A New Case on 5 May 2010, 12-year-old boy

Another mutilation in Mozambique. We are receiving more than one report per month. This time a 12 year old boy was attacked on 5 May 2010. His genitals and eyes were removed. Amazingly...he survived and is in hospital after lying bleeding for 24 hours. One of the attackers confessed to our researcher, we hope to visit the boy in hospital later this week.

We have an interview confession from the person who attacked the 12 year old boy. He describes how he was approached by someone wanting him to assist in this mutilation. "He told me he wanted to work with me on cutting some parts from a child, indicating the size (of the child ed.). He promised that after I took the package and came back (...) he would pay me ($266 ed.). I knew about the existence of a child with those characteristics and I also wanted the money, I did not hesitate". He goes on to say "he said we should avoid killing, the body parts have to be extracted from a living person". The picture above was taken a few weeks ago.

More from the interview confession. He "threw a big stone at the child's chest to make him faint and so that we could work freely. Next, (name removed) gives me the knife and tells me to cut and remove the eyes, threatening me not to give up or fear, for me not to think as a human being and not to see the child as a person in that moment". He goes on "first he removed the eyes of the child, I removed the entire package of the genital organ of the child with the same knife. (...) then he placed the body parts in a plastic bag and he handed it to me sending me to go the the other side, to Malawi". One of our team is hoping to visit this 12 year old boy in hospital in the next few days.

Still about the 10-year-old girl

We've received an interview with the police chief for the case of the 10-year-old girl. He confirmed they killed the girl and then removed her genital organs, her tongue and her teeth. He then said "After they murdered they threw her in the well that had water, the relatives started looking but they didn’t know that she was right there in the well of their house, they even kept drinking the water from that well even after the child was inside it".

A New Research Project

Information on trafficking body parts has previously been based almost entirely on hearsay and has been easy for both Governments and Civil Society to claim it either does not occur or is so infrequent it does not merit any response or attention. The findings in the report however, show that regular mutilations occur both in South Africa and Mozambique and body parts are forcibly removed from children and adults causing death or severe disability. Throughout the report, informants share personal experiences which confirm that body parts are taken across the border between South Africa and Mozambique. Through numerous accounts, both hearsay and firsthand, from Civil Society and Government institutions, the following questions are answered:

• What is the incidence and prevalence of trafficking body parts in South Africa and Mozambique?
• What are the macro (socio-economic, cultural, political, historical), interpersonal and individual factors that lead to trafficking body parts?
• What policies and programmes are in place to counter trafficking body parts?
• How can Civil Society and Governments use this information to improve their programmes?

The report documents that body parts are frequently trafficked in South Africa and Mozambique and so-called witchdoctors, usually through a third party, actively seek human body parts from live victims to be used in their medicine. The research found that it is a commonly held belief in South Africa and Mozambique that traditional medicine, when made with body parts, is stronger and more powerful.

The report highlights that the policies and programmes in place to counter trafficking body parts are practically nonexistent. The limited policies that could be used to counter this activity are out of date and not generally enforced.

The report draws attention to the lack of an internationally recognised definition of trafficking body parts and highlights that without such a definition, any attempt to counter this activity

will be impaired and these Human Rights violations will continue unabated.

Currently a second project is underway which aims, through workshops and focus groups, to reduce the demand through awareness raising activities within the affected communities and the supply, through initiatives with Traditional Healers associations, Border Officials and Governments. The objectives include carrying on with research, raising awareness, civic education, collecting and monitoring information and data on trafficking body parts, providing support for victims, witnesses and communities affected by the problem.

An important aspect of the project community involvement. The project will focus on working with communities towards a solution for reducing the supply and demand of body parts and it is essential that the behavior change comes from within the community. It is hoped that the communities will also feel valued as their ideas will implemented and they will be able to take ownership of both the problem and the solution.

Suspected Muti Killing

(Article from:The Phoenix and Verulam Sun Vol.7 No.30 – 30 July 2009. South Africa)

During the Human Rights League research (2008), male genitalia were found to be the body parts mentioned most during the interviews.

The interviewed Police officers stated that there are several cases of bodies being found missing body parts, however according to these informants, the parts are never found “But there are lots of cases in which the human organs are extracted but never found [...] We find many times bodies without organs or body parts” (MZ_Na_GI_2).

The informants interviewed in this research, when giving an example of an incident where body parts had either been taken or found, were asked what they thought the body part would be used for. Of the 62 informants who chose to answer this question, 93% believed they were either to be sold or used for activities relating to witchcraft and Muti. The objective of using body parts in the so-called ‘Muti murder’ is to create powerful traditional medicine based partly on human body parts. Traditional medicine has a wide range of purposes, for instance to heal illnesses, aid economic advancement or hurt enemies.

As part of Muti practices, some witchdoctors make use of the so-called ‘medicine murder’ or ‘Muti murder’, where body parts are removed from the bodies of living persons. The intention is not to kill the victims as such, but it is expected that they will die due to the damage inflicted (Ashforth, 2005). It is a deep founded belief of the witchdoctors that the body parts are necessary for the Muti to work and it is required that the victims are dismembered while they are still alive. The screams of the victims are believed to make the medicine more powerful by waking the spirits and empowering them, thus resulting in victims being mutilated alive (Griffin et al 2004, Labuschagne 2004). This research found some accounts where the victim was alive when the body parts were extracted, however a number of victims mentioned in this research were murdered and the body parts were removed post-mortem. An interviewed Doctor in Mozambique stated “The genital was removed with a very precise cut, or probably two cuts, one from each side removing the genitals. And the cuts were made after the person was dead […] no sign of bleeding. It means she was dead when the injuries were done” (MZ_MC_I_2).