PAPUA NEW GUINEA - In the early hours of the morning, Mogl was attacked by a lynch mob. She was tortured for an hour and burned with hot iron rods before being forced to watch her home and possessions being burned to the ground.
Rescued by her husband and nephews, Mogl, 38, badly injured, was rushed to the nearest hospital.
"They used an extension cable to tie my neck, then they heated a car spring, and started burning me all over my body. My whole body was battered and bruised. I was on the drip for three days. The nurses and the doctors there could not believe the damage that was done to my body," said Mogl.
Her accusers? Her very own neighbours from her village. The reason for the attack? Being a sanguma, or witch.
“They beat me with sticks, the blunt edges of bush knives and axes, and said I was a sanguma woman. The pushed me and forced me to go to the big village where the mourning ceremony of the deceased boy was held,” said Mogl in an interview with Channel NewsAsia’s GET REAL.
The horrific attack on that October morning in 2014 was spurred by the sudden illness and death of her nephew. Mogl was his primary caretaker. She was accused of causing her nephew's death by witchcraft, a claim which she denies.
Mogl recovered from her injuries from that traumatic day and is now living in refuge. She’s seeking justice for the crimes committed against her.
However, Mogl's fight for justice is far from complete.
OF SUPERSTITIONS AND VICE
Mogl is a lucky survivor of witch-hunts that have been taking place in the villages of Papua New Guinea for years. Official government figures indicate that around 150 women are reportedly killed each year as a result of these witch-hunts. Interventions and rescues by NGOs have helped resettle around 400 victims of sorcery accusations since 2012.
Mr Paul Petrus of Human Rights Defenders is one of those committed to monitoring and rescuing victims of witch-hunting.
“We had to do something. Nobody was forming a response group ready to assist people. When I get the call that something’s wrong with the village, I immediately call the police commander. He sends a police unit in his car to go with me, and we do the rescues."
The social hysteria around sorcery accusations continues in Papua New Guinea where 85 per cent of the population still live in huts and off subsistence farming.
In October, a video emerged on social media of four women being accused of sorcery. They are stripped naked, tied together, brutalised and burned as more than a dozen onlookers egg on their attackers, accusing the women of eating a man’s heart.
In a country with one of the lowest literacy rates in the Asia-Pacific region, villagers often seek antiquated advice mired in superstition and bygone traditions. It is a common belief in rural Papua New Guinea that illnesses and death never occur naturally. Instead, villagers may sometimes seek advice from a village glassman, otherwise known as a witch doctor, to explain the cause of illness or death.
GET REAL met Alphonsus, a glassman known as Mr Powerman. While he refused to demonstrate how he identifies witches, he said: "When a person is close to dying and when his doctors cannot identify a cause of his illness that means he has been attacked by a sorcerer. This person needs to come and visit a glassman like me so I can find out why he is sick, then I will heal him."
Mob justice sometimes follows and in a country where gender roles put women beneath men, women often bear the brunt of these witch-hunts.
Victims and NGOs believe that the consumption of drugs like marijuana and a powerful moonshine known as steam are major factors in rousing the suspicions, violence and tempers of villagers.
"These young boys drink steam and smoke marijuana. Then there are people who tell them things, to influence them to start accusing people of sorcery. That’s when they end up beating and torturing innocent people," said Mogl.
For a long time, sorcery-related killings were not classified as murder in local laws. A string of highly publicised witch-hunt killings in 2013 prompted the repealing of a controversial 1971 law that permitted claims of witchcraft as defence in a murder trial, resulting in further legislation that finally classified sorcery-related killings as murder. However, the lack of police resources, the slow progress of education, and the fear of witnesses' own safety have prevented victims from coming forth and bringing their attackers to justice.
Today, Mogl and many other surviving victims of witch-hunts have yet to see their attackers being convicted for their crimes. Nevertheless, Mogl remains determined.
"I want to show my community that there is a law which says that they cannot just beat up other people based on suspicions alone,” she said.
“I want them to go to jail. If the court decides that they should be jailed, they must be jailed. If the court says they must pay compensation, they must pay compensation.
“I want justice.”
WOMEN NOT WITCHES: THE FULL EPISODE
Women Not Witches
Wife and mother Mogl miraculously survived witch burning Papua New Guinea. Human rights organisations evacuate, on average, 15 people from sorcery-related violence – and now Mogl wants to set a successful precedent for sorcery-related crimes. Can she win against ancient traditions, and how?
- CNA/kc
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