight in Papua New Guinea\u2019s third-largest city Mt Hagen, shocked people around the world. The tragic death also highlighted the problem of Sorcery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40781,362,5,975,1284,6,7,118,12,366,13,14,40782,40225,28059,40226,1743,40783,30867],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468978"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470190,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468978\/revisions\/470190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}