http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/07/20097231380929658.html
Thursday, July 23, 2009
18:21 Mecca time, 15:21 GMT
Killers of Burundi albinos jailed
Witch doctors tell clients albinos' body parts bring luck in
love, life and business
Five men have been jailed in Burundi for murdering African albinos and
selling their body parts to witch doctors.
The leader of the gang was jailed for life at a court in Burundi's
eastern Ruyigi province on Thursday after being found guilty of planning and
carrying out the killings.
Four others were sentenced to between seven and 15 years in prison for
attempted murder and kidnappping.
"There is one who was found guilty of planning and executing the crime,
the three others attempted to kill and kidnap a woman and a child," Dodolin
Nahamasabo, the head of the court, told the Reuters news agency.
"Another one was condemned for mutilation and participation in the
association of criminals ... We decided to release three of them because we
didn't find enough evidence," Nahamasabo said.
Mutilated bodies
Police believe parts of the bodies of 11 murdered and mutiliated albino
men, women and children were smuggled across the border into Tanzania and sold
to witch doctors, who claim albinos' flesh brings luck in love, life and
business.
In depth
Video: African albinos killed for body organs
The 'genocide' of Burundi's albinos
The killings took place over a six-month period in Ruyigi in 2008.
Isaac Mwaura, from the Albino Society of Kenya, told Al Jazeera he
thought the crimes were "an extension of greed".
"People are greedy to overcome their poverty and they do anything
whatsoever, including killing their fellow human beings.
"Witchcraft has been practised for a very long time in Africa and it's
just metamorphosed into our modern ways of life, so when richness is seen in
terms of money and prosperity, people are going ahead.
He said: "If you look at witchcraft, before people were told to bring a
white hen or a black cat.
"But now they ... think these don't work and use people with albinoism."
Albinism is a congenital lack in the skin, eyes and hair of melanin
pigment which protects against the sun's ultraviolet rays.
There are about 200 albinos in the small central African nation of eight
million people.
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