ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) — An indigenous woman was burned alive
in Paraguay after being accused of witchcraft, a local prosecutor confirmed
Wednesday.
Prosecutor
Fany Aguilera said that members of the Mbya Guarani ethnic group tied
45-year-old Adolfina Ocampos to a wooden pole and shot arrows at her before
they burned her alive. Ocampos was sentenced to death last week by the
community's chief in Tahehyi, a village some 180 miles (290 kilometers) north
of the capital, Asuncion. The date of the killing was unclear.
Aguilera
has charged nine men in the village with first-degree murder, and they have
already acknowledged killing the woman.
A report
by the UN Refugee Agency estimates that thousands of people worldwide are
accused of being witches every year. The UN says they are often abused, cast
out of their families and communities and sometimes killed.
But the
case here is unusual.
"I've
been working in Paraguay for 40 years and I can't remember a similar episode of
an execution for alleged sorcery," said Jose Zanardini, an Italian
anthropologist and Catholic priest. "The tragic death of this woman is
isolated and out of the ordinary within the coexistence of Paraguay's 20 ethnic
indigenous groups. In general, the Indians are very peaceful and
tolerant."
The state
agency for the protection of indigenous peoples said in a statement Wednesday
that "although the indigenous communities are ruled by customary law,
their acts cannot violate the constitutional rights of respecting the life and
the liberty of people."
The World Post
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