Muti Murder

[ogopogo3]

Possible break in Muti murder case

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=428573

A group of suspected child traffickers was arrested in London today in a dramatic dawn offensive involving more than 200 police officers.

A total of 21 people were detained in the operation launched by detectives investigating the murder of a young boy whose torso was found floating in the River Thames.

Police believe they have smashed a crime network responsible for smuggling African children in to the UK.

Officers swooped on nine addresses in east and south-east London during the early hours.

Most of those detained are Nigerian nationals and they were arrested on suspicion of immigration, people trafficking and passport offences.

They are suspected of bringing in youngsters and adults via Europe - the route they believe was followed by the murder victim, known as Adam, discovered near Tower Bridge in September 2001.

Detective Inspector Will O'Reilly, leading the Adam inquiry, said this morning: "This is the trafficking side of the Adam investigation and it is significant and important to that inquiry as a whole.

"We've uncovered what we believe is a criminal network concentrating on people trafficking, particularly from mainland Africa through Europe to the UK.

"We don't know how many children are involved in this operation but it's certainly in the hundreds, if not the thousands, coming from mainland Africa into the UK."

Commander Andy Baker, of Scotland Yard, said children brought into the UK on false documents are often used to carry out an elaborate benefit fraud, "slave" labour or used in the sex industry.

Many arrive at airports travelling alone and escape the attention of the authorities because they are travelling on British passports which are either stolen or forgeries.

Detectives believe the children are given false identities and are passed around adults claiming to be their parents to make bogus child benefit claims.

Those arrested in today's operation will be DNA tested to see if there is any family link with Adam.

The unknown boy, named by detectives, was aged between four and seven and had been mutilated in what police believe was a ritualistic sacrifice, possibly by the African black magic "muti" cult.

His torso measured just 18 inches by eight inches and was discovered naked apart from a pair of orange shorts which could only be bought in Woolworths stores in Germany.

Detectives used groundbreaking forensic techniques to establish he was from a region of south-west Nigeria between Benin City and Ibadan.

The majority of those arrested today were believed to be from the Benin City area.

Earlier this month, a Nigerian man was interviewed by police in connection with Adam's death.

Sam Onojhighovie, aged 37, appeared at Dublin's High Court as part of a bid to extradite him to Germany, where he has already been convicted in his absence and sentenced to seven years for offences linked to human trafficking.

Detective Inspector O'Reilly has spoken to Onojhighovie and requested a DNA test, believing he could be the boy's natural father.

He is thought to be the estranged husband of Joyce Osagiede, who was arrested in connection with the murder a year ago in Glasgow. She was not charged and was later returned to Nigeria.

The inquiry, codenamed Operation Swalcliff, has seen detectives hunting for Adam's true identity and his killers in several countries and an appeal for help by former South African President Nelson Mandela.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Calabar bean

Some interesting developments connected with the calabar bean:

BEAN CLUE IN TORSO CASE

Police investigating the 'Thames torso' murder believe they may be close to solving the case.

The headless and limbless body of the victim, called Adam by detectives, was found in the river near Tower Bridge in September 2001.

Analysis of the mineral content of Adam's bones showed he had been brought up in a particular area of Nigeria.

Now a substance in his stomach has been identified at Kew Gardens as the highly poisonous calabar bean - given to suspected witches in West Africa.

Police believe the bean may have been used to subdue Adam before he was killed in a bizarre ritual.

Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt says detectives are hoping to extradite a number of suspects from Nigeria and Ireland.

Several arrests were made in the summer but there are complications because of the suspects' involvement in other cases.

"Detectives are more confident than ever of solving the crime. They have never given hope, even though it looked impossible at first," said Brunt.

Detectives say Adam was aged between four and six and was alive when he was brought to London from Nigeria.


Last Updated: 09:22 UK, Thursday October 16, 2003

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-12829630,00.html

other news on his:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3195926.stm

http://www.itv.com/news/1286679.html

and a nice overview on the bean:

Deadly Bean Used in Witchcraft Trials

By Caroline Gammell, PA News


The deadly poisonous calabar bean – also known as the Ordeal Bean or Doomsday Plant – was once used to hunt down witches.

Anyone accused of dabbling in the supernatural was forced to eat a crushed sample of the purple-coloured bean.

If a person was innocent, their body would react and vomit up the treacherous bean within half an hour.

But if a person died from eating the calabar, it proved and punished their guilt.

When the bean – which has no taste or smell – is ground into a powder and served with water, it can kill a human within an hour.

The calabar bean is derived from a west African woody vine in the pea family which stretches up to 50ft high.

In spring, the inch-thick vine produces long wisteria-style clusters of purple flowers which fall to the ground, leaving six-inch brown seedpods to develop.

When these pods ripen, they split to reveal two– or three-inch purple-brown seeds, known as beans.

The kidney-shaped beans, also known as Esere, were also used in a form of tribal duelling – two opponents would divide a bean in half and eat it – but often this level of poison would kill both adversaries.

When the British colonised western Africa, they disapproved of the witchcraft trial and banned the growing of the beans.

By the middle of the 19th century they outlawed the use of the bean completely, but it is still used in some tribal rituals to this day.

Calabar beans were first introduced into Britain in 1840 and planted in the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens in 1846.

In 1863, the medical attributes of the deadly bean were examined by Sir Thomas Fraser.

It has since been cultivated in medicine and is the source of the drug physostigmine which is a powerful stimulant of muscular contractions.

Calabar beans kill by contracting the heart, the diaphragm and the pulmonary muscles to rigid paralysis.

In medicine, this controlled contraction can be used to stimulate the muscles after surgery as well as in ophthalmology.

Physostigmine is a miotic which causes the pupil of the eye to contract and helps to reverse the build-up of pressure inside the eye that can lead to blindness from the disease glaucoma.

Physostigmine is also currently being studied in connection with Alzheimer’s disease.

Chemicals derived from the bean have previously been used in agricultural insecticides and chemical warfare nerve gases.

http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2058324

[edit: See also:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/7206466?source=Evening Standard

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/7206531 ]

Emps

 

[McAvennie]

On the general topic of things being washed up in the Thames I remember on a visit to the London Aquarium last year that they had a cabinet containing 'junk' washed up from the Thames. In it was watches, mobiles, jewellery, wallets. Made me think how many of these items were not just lost property but potential evidence in missing persons cases? Perhaps the stuff they had was given over from the police after it had been checked and eliminated. Doubt it though.
Wonder if they found the guy who jumped off Tower Bridge yesterday in front of the Blaine watchers yet?

 

[liveinabin]

Adam

Thought you might like to know that there is a program on radio 4 at 8:00 about the investigation in to the headless and limbless body of a boy found in the Thames. Hereis a link to the listing. If you are out side to uk or you want to listen on you computer then you can find a link to "Listen Live" at the top of the page.

If you have missed it then it may be on "listen again".

 

[rynner2]

2 more threadlets merged here...!

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Boy's eyes plucked out in withcraft ceremony

February 11, 2004 - 8:09AM



Four Nigerian men were charged with plucking out the eyes of a 13-year-old schoolboy for use in witchcraft, the state news agency reported today.

They face charges ranging from criminal conspiracy to grievous bodily harm and permanent disfigurement for the attack on the boy, who was taken to hospital in the north-eastern state of Bauchi.

Police suspect the attack was commissioned by one of the defendants to make a charm believed to make people invisible.

The case will be heard by an Islamic court in Bauchi on February 18, the News Agency of Nigeria said.

If found guilty, the defendants could have their own eyes removed under the Islamic sharia code, the agency added.

Bauchi is one of 12 predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria which adopted sharia law five years ago.

- Reuters

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/11/1076388395599.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Grim story:

Organ traffickers 'threaten' nuns

Four Catholic nuns say they have received death threats after exposing an organ trafficking network allegedly operating in northern Mozambique.

The traffickers are said to target the sex organs of children, which are sold to make magic charms.

The nuns from the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate order say they have gathered evidence of the trade.

They say they have spoken to victims who managed to escape and photos of dead children with missing organs.

'Orphans targeted'

Ritual murders have been reported in many African countries, as some witchdoctors say using human organs in magic charms makes them more powerful.

These are believed by some to bring financial or sexual success to those who use them.

"We have received some very clear threats," order spokeswoman Sister Juliana told Portuguese radio.

"Several countries are involved in this iniquitous game and the victims are the poor, those who have no voice or defence, or the strength to defend themselves, we are convinced that Nampula is part of an international ring," said Sister Juliana.

She said there have been several attempts to abduct children from the orphanage they run in Nampula.

Mozambican, South African, Brazilian and Portuguese nationals were involved in the ring, she said.

The BBC's Jose Tembe in Mozambique says the government had sent a team of investigators to the area to probe claims of the existence of the network.

The organs are reportedly smuggled into neighbouring Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The Spanish Embassy in Mozambique is also investigating the claims after receiving reports from the nuns, who have lived in the area for 30 years.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/3483581.stm

Published: 2004/02/13 10:40:47 GMT

© BBC MMIV

 

[Alexius4]

I'm surprised the Matamoros murders haven't cropped up on the thread yet. 'Crime Library' holds an account: in short, a charasmatic practitioner of West African magic killed a number of people in the manner described to provide drugs runners with charms.

He came unstuck when he picked up and murdered a wealthy American college boy - he was tracked down and killed in a shoot-out with the police.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

I'm surprised the Matamoros murders haven't cropped up on the thread yet. 'Crime Library' holds an account: in short, a charasmatic practitioner of West African magic killed a number of people in the manner described to provide drugs runners with charms.

He came unstuck when he picked up and murdered a wealthy American college boy - he was tracked down and killed in a shoot-out with the police.

This thread has been largely for the strictly Muti killings - the Matmoros murders are mentioned in the Mexican drug runner murders thread:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13065

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Not a muti murder but very similar (if someone wants to move this to Strange Deaths then feel free):

Boy sacrificed at brick kiln

Patna, Feb. 14: A five-year-old boy was kidnapped and sacrificed at a brick kiln at Dhuranbigaha village in Bihar’s Aurangabad district.

Vikas Kumar, the son of a labourer, was allegedly thrown into a fire after his eyes were pierced, tongue and ears cut off and throat slit.

Two kiln workers, one of them a tantrik, had gone around the village saying they were looking for a healthy male goat to sacrifice to keep the kiln fire burning.

Vikas was found to be missing on February 5 and was probably killed on the evening of February 9. His body was recovered from under a haystack by villagers two days later.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040215/asp/frontpage/story_2898103.asp

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Assessors Clear Girl, 15, of Bizarre Murder


The East African Standard (Nairobi)

February 17, 2004
Posted to the web February 17, 2004

Francis Ngige
Nairobi

Assessors yesterday cleared a fifteen-year-old-girl charged with the murder of her two cousins whose bodies were dismembered.

The three assessors were unanimous in their verdict of not guilty against the minor (name withheld) who was alleged to have committed the bizarre crime two years ago.


Paul Kibugi, Stanley Ng'ang'a and Evans Mureu told trial judge Muga Apondi that the evidence adduced by the prosecution witnesses could not support a conviction.

The assessors said considering her age, the girl could not have murdered her cousins in the grisly manner as it was done.

The girl, represented by lawyer Sally Mbeche, allegedly murdered Moses Gikonyo, three, and Joseph Maina aged five months at Kirima Village in Koibatek District on September 4, 2001.

The assessors said no witness directly linked the minor to the death of the two children.

While summing up the case, Apondi had told the assessors to not only consider the age of the accused but also put into consideration the two lives lost.

During the close of the prosecution case, a doctor testified that he performed an autopsy on the body of Gikonyo and found that some of his body parts were missing.

Dr Christopher Kemboi said the boy's private parts had been chopped off.

Hei said the minor's private parts had been completely removed and that his throat, gullet and a major muscle in the neck were missing.

"I found out that the external genitalia were excised and were missing. The oesophagus, trachea and a major muscle in the neck were also missing," he said.

The neck was almost chopped off and was only joined to the body by some skin and muscle, he said.

Kemboi, who is the Medical Officer of Health(MOH) in charge of Kericho District Hospital, termed the excision as "very precise in both the neck and genital area and that a sharp object was used".

He said that after conducting the postmoterm, he formed the opinion that Gikonyo died due to severe blood loss caused by the excision of his genitalia and neck.

He said Maina, who was found murdered in his mother's bed on the same day, had a mark around his neck.

The judgement will be delivered on March 2

http://allafrica.com/stories/200402170436.html

It would be very unwise indeed to assume that children of this age aren't capable of such horrific murders but this has 'muti' written all over it (I suppose we shouldn't also rule out that she commited the murder for magical reasons or disguised a more 'mundane' couple of deaths by making it look like a muti murder).

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Muti on a large scale

This nearly went into the War Trophies thread:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12378

but it fitted better in here (although there is an interesting correspondance between the two):

Mutilation horror in DR Congo

At least 100 people, mostly unarmed civilians, have been killed in a wave of horrific attacks in southern Democratic Republic of Congo.

One survivor told the BBC's Arnaud Zaijtman in Lubumbashi that militiamen drained the blood of those they killed and put it into bottles.

"After they had cut off the sexual organs, they walked away with them. They took the victims' blood in flasks," said Claude Panza wa Losol, 22, nursing a bullet wound in his arm in the town's Don Bosco hospital.

The military commander of Katanga province, General Alengbia Nzambe, showed our correspondent pictures of the bodies of seven soldiers who had their faces and genitals cut off.

Our correspondent says that many fighters believe that using the body parts of their victims to make charms will make them more powerful.

Bloodshed fears

The attacks are blamed on a militia led by General "Chinja Chinja" or the Ripper.

Congolese military officials say that he is the last remaining militia leader in the north of Katanga province who is unwilling to integrate into the new Congolese army.


After five years of war, former rebel forces are being merged into a new united army under a peace deal.
Some 10,000 United Nations peacekeepers are in DR Congo to monitor a peace accord but they have not been sent to the scene of the atrocities.

UN spokesman Hamidoun Toure said that verifications were being made.

General Alengbia Nzambe has said that he will neutralise the Ripper.

But an aid worker in the region said that given the atrocities which were committed by the Ripper, he feared that a response from the Congolese army could generate more bloodshed.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/3516481.stm

Published: 2004/02/24 12:58:57 GMT

© BBC MMIV

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Pos. along similar lines:

Friday February 27, 2004


The mysterious world of witchcraft

By PHIONAH MWADILO
and GITONGA MARETE

The mood is frenzied. Men and women dance vigorously, stamping their feet and shaking their shoulders to the beat of throbbing drums accompanied by a kayamba. The women's ululations and the cheers of hundreds of spectators fill the air as the dancing party circles in on the kinu (mortar), the focal point of the ritual. The scene is part of a ritual to smoke out witches and wizards in Alidina village in Miritini, Mombasa.

The group dance is performed to put the witchdoctor (whose mission is to counter the work of witches and wizards) into the right mood for exorcising evil spirits. The key player runs up and down agitatedly, spraying the crowd with "treated" water using a flywhisk. He goes into a trance whenever he senses the presence of an evil spell, and at some point appears to be possessed himself when he falls to the ground, gasping for air and writhing as if in pain.

Such scenes have been common lately in Miritini, Mombasa, where a series of mysterious incidents, including deaths, have been attributed to witchcraft.

Witchcraft, those who claim to understand it say, manifests itself in different ways. According to Omar Magozi, an elder in Alidina, "when cats and goats make funny sounds at night, these sounds are intended to lure specific persons to witches’ traps. Witches also use snakes to subdue their victims". He adds: "When you note such signs, you realise you have been targeted by a witch."

Witches are motivated by jealousy and selfishness, asserts Magozi. They are evil people who feel threatened by other people’s development and progress.

So strong is the belief in witchcraft here that many people get charms to ward off evil spirits by consulting waganga (medicine men or witchdoctors). The witchdoctor first diagnoses the problem, a process known in Kiswahili as kupiga ramli, using his supernatural powers, after which he seeks the appropriate remedy.

This may come in the form of a charm to ward off evil spirits, or a process known as kuchanjwa, in which the witchdoctor applies a concoction of herbs to incisions on the "patient's" skin.

Witchdoctors are also believed to provide charms (tego) that can help catch an errant spouse "in the act". According to Magozi, in the olden days when there were few hospitals, children suffering from illnesses like flu, malaria and coughs could easily be treated with a boiled concoction of special herbs.

"The herbs were very effective but when the situation got out of control, we knew that the child had been bewitched so we would seek the services of a medicineman," he explains.

Many locals still hold such beliefs. Miritini residents tell of incidents that might seem far-fetched to others but which they insist are real.

Abdalla Pole, 34, says he never believed in witchcraft until he witnessed it in Kwale six years ago.

"There was a couple that was to wed," he recalls. "Shortly before they exchanged their vows, the bride collapsed and died. There was confusion and a medicineman was quickly called in. He advised that she be buried immediately."

That very night, Pole claims, the witchdoctor led the woman's family through a ritual that saw the groom recover his bride from another man, who had been his love rival. "What we had seen drop dead at the wedding was the spirit of the bride and not the girl herself," Pole says.

There are also chilling stories of how residents have lost loved ones without trace. These people are said to be held hostage by owners of evil spirits known as "majini". Further, it is claimed, those possessed by evil spirits suffer mental breakdowns that cannot be treated using conventional medicine.

At Magosi in Miritini, where 23 people were arrested in connection with witchcraft last month, we meet Omari Mzee, 23, who has been ailing for five months.

His family says he became violent, stopped talking, locked himself in the house and kept knives under his mattress. "When our brother fell sick we took him to Port Reitz hospital for treatment, suspecting that he was mentally sick," says the man's sister, Sophia. "But after tests by the doctors proved inconclusive, some of them advised us to seek alternative treatment, she says.

At Miritini Dome, a village sandwiched between the railway line and Mombasa/Nairobi highway, residents blame witchcraft for underdevelopment. Walking through the village, you come across a mud-walled hut with a makuti roof caving in. Inside the dilapidated shack, children repeat letters and words after their teacher.

"This is a nursery school that cannot progress due to witchcraft," says Matano Salim. "We cannot do business in this condition. The only shop we had here has gone under."

It is against this backdrop that the arrival of witch buster Akiba Bakari late last year was received with joy. Although generally poor, the people of Miritini contributed up to Sh50,000 per village for Akiba’s services, since they believed only he could save them.

"Since Bakari treated our brother, he has improved," Sophia says.

At Miritini Dome, where Bakari began his exorcism, residents say the witchdoctor’s arrival saw all witches in the village take off. At the centre of the village lies a sack of the witches' paraphernalia, known as a donga, that the villagers claim had been used to wreak havoc in their lives.

Matano says his brother, Juma Salim, admitted to have been practicing witchcraft, but gave it up after Bakari "treated" him.

Despite the traditionalists’ conviction that witchcraft exists, Muslims and Christians shun it as the work of the devil. The Chief Kadhi, Sheikh Hammad Kassim, says Islam does not recognise anything related to witchcraft. "If anyone is involved in witchcraft, he will harshly be disciplined by God," he says, quoting a verse from the Quran.

However, Kassim notes that it is possible for witchdoctors to use scripts from the Quran to try to convince people that God helps them. He adds that witchdoctors have made people believe that Islam is associated with witchcraft. "All they are interested in is getting money from desperate Kenyans," he says.

According to Bishop John Njenga of the Mombasa Catholic Diocese, "there is no place for witchcraft in Christianity and I don’t believe in it.

When the Government put a stop to the exorcism exercise in Miritini, residents pleaded for a reversal of the order. They said that witchcraft was rampant in the area and was responsible for the area's underdevelopment.

"We know better and that is why we invited Bakari to come and rid us of witches who have become a menace," says CouncillorHamisi Ndurya.

http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/Supplements/weekend/current/story270220045.htm

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Organ traffickers 'threaten' nuns

Four Catholic nuns say they have received death threats after exposing an organ trafficking network allegedly operating in northern Mozambique.

Seems like it has gone further:

Mozambique 'human organ' nun dead

A Brazilian nun has been found dead in Mozambique after some of her colleagues said they had exposed an organ trafficking network.

Doraci Edinger had reportedly been strangled and beaten in her home in the northern city of Nampula.

The traffickers are said to target the sex organs of children, which are sold to make magic charms.

The nuns from the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate said they had received death threats since their report.

On Tuesday, the authorities said they had found no evidence of a trade in human organs.

But the nuns say they have spoken to victims who managed to escape the ring and have photos of dead children with missing organs.

'Powerful charms'

The BBC's Jose Tembe in the capital, Maputo, says that many people believe that a ring does exist and accuse the government of not doing enough to investigate it.

One nun told our correspondent that she was extremely angry at the news of the death in Nampula.

Ritual murders have been reported in many African countries, as some witchdoctors say using human organs in magic charms makes them more powerful.

These are believed by some to bring financial or sexual success to those who use them.

"Several countries are involved in this iniquitous game and the victims are the poor, those who have no voice or defence, or the strength to defend themselves, we are convinced that Nampula is part of an international ring," order spokeswoman Sister Juliana told Portuguese radio earlier this month.

She said there have been several attempts to abduct children from the orphanage they run in Nampula.

Mozambican, South African, Brazilian and Portuguese nationals were involved in the ring, she said.

The organs were reportedly being smuggled into neighbouring Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/3493016.stm

Published: 2004/02/27 12:53:00 GMT

© BBC MMIV

The sidebar to that report has links to other reports last year on the human skin trade.

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Not strictly muti but along the same lines:

March 03, 2004

Witch doctors cause rise in child sacrifices

by Catherine Philp

An Indian villager in a loveless marriage was told that killing his son would solve his problems


AMAR JATAR had long suspected that his wife did not love him. Years of cajoling, words of tenderness and finally beatings failed to elicit any signs of affection.

So he did what millions of Indian villagers do in times of anguish or illness: he turned to a tantric, a traditional witch doctor who calls on super-natural powers to help to heal those in need.

He was expecting an amulet, perhaps some herbs and a few mantras to chant to ward off evil. He got the amulet, but when that failed to work the tantric offered him shocking advice. He told him that his elder son, four-year-old Lokendra, was not his and only by killing him could the curse on his marriage be lifted.

Eight days later, Jatar carried out the tantric’s instructions, strangling his son as he played in the back yard and throwing his body down a well. His wife, stricken by grief over her son’s disappearance, pushed him further away. Finally, consumed by guilt, Jatar went to his in-laws at their village outside Gwalior and confessed everything. He was arrested the next day.

Through his prison bars, Jatar fights back tears as he tells how he killed his own son. “Until I went to the tantric, I always believed he was mine,” he said, gazing at the ground with haunted eyes. “I wish I had never been to see him. He twisted my mind.” The case is the latest in a string of recent tantric-inspired child sacrifices across the Hindu heartland. They have sent shockwaves through Indian society and led to a call from the Supreme Court for the Government to halt the practice of this ancient but ill-defined art.

“They prey on the minds of the uneducated,” said Police Superintendent Sunil Gupta, who led a crackdown against tantrics in western Uttar Pradesh last year. “It is something we must drive out of society.” The crackdown came after the high-profile murder of a six-year-old boy, who was kidnapped and ritually sacrificed on a tantric’s instructions by a couple desperate to conceive a male child. It was the last of more than two dozen tantric sacrifices in the area within six months.

“It is impossible to work within the framework of the law with these cases,” Mr Gupta said, justifying the arrest of dozens of tantrics. “We have to rely on fear.”

Only the vaguest of laws exist governing tantrism, mostly banning the advertisement of their dubious practices. The chief problem in regulating it is how to define it in the first place. In the West the word is most often associated with its Buddhist incarnation, synonymous with yoga and spiritual sex. In India, tantrism is an amorphous amalgam of mystical and occult practices that were born of early Hinduism that now has a following of millions.

Almost every village in India boasts a tantric, who can be consulted on everything from jaundice to possession by spirits. Advertisements in newspapers and on billboards carry the numbers of tantrics specialising in particular problems, such as infertility. Many senior politicians consult tantrics for help with their careers, including Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister, whose personal tantric practises from a book-lined office in a leafy suburb of Gwalior.

India has dozens of secretive tantric cults with their own rituals. They include the Anandmarg cult of West Bengal, dozens of whose members were arrested in the 1980s for sacrifices of children aimed at appeasing the goddess Kali.

Tantrics in Gwalior say that such practices are a minority and give a bad name to those who practise their art faithfully. Pyare Lal, 62, has practised for four decades from a dank hut on the outskirts of the town, from where he dispenses herbal remedies and mantras in exchange for donations. In that time, he says, he has not sacrificed so much as a chicken . “This is wrong,” he said. “Has killing anyone ever been good for anyone else? These powers are meant to protect, not to harm. The community gets a bad name because of these people.”

Jagdish Bhagatji, 52, condemns the tantrics that tout for business as fakes and conmen. A tall, robed man with flowing grey hair, he regards tantrism as a calling and receives only gifts in return for his services, which he squeezes in around his regular job as a sweeper. “Real tantrics don’t put ads in the newspapers,” he said dismissively. “They are absolute fakes. They are just doing it for the money. This child sacrifice is done out of the belief that they will find buried treasure. They should be sent to jail.”

The tantric who advised Amar Jatar fled after Jatar’s arrest, but was caught by police some days later. He admits that Jatar went to visit him, but denies saying anything else to him, or even giving him the amulet. Jatar has refused to confess to police; with no evidence, they say that they are powerless to do anything.

Jatar is left to consider his fate in jail. His wife, Rajkumari, has left Gwalior with their surviving child to live with her in-laws. She has refused to visit her husband or to see him again.

When asked, he expresses remorse for what he has done, but little sense of responsibility. As far as he is concerned, the man ultimately to blame for his son’s murder still walks free. “The tantric should be in jail and he should serve a longer sentence than me,” he said. “I regret going to a tantric. I won’t be going again because I don’t think I am ever getting out of here.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-1023943,00.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Alarm at Liberian ritual killings

Hundreds of Liberian women have taken to the streets of the capital, Monrovia, protesting against a recent wave of ritual killings there.

Bodies of children have been found with some of their organs missing, taken for what are viewed as magical properties.

The women, dressed in white, stormed the Justice Ministry demanding action against the killers.

Politicians and the wealthy are believed to pay for the murders to increase their chances of good fortune.

The police argue they have too few resources to deal effectively with crime.

Limited resources

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia says the local media has recently been dominated by reports of people chasing children at night and the discovery of bodies with some organs missing.

"Our children are the future of this country, and we want them to be safe because we want our future to be bright," said Henrietta Sumo, the women's spokesperson.

Acting Justice Minister Edward Goba blamed logistical limitations for the inability of the police to fight such crime.

"Anybody's relatives could be killed as a result of these criminal activities. But the police have only two pick-ups; given the size of Monrovia and the population of the city, two pickups are like dropping two grains of rice into the ocean," said Mr Goba.

He expressed support for the women demonstrators.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/3551355.stm

Published: 2004/03/19 18:11:12 GMT

© BBC MMIV

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

I suppose a thread on muti murders should be considered off limits for those of a sensitive nature but even for this kind of thread this story is unpleasant and suitable caveats apply:

Mental test for 'baby boiler'

26/03/2004 13:29 - (SA)

Cooked body parts found

Johannesburg - A woman accused of having killed a four-year-old boy in Rookdale is expected to be sent for mental observation, SABC news reported on Friday.

Tshitshi Dlamini, 40, was due to appear in Pietermaritzburg High Court but the case was referred back to Bergville magistrate's court.

The SABC said it was expected Dlamini will be sent for 30 days mental observation at Fort Napier Hospital in Pietermaritzburg.

Sabelo Dubazane, 4, was reported missing by his mother on Tuesday and shortly afterwards police established that the child was last seen at a house in the Rookdale area.

Dlamini was found at the house but denied any knowledge of the boy's whereabouts when she was questioned.

The house was then searched and the child's body was found in a tub under a bed, Inspector Les Botha said. Blood-stained clothing was found in another tub, also under the bed.

Sabelo had sustained an open wound to the side of his head, and his upper lip and part of his left ear had been severed. Police then found severed body parts which appeared to have been partially cooked in Dlamini's room.

Police have not yet established the motive for the murder and have not ruled out that it might have been a "muti" murder.

Two weeks earlier North Rand police found a body of an unidentified boy who was blindfolded, trussed and set alight at the Daveyton Golf Course on the East Rand.

The boy's body has not been identified yet and no arrest had been made in connection with his murder. He had not been reported missing.

His legs and hands were tied and he was blindfolded with a white cloth. On the scene police found a bottle which smelt of paraffin next to his body.

http://www.news24.com/News24/AnanziArticle/0,,2-7-1442_1504069,00.html

[edit: This report suggest it was muti:

Man turns over mom for suspected muti murder


March 25 2004 at 01:06PM

By Mbongeni Zondi


A young man, who suspected his mother of having butchered a local four-year-old boy after smelling blood in their home, called the police who discovered half-cooked body parts and the corpse stuffed in a tin bath tub under a bed.

The incident happened on Tuesday in Rookdale, near Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal.

Daniel Mlangeni, the uncle of the boy, Sabelo Dubazane, said the entire village was in shock as the 40-year-old woman in whose house the body was found was a neighbour who lived barely 200 metres away.

Mlangeni said Sabelo, who had attended the local crèche, was usually under the watchful eye of his mother, Nomasonto Dubazane, and his grandmother. However, on Tuesday, his mother had left early in the morning to keep a place in the queue at a pension paypoint for his grandmother, who stayed behind.


'He called the police before we could even think of what to do next'
Shortly before Sabelo's brothers returned from school, the grandmother left to collect her pension, knowing he would be alone for a short while before his brothers returned.

But later in the afternoon Sabelo could not be found and the family raised the alarm in the village.

The 20-year-old friend of one of Sabelo's brothers suggested they look in his home because he had noticed his mother behaving suspiciously.

"Shortly thereafter, he returned, saying there was a strong smell of blood in his home and his mother did not allow him to look in one of the rooms.

When the police arrived they searched the house and found Sabelo's body in a metal tub under the bed and they arrested a woman who lived in the house.

"I was called to identify the body. When I saw it was my nephew, I could not believe my eyes. Although I could hardly bear to look, I noticed that he had a gaping wound on the side of the head and the upper lip and the left ear had been sliced off."

Mlangeni said he immediately approached the suspect, who was then in the back of the police car, and asked her where the missing body parts were. she calmly said they were on top of a trunk. "I told the police and they retrieved them."

A second bath tub containing bloodied clothes was also confiscated by the police, who said some of the boy's limbs had been partially cooked.

Sabelo's mother was still crying uncontrollably on Thursday afternoon and Mlangeni said she was in such shock on Tuesday that she could not even walk.

One of the neighbours said the suspect had been a loner who kept to herself and had not bothered anyone.

"Women in this village visit each other and meet on Sundays when they attend church services. She was odd in that she would wear her church uniform on Sundays but never put a foot outside her gate."

Although police said some of the limbs were half-cooked, they said there were no indications that they were to be consumed. They said they were investigating a possibility that the murder was muti-related.

The suspect is expected to appear in the Bergville magistrate's court today.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&art_id=vn20040325130617978C395034&set_id=1

also:

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=384035 ]

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Increase in numbers of London witch doctors

Exposed: witch-doctors

By Kathy Lette, Evening Standard
1 April 2004

Sheikh Abubakar holds a wad of notes to his lips and whispers an incantation, oblivious to the complaints of his latest patient. "I can't afford £500," says the sick man. "I have leukaemia. Here's £400. I need another £100 for food."

The sheikh, a medicine man dressed in African robes, stops chanting and puts down the money. But he is unmoved by his patient's plight. "Some people pay £1,000," he says softly, "some people pay £700. You will pay £500."

Seconds later, his £500 safely tucked away, the witch doctor fills a bottle with water, reaches into a compartment under his bed and pulls out an African rug on which is a cloth piled high with powder - medicine. He sprinkles three pinches into the bottle and shakes it vigorously before passing it to the leukaemia victim's right hand. It must not, he says, without explanation, be handled with the left.

"First, you rub the medicine here," says Abubakar, slapping his ribs. "The medicine will go straight into the blood. All problems inside will start to go. All problems with your body all finished."

Not only would it cure the patient's leukaemia, Abubakar promises, but, once drunk, it would also bring back a girlfriend who had recently left him. Magic! Black magic.

This scene wasn't played out in some poorly-educated village in West Africa. Neither is it an anachronistic, badly-scripted movie resurrected from the 1960s. It happened in east London this year and it is happening across the capital every day.

Inquiries by the Evening Standard have uncovered an exponential increase in the number of African medicine men practising in London. Many are recognised as traditional healers using plants, herbs and natural cures. But police and cultural experts say there is now a growing number carrying out animal sacrifices, charging extortionate rates to gullible poor people and, as we found, offering illegal and useless cures for cancer. Worse still, suspicion is growing that a trade in human body parts for medicine is either here or on its way.

In areas around Dalston in north London and Brixton in the south, some residents have reported receiving up to three flyers a week featuring witch doctors' claims to be able to lift black magic curses, cure disease, remedy sexual problems, bring riches and make court cases simply disappear.

The potion produced for our leukaemia "victim" - in reality Paul Davis, an actor hired by the Evening Standard - would cure no one's bad blood. Tests by the scientists who are also involved in the "torso in the Thames" murder have so far shown that it contains plant extracts, quartz and, disturbingly, blood and muscle tissue.

A team of forensic pathologists led by professor Robert Forrest of Sheffield University is trying to establish from which animal the blood came, but one thing is certain, according to Forrest: "It would have no therapeutic effect whatsoever."

Regardless of your beliefs and the desire not to ride roughshod over other cultures, it is difficult not to arrive at the conclusion that peddling bogus cancer cures to desperate people is simply wrong.

Since the discovery of a boy's headless and limbless body in the Thames in September 2001, the prevalence of black magic - the generic Western term for African voodoo and juju practices - has shocked detectives.

Until the murder of Adam, as the victim came to be known, there was a gaping hole in the police's knowledge of African medicinal practices - after all, it was not their job to pry into the religious or superstitious beliefs of other cultures. What they discovered during the Adam investigation changed all that.

It is believed that the boy was brought to London from Nigeria with the specific aim of being sacrificed to the spirit gods in order to bring luck to an illegal human trafficking operation. For legal reasons (the names of suspects have been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service) it is not possible to go into further details about his death, other than to say he was drugged, bled dry and had his head and limbs removed.

During the investigation that followed, detectives travelled to Africa and were shocked to find that the use of human body parts in traditional medicine was endemic. In South Africa alone, they found that more than 300 people are murdered each year to provide body parts for black magic cures.

During the Standard's inquiry, we were shown pictures of bodies plundered for organs, eyes or complete heads. In one, a woman lies on a slab, her body cut open from the chest downwards, her reproductive organs removed. In another, a child sits bolt upright in rigor mortis, his head removed and placed on an altar three feet above his ragged neck.

Dr Richard Hoskins, an expert in African and Caribbean cultures at King's College, acted as the cultural adviser in the Adam investigation. He has studied African healing for more than 20 years.

"For hundreds of years, sub-Saharan Africans have turned to traditional healers to cure their ailments," he says. "Even here in the UK, you will find that well-educated, professional people will go to such men to solve problems or cure diseases. The people involved in the Adam killing were very superstitious. There is an extreme fear and a belief in black magic through every stratum of African society. And rather than diminishing, I would say it is increasing in Britain."

It certainly is in London. Hundreds of witch doctors ply their trade across the capital, advertising on flyers or in the classified pages of the New Nation and The Voice newspapers. From Brixton and Peckham to Whitechapel, Stoke Newington and Barking - your local witch doctor is never far away.

We visited three natural healers and spoke to several others by phone (most are reluctant to meet indigenous white people). One, in Wood Green, claimed to be able to cure cancer. Another, calling himself a professor, in Dalston, demanded £550 for a cure for impotence. Another "sheikh" in London E15 confirmed that he could put a curse on a "business partner" who had supposedly ripped us off.

Our inquiries were hampered because Africans were too afraid to help. An intelligent, award-winning Nigerian journalist had to drop out of our investigation after visiting just one medicine man. "You shouldn't mess with these people," he said.

It is a problem that hampered the Adam inquiry. Belief and fear of black magic are rooted deep in the psyche of many Africans. "Much of what the traditional healers have learned over the centuries must not be underestimated - they have identified which plants are good for which diseases," says Dr Hoskins. "And Western medicine is now learning much from them.The problems arise with the use of human parts to cure ailments.

"In parts of Africa genitals and sexual organs are used to make medicine for sexual problems; eyes will be used to cure eye problems, blood will be used to treat blood disease, and so on. I once interviewed a muti [medicine] man in his home in Durban, South Africa. It was pretty scary. We were surrounded by jars full of human body parts. A good muti man will have a good contact at the local mortuary. But in many cases, people are killed for their body parts."

Dr Hoskins stresses that the overwhelming majority of believers in this country abhor what happened to Adam and simply reject the idea of killing to obtain a cure. But he is concerned that sociological forces mean it could happen here.

"The problem in London is that communities are dislocated. In small communities in Africa, a delinquent muti man could not get away with wrongdoing. Here, bad elements can slip in and out of areas anonymously, making unfounded claims and peddling spurious cures to desperate and gullible people.

"We know they are carrying out animal sacrifices, mostly chickens, rabbits and goats. My concern is that without the usual community checks and balances, it isn't a huge step for them to begin seeking human body parts."

Dr Yunes Teinaz, health adviser to the director general of the Islamic Cultural Centre and the London Central Mosque, says he is hearing increasing reports of attempts by unscrupulous practitioners to acquire human parts.

Sections of the Christian and Muslim communities in Africa practise voodoo in contravention of their religions. In Britain, the Muslim community is especially active in trying to stamp it out.

Dr Teinaz, who is also a practising environmental health officer, says: "There is a concern that human body parts are being used. We know that much of the bush meat trade is used in potions and ointments for black magic treatments and we know that other animals are sacrificed for voodoo purposes in the African community. But we have a deep concern over human body parts. We think they could be coming in with the bush meat."

The bush meat that concerns Dr Teinaz comes from animals illegally imported from Africa and used as medicine. According to black magic beliefs, certain animals possess special-properties. For example, the hornbill-bird is recognised as a dignified and graceful creature that can imbue calm in those who eat it. The black duiker deer, an animal with an inquisitive nature, is said to help the victims of theft find the thieves.

Whatever the perceptions of the good such "medicine" can do, Sheikh Abubakar was not prepared to share his secrets.

Photographer Mark Chilvers and I confronted him at his grimy flat on the Barking Road. He denied having supplied the potion, in spite of pictures and tape-recorded evidence to the contrary. The only potion he had, he claimed, came from a large container of vegetables soaking in a solution. Nowhere in sight was the special "medicine" he gave Paul Davis.

"I don't give medicine," he said. "I just provide luck - if your woman leave you or for examinations."

Detective chief inspector Will O'Reilly, one of the lead detectives in the Adam case, said police had had difficulty until now in successfully prosecuting bogus medicine men. "If the healer says he believes in his cure, and so does the patient, then it is difficult to prove fraud," he says.

"These people prey on the beliefs of desperate and gullible victims. However, we are concerned that even more sinister characters may be operating underground.

"In a shrinking world, people's practices travel with them. The Adam inquiry set us on a steep learning curve - to the heart of the previouslytaboo subject of ritual killings. We hope that the way we pursued our investigation will act as a deterrent to others."

We hope so, too. The police told me our potion was the first ever acquired for analysis in the UK. I told Abubakar it was medically useless and asked him if he knew it was a criminal offence under the 1939 Cancer Act - punishable by up to three months in prison - for non-medical people to prescribe remedies for cancer.

But, as if by magic, Sheikh Abubakar's English suddenly failed him.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifeandstyle/health/articles/10033336?source=Evening Standard

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

More London-based muti murders?:

Torso police search three homes

Three homes have been searched on Tuesday by police investigating a woman's torso found in a suitcase.

Forensic tests have been carried out at the addresses in Highbury, north London, after police said they may know where the woman was dismembered

Detectives are looking at whether the woman was the victim of a ritual killing. The cause of death in unknown.

The woman's torso was found in Regents Canal, Islington, north London, on Saturday by a group of teenagers.

She is thought to have been dead at least two days.

Adam murder

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said it was too early to say if there was a link to the murder of a boy whose torso was found in the Thames in 2001.

No-one has been convicted of the suspected ritual killing of the five-year-old boy, who police named Adam.

The spokesman said: "In due course we will be liaising with our colleagues on the Adam case to see if there are any other similarities."

He also said they will be liaising with officers investigating the murder of prostitute Paula Fields, whose dismembered body parts were found crammed in six holdalls in Regents Canal, in February 2001.

Officers are in contact with the boys who found the body and have offered them support.

Police want to speak to anyone who knows of a missing woman, who was black, slim, aged between 18 and 30 and about 5ft 3in tall, or who saw the suitcase being thrown into the canal.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/london/3621181.stm

Published: 2004/04/13 13:44:06 GMT

© BBC MMIV

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

More enws on that today and I had to start with the Sun as it is a great headline:

Voodoo cops torso hunt

By MIKE SULLIVAN
Crime Reporter

POLICE probing the voodoo murder of a lad yesterday joined the hunt for a killer who dumped his victim’s torso in a canal.

The butchered remains of the black woman, aged between 18 and 30, were found on Saturday in a suitcase floating on the water.

The woman, whose arms and head have not been found, has not been identified. Now detectives have called in colleagues working on the voodoo killing of a five-year-old boy known as Adam in the hope of solving the riddle.

Adam’s headless torso was found in the Thames near Tower Bridge in September 2001.

Although there is no evidence the latest murder is linked to witchcraft, detectives hope they will be able to use techniques pioneered by the Adam squad.

They pinpointed his origins in Nigeria through analysis of bones and stomach contents and even reconstructed his head.

Frogmen yesterday scoured Regents Canal in Islington, North London, in search of the woman’s missing body parts.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004171232,00.html

Man arrested over torso in canal

A 53-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a female torso found dumped in a suitcase in a north London canal, Scotland Yard has said.

The victim, aged between 18 and 30, was found in Regents Canal, in Islington, by a group of teenagers on Saturday.

On Wednesday police divers found a head and limbs in the canal. Forensic tests are ongoing at a north London flat.

The man from Dorset was held on Wednesday morning and is being brought to London for questioning, police said.

Three homes were searched in Highbury on Tuesday by police investigating the woman's death.

Tests have so far failed to reveal the cause of the woman's death.

It is thought she had been dead for at least two days.

Officers are in contact with the boys who found the body and have offered them support.

Police want to speak to anyone who knows of a missing woman, who was black, slim, and about 5 ft 3 in tall, or who saw the suitcase being thrown into the canal.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3625921.stm

Published: 2004/04/14 16:30:09 GMT

© BBC MMIV

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Corpse with missing genitals

By Tunde Raheem, Akur


Artisans and workers in a mechanic’s workshop took to their heels recently when the lifeless body of a man suspected to have been used for rituals was discovered in their midst.

The incident, which occured in Akure, Ondo State capital, in the early hours of February 19, caused a stir as a crowd surged towards the workshop to see the gory spectacle. The corpse of the man suspected to have been killed for ritual purposes was found lying on the back-seat of a car in the workshop with his manhood, eyes and other organs missing.

The lifeless body, it was learnt, was discovered in the car by a man who came to inspect the vehicle which had been put up for sale.

When the intending buyer saw the corpse, he allegedly thought the fellow was drunk, but quickly raised alarm on discovering that the male organ was missing.

The dead man was suspected to be a traveller or a stranger in the town as a polythene bag containing some of his wears was also found in the car.

It was learnt that the car, marked XB 1562 KY, had been put up for sale in the workshop for over three months before the incident.

The police have arrested the owner of the car and are carrying out investigations on the matter.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/crimewatch/2004/crimewatchmar4-03.htm

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

This sounds more like some kind of muti-inspired panic rather than actual muti attacks but the whole thing is so odd who knows?

Satanists stalk Zimbabwe city

By Netsai Kembo
Last updated: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 18:18:16 GMT

MUTARE villagers along the border with Mozambique are living in fear of a satanic activism group on the prowl in their areas who forcibly suck blood from targeted victims they leave for “dead”, a sensational Daily Mirror newspaper report says.

Villagers said the satanic activism extremists had descended in their areas a week ago and usually prey on illegal border jumpers to and from Mozambique and the locals by night, the paper said.

Police in Mutare could neither deny nor confirm the report saying there was need for thorough investigations first to avoid panic by the general public.

“We first need to thoroughly investigate that as some people are just fond of fabricating issues that can cause unrest and panic to members of the public,” said acting Manicaland provincial police spokesman assistant inspector Brian Makomeke.

However, villagers said official reports have already been made to both the Zimbabwean and Mozambican authorities who have since instituted a joint manhunt for the culprits.

Since Thursday last week, the villagers said, the group had preyed on four people in Timba village just across the Honde River in Honde Valley and two others in Imbeza near Penhalonga.

In all the cases they had allegedly first injected their victims with an unknown drug that they became weak to resist. They then used some syringes to suck blood into containers and left their victims unconscious.

According to the villagers, the members of the group usually move in pairs and are suspected to be operating from Mutare.

One regular cross border to Mozambique, Charles Seza, said he had last Tuesday miraculously escaped from the daring “blood suckers’ at Imbeza on returning from a business trip in Mozambique.

To avoid suspicion, he said, the duo had approached him and asked him to help them replace a deflated tyre on their Isuzu KB truck saying they did not have enough tools.

They had also offered to give him a lift to town after helping them.

“I had at first opted to help but my instincts instantly worked. On checking the tyre I found out that it was just slightly deflated and without saying a word I immediately started walking away. The two then ordered me to stop and followed behind me holding some instruments resembling clinical apparatus,” said Seza.

“They then started chasing me and only left me when I was approaching some settlements in the area.”

Another cross border trader, Martha Munyamana said although she had not yet personally experienced the ordeal, cautionary statements against entertaining strangers had already been given by fellow cross border traders from both Zimbabwe and Mozambique and villagers along the border.

“Following the reports we are now moving in large groups. We no longer accept lifts from strangers to avoid victimisation,” she said.

While the actual intended use for the blood remains a mystery, some individuals suspect that it could be for use in satanic activities or muti. Comment could not be obtained from Zimbabwe Traditional Healers Association president Professor Gordon Chavhunduka whose phone remained unanswered.

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/satanists.11766.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

A weird tale about an odd muti investigation (East London is, I assume, somewhere in S. Africa as the drive would have been longer ):

Cop's bizarre 500km seawater trek

----------------------------------------------------------

Police in the small Eastern Cape town of Dordrecht were stunned this week when a court ordered them to travel 500km to and from East London to fetch seawater for a Ugandan herbalist to wash in.
Vincent Bagenda, 24, who has been in custody on fraud and stock theft charges since April 20, refused to go with police to his herbal practice on a search-and-seizure operation until he had washed in seawater to "appease the spirits".

The search followed a tip-off from a member of the public alleging that Bagenda was dealing in human body parts. According to law and police procedure, the search had to be conducted in his presence.

Armed with a search warrant and a court order that Bagenda's demands be met, a police officer drove to East London on Wednesday morning and filled several containers with seawater.

Investigating officer Inspector Sicelo Rute said that after the herbalist doctor "cleansed" himself, he accompanied the police and unlocked his premises for them.

"Although we searched the house and found no body parts, what we did find was a litre bottle containing blood and medicinal herbs.

"We have sent the blood for tests to determine whether it is human or not," Insp Rute said yesterday. Information given to police was that two hands, a baby's and an adult's, had been seen at his practice.

Police placed the business under guard for more than four weeks while they battled to get Bagenda to co-operate with them.

Bagenda is married to Ziso, a 20-year-old South African.

She was arrested with her husband on stock theft charges and was released three weeks ago.

Bagenda was denied bail as he was considered a flight risk.

Bagenda wife, who was tracked down by the Herald to her mother's home at Komani Heights in Queenstown, expressed shock at claims that her husband was being investigated for dealing in body parts.

She said that following their arrest on stock theft charges, police had questioned her extensively about the body part claims, of which she had no knowledge.

She also denied claims that she had been used as a "courier" in getting the body parts from the Frere Hospital in East London and that there were nurses involved.

Frere Hospital chief medical superintendent Dr Narad Pandey said he knew nothing of the claims.

Insp Rute was not willing to confirm claims that five nurses were being investigated.

The couple are to appear in court again on June 10.

http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1626607-6078-0,00.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Very weird:

Police unscramble puzzling 'muti egg mystery'

Norman Joseph
June 19 2004 at 04:01PM

Grassy Park police have discovered a unique "hit list" - the names of local policemen written on five eggs and wrapped in what appeared to be muti.

Police believe the eggs and muti may well be part of an elaborate witchcraft scheme by criminals who are prepared to try anything to derail anti-crime operations in the area. Police on Friday raided a house in Seventh Avenue, Grassy Park, where they discovered the eggs.

Western Cape police spokesperson Captain Eugene Sitzer said police found six eggs in an egg tray. The names of police officers - members of the Grassy Park Crime Prevention Unit - were on five of the eggs.

The sixth egg had the words "keep the police away" written on it. This obviously did not work.

There was also a grey powder under the eggs, "possibly muti", said Sitzer.

"The matter is being investigated and members are encouraged to open intimidation charges. It just shows you the extremes people will go to in trying to escape the law.

"It also shows the responsibility put on police officers to equip themselves fully, specifically spiritually, to help them to combat crime. This is the reality of what the police are up against."

He said Grassy Park police had made several arrests and drug busts since April.

Over the same period they had also seized 417 dagga sticks, 99 parcels of dagga, 2006 Mandrax tablets, 36 straws of crack, 81 pieces of crack, 11 Ecstasy tablets and half a bale of dagga during crime prevention operations.

Now some say it is no wonder criminals are turning to other measures such as muti and witchcraft to keep the long arm of the law at bay - even if it means putting all their eggs in one basket.

This article was originally published on page 4 of Saturday Argus on June 19, 2004

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20040619160116394C936979

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Trafficker may be key to torso in Thames

Rosie Cowan, crime correspondent
Wednesday July 7, 2004
The Guardian

A man convicted of people-trafficking yesterday may hold the key to the horrific ritual killing of the African boy known as Adam, according to the detective heading the murder hunt.

The man was named in Southwark crown court, London, as Mousa Kamara, 30, but police say he is Kingsley Ojo, 35, from Nigeria. He admitted two charges of smuggling adult illegal immigrants into the UK, and using a false passport and driving licence.

Police suspect he may be the man who brought the boy, whose torso was found floating in the Thames in Septem ber 2001, to Britain. The boy, who was black and aged five or six, had been decapitated and had his limbs hacked off. A pair of orange shorts had been put on the torso after death.

Detectives believe he was a ritual sacrifice, of which there are believed to be hundreds every year in Africa. Unable to identify the victim, or to find the rest of his body, Scotland Yard was initially baffled.

But forensic experts, using skills developed to help identify victims of the September 11 attacks, carried out advanced analysis of his bones, revealing his diet, from which they were able to deduce that he was from the region around Benin city in Nigeria.

Ojo, arrested with 20 others in a series of immigration-linked raids across London last July, is also from Benin city. Police do not suspect him of murdering Adam, but they are interested in the geographical link and his connection with other suspects.

Detective Chief Inspector Will O'Reilly, who heads the murder inquiry, said: "This man was discovered during the course of the Adam investigation, operating a trafficking enterprise between Nigeria, Europe and the UK.

"We interviewed him before, and he has been eliminated as far as the murder is concerned. But he is from the same city as Adam and is associated with one of our suspects, so we would like to speak to him again. We still suspect he may have had something to do with trafficking the child into the country."

DCI O'Reilly said the Crown Prosecution Service was considering conspiracy to murder charges in relation to other suspects, but not against Ojo.

The inquiry into Adam's death has been painstaking. Police checked DNA of 39,000 black people on the Metropolitan police database to try to find relatives, but without success. They also combed the Thames river bank for clues. Six post mortem examinations have been carried out and forensic analysis is continuing.

The police have talked to forces all over the world, comparing other cases of possible ritual murder. In 2002, they went to South Africa, which has a serious problem with muti killings, where people are murdered for body parts used in traditional medicine.

Last year, detectives travelled thousands of miles around Nigeria, researching ritual murders, in an attempt to pinpoint Adam's birthplace. A scientist at Kew Gardens worked out that Adam had been given a potion containing poisonous calabar beans up to 48 hours before his death. The calabar, commonly used in witchcraft rituals in west Africa, causes paralysis while keeping the victim conscious.

Children and young people are preferred for sacrifice, and are kept conscious to the point of death because their screams are said to waken the ancestors necessary to give power to the ceremony. Blood is drained from the body and sometimes drunk by the participants.

In July 2002, Joyce Osagiede, a Nigerian also from Benin city, was arrested in Glasgow and questioned about the murder. She has not been charged and is currently back in Nigeria.

Last year, police in Dublin questioned her estranged husband, Sam Onojhighovie, about the murder. He was convicted of people-trafficking in Germany in his absence, and German authorities are trying to extradite him.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1255592,00.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Boy survives savage attack in Limpopo hills

August 02 2004 at 05:54PM

Vicious attackers hacked off a boy's hand, ear and genitals and left him for dead in what police said could be part of the "muti" trade in body parts for witchcraft.

Sello Chokoe, 10, was in critical condition in hospital on Monday after he was attacked near the small village of GaMaleka in the country's rural northern province of Limpopo.

Chokoe was searching for cattle in nearby mountains on Friday when he was attacked, hit on the head with a blunt weapon and left for dead, said police spokesperson Mohale Ramatseba.

A local woman collecting firewood found him after hearding his faint cry for help.

"The motive has not been established but we don't rule out the prospect that it could be muti-related," Ramatseba said.

He said several similar crimes had happened in the area before and arrests were expected soon in the latest case after a flood of information from outraged locals.

"Muti" murders - killings to obtain body parts for supposedly potent traditional cures - still happen with alarming regularity in post-apartheid South Africa and often go unreported, police say.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=qw1091462041913B265

 

[TheQuixote]

Another report on Nigeria:

Nigerian police follow trail of corpses

Associated Press
Friday August 6, 2004

Police investigating ritual killings in eastern Nigeria were searching for more human remains today after discovering body parts, skulls and more than 50 corpses, some partly mummified, in a forest.

Two religious leaders and 28 other people had been arrested in connection with a secretive local cult, which is feared and obeyed by people living near the wooded areas, including one dubbed by local press as "the evil forest", police said.

Police spokesman Kolapo Shofoluwe said the search for more remains near the town of Okija could take days as the forest was extensive. Police had recovered about 20 skulls and more than 50 bodies.

The dead already found were all adults, and at least one body and four skulls appeared to be from people killed recently, Mr Shofoluwe said. All the bodies were found unburied in coffins, and at least three were headless.

Police believe some of the victims, including businessmen and civil servants, were poisoned. The cult, known as Alusi Okija, is thought to practise a ritual in which people involved in disputes, often over business deals, are exhorted to settle them by drinking a potion they are told will kill only the guilty.

Mr Shofoluwe said the potion itself was probably harmless, but that agents sent out by the priests would later secretly kill one of the parties, sometimes by poisoning their food.

Rituals take place at wooden shrines in people's living rooms, decorated with statues of gods and chalk drawings of skulls. Skulls were found in the shrines of some of those arrested, while others arrested were survivors of the rituals.

Several suspects had fled, and the police were "chasing after them", state police commissioner Felix Ogbaudu said. A register had been found apparently containing the names of several victims, he added, without giving further details.

The ceremonial chief priest suspected of preparing potions for victims was not arrested because of his advanced age.

"He's an old man. We don't want him to die in police custody," Mr Ogbaudu said.

A photograph taken by a local journalist showed more than a dozen shirtless suspects, surrounded by police, sitting huddled around a coffin containing a body and with several skulls nearby.

Alusi Okija takes its name from a local, oracle god and is an ancient sect of the area's Igbo people. Police said the ritual of swallowing poisons to test guilt was believed to have been practised for more than 100 years.

The practice was originally intended to deter crime, but had become a way for priests and their collaborators to kill and defraud people, Mr Ogbaudu said.

The police spokesman, Mr Shofoluwe, described a typical scenario in which one man complains to the chief priests that another man has cheated him in business. Both parties are called to a shrine to resolve the dispute, and one of them dies of mysterious causes within a few days.

"The entire region has so much respect and fear for such calls or summons that they usually go there to defend it," he said.

The community hands the body, money and property of the deceased to the priests, the spokesman said.

Investigators found the shrines after the national police inspector-general received a complaint from a man who "alleged that his life was being threatened by a group of persons" linked to the killings, Mr Shofoluwe said.

Reports of ritual murders regularly fill the pages of Nigerian newspapers. Three years ago, the issue came to international attention when the torso of an unidentified boy was found floating in the river Thames in London. British police believe the boy became a victim of a ritual killing after being brought to Britain from south-western Nigeria.

Some ritual killings in west Africa are carried out in the belief they provide wealth or success to a third party. Other rituals involve using body parts as traditional medicine. Such killings are widely abhorred and condemned by Africans.

"Naturally, as a human being I was shocked at the horrific sight in the forest and then wondered if such events can still happen in this 21st century, that people can still practise such barbaric acts," said Mr Shofoluwe.

Guardian Unlimited

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

One of the missing reports and some others:

Boy survives savage attack in Limpopo hills

August 02 2004 at 05:54PM

Vicious attackers hacked off a boy's hand, ear and genitals and left him for dead in what police said could be part of the "muti" trade in body parts for witchcraft.

Sello Chokoe, 10, was in critical condition in hospital on Monday after he was attacked near the small village of GaMaleka in the country's rural northern province of Limpopo.

Chokoe was searching for cattle in nearby mountains on Friday when he was attacked, hit on the head with a blunt weapon and left for dead, said police spokesperson Mohale Ramatseba.

A local woman collecting firewood found him after hearding his faint cry for help.

"The motive has not been established but we don't rule out the prospect that it could be muti-related," Ramatseba said.

He said several similar crimes had happened in the area before and arrests were expected soon in the latest case after a flood of information from outraged locals.

"Muti" murders - killings to obtain body parts for supposedly potent traditional cures - still happen with alarming regularity in post-apartheid South Africa and often go unreported, police say.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=qw1091462041913B265

Moletji residents bay for the blood of boy mutilators

August 05, 2004, 17:12


Residents of Moletji, outside Polokwane, in the Limpopo, where a 10-year old boy was mutilated on Friday, are threatening to take the law into their own hands if police fail to arrest the suspect. Sello Chokoe had his left ear, genitals and a small part of his head hacked by his attackers.

He was looking for donkeys in the mountains in the area. He is in a critical condition at Polokwane provincial hospital. A man who allegedly sent the boy to look for the donkeys was detained for questioning, but released on Monday.

He was found by grade three learners. "We were collecting rubbish then we heard mmm mmm...then we saw a person trying to stand up and falling again so we called people from the village who alerted the police," the boys said.

The community's up in arms. "If the police don't get this - we going to take the law into our own hands."

Police have meanwhile urged the community not to resort to jungle justice. "We are disturbed by reports that i community around there wana take the law into there own hands if the police are doing nothing about this case, this type of bhaviour wil not help the investigating in any way but wil instead to more chaos," said Motlafela Majapelo, a police spokesperson.

http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/crime1justice/0,2172,85168,00.html

S.African boy dies after hand, ear, penis cut off

10 Aug 2004 17:55:15 GMT

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 10 (Reuters) - A South African boy has died more than a week after assailants hacked off his hand, ear and penis in a savage attack police suspect may be linked to the "muti" trade in body parts for witchcraft.

Ten-year-old Sello Chokoe was searching for stray livestock in hills near his home in the northern Limpopo province when his attackers struck, hitting him over the head with a blunt weapon, slashing off parts of his body and leaving him for dead, police said after the attack in late July.

Chokoe survived and spent more than a week in hospital in critical condition before he died, SABC national television reported on Tuesday.

The head teacher at Chokoe's school told the station fellow pupils were preparing to hold a prayer session for his recovery when they heard of his death.

"Muti" murders, to obtain body parts for supposedly potent traditional cures and spells, happen on a regular basis in post-apartheid South Africa and often go unreported, police say.

Often killings are carried out to order to obtain specific body parts required for particular spells.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1043693.htm

 

[ramonmercado]

Daughter of minister beheaded

THE gruesome discovery of a decapitated body dumped in the Irish countryside has raised fears that the daughter of a leading African politician was the victim of a ritual-killing.
The decomposing remains of Paiche Unyolo Onyemaechi, daughter of Leonard Unyolo, Malawi’s Justice Minister, were found next to to a stream close to the sleepy village of Piltown, Co Kilkenny.

But her head has still not been found and detectives are investigating the possibility that Mrs Onyemaechi, 25, was a human sacrifice in Ireland’s first ritual or “muti”killing.

The circumstances of the mother of two’s death, in the shadow of the scenic Comeragh Mountains, are a far cry from those of the average rural Irishmurder.

It has sent a shudder of horror across Ireland’s growing African population.

It is being compared with the case of “Adam”, an unidentified African boy whose torso was found floating in the River Thames in September 2001, which led to Scotland Yard’s first investigation into a ritual killing, where the body parts or bones of a victim are used to bring luck or curse an enemy.

The Times understands that officers from the Irish police travelled to London this week to discuss Mrs Onyemaechi’s death with senior British detectives. A small team of specialists at Scotland Yard, set up specially to deal with ritualkillings, travelled to West Africa last year and has become one of Europe's foremost group of experts into witchcraft and voodoo-related murder.

Although police have denied that Mrs Onyemaechi’s corpse bore a number of strange marks, there are strong similarities between the two cases. Both victims were decapitated and found in or near water, a factor believed to be significant in voodoo. Both also had links to Nigeria.

Mrs Onyemaechi had lived in Waterford since arriving in Ireland from London three years ago and was so settled that she had decided to start a family with her Nigerian husband, 31-year-old Chika Onyemaechi.

Her brother, Leon, said that he was baffled by why anybody would want to killa woman described as highly popular with her neighbours.

Mrs Onyemaechi was reported missing by her husband on July 8. Police believe that Mr Onyemaechi, who lived in London before moving to Ireland, may have travelled to the British capital before flying back to Nigeria.

Speaking at the dead woman’s funeral, which was attended by Mrs Onyemaechi’s father, brother and sister, the Rev John Parkin referred to mounting speculation that she had been the victim of a “muti” murder and urged mourners “not to indulge in rumours”.

Mrs Onyemaechi is said to have come to Europe in the late 1990s when she studied business administration in London. Police believe that she worked as a dancer in nightclubs in Limerick and Dublin. Large areas of land around Piltown have been searched in an attempt to locate her head.

Local people have reported a strange smell coming from waste ground near her home, which has also been examined. Sections of carpet in the house where she lived with her husband and two sons — Andrew, 3, and 18-month-old Anthony — are believed to have been ripped out. It took several days for police to identify Mrs Onyemaechi’s remains after her body was spotted poking out of undergrowth by two sisters out walking.

Irish police have denied reports that they have asked for help from Scotland Yard and have insisted that they are pursuing a number of lines of inquiry.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1214437,00.html


Previous reports identified her father as the Chief Justice of Malawi. pat c

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Last Updated: Saturday, 14 August 2004

Rise in ritual murders disturbing

Herald Reporter

AS the sun sets, an indelible feeling of grief takes its toll on the Marowa family.

Preparations for supper are temporarily shelved as the whole family sits quietly, huddled in a corner, overwhelmed by grief as they remember the death of their six-year-old Tinashe, a few weeks ago.

Each member of the family seems to be thinking of what he or she could have done to avert the gruesome murder of Tinashe whose little body was found thrown in a disused pit, a few metres away from the familys garden, a week after he had been reported missing.

Even the community seems not to get over the death of the little boy. For weeks they have kept their ears primed for any news of the killer.

Each passing day seems to instill a new fear within the community, but they faithfully hope that the slayer will be caught.

The abduction and subsequent murder of children in recent months has become worrisome, unleashing a wave of terror in a Zimbabwean society which abhors crime and violence.

Once regarded as a phenomenon of developed countries, abductions and murders appear to be getting slowly ingrained in the country, judging by cases that the police now have to deal with on a regular basis.

Hardly a week passes without a child being reported missing and in some instances even raped by some unknown assailants.

As a result, many parents are now living in fear and have since increased their security measures fearing that their children could be next in line.

What is even disturbing is some kind of a "symbiotic link" between missing persons and eventually the murders of the very same persons.

The incident that quickly comes to mind is that of the late six-year-old Norton schoolgirl, Isabel Makusha, who was found dead after being reported missing, in one of the most bizarre and gruesome murders the country has ever witnessed.

Isabels body was found dumped about one-and- a-half kilometres from Norton Police Station, where she lived with her parents, a week after she had been reported missing when she did not return home from nearby Dudley Hall Primary where she was in Grade One.

She was found with her genitals and other body parts missing and the police suspect that the girl was killed for ritual purposes.

Even more chilling is the fact that Isabel was sexually abused and refrigerated for a few days before being dumped.

In yet another shocking incident, police in Chiredzi recovered the skull of an 11-year-old Chiredzi girl in a sugar cane field in June.

The girl had gone missing from her parents home in February.

Mary Musaigwas skull was found at Triangle Sugar Estates by an employee who was setting fire to the sugarcane.

It is believed that the girl, who was reported missing on February 25, this year from her parents house at Muleme Primary School in Hippo Valley Estate, could have been murdered by an unknown assailant for ritual purposes.

Although one is tempted to dismiss these incidents as isolated, they have sent shivers among parents and children not only in Norton and Chiredzi but, throughout the country.

There are also reported cases of children who have gone missing only to be found after they have been abused. Some have gone missing for months now and are yet to be found.

Not so long ago, a David Livingstone Primary School girl Rumala from Kuwadzana disappeared and was never found. Her shoes were discovered hundreds of kilometres a way in Shamva district in Mashonaland Central.

In May this year a nine-year-old girl disappeared from school and ended up in Chihota communal lands before a relative returned her home in Highfield, Harare.

It has since been established that the girl was abused and the alleged abuser has since been arrested and now faces charges of kidnapping, rape and indecent assault.

Child Protection Society information officer Mr Usheunesu Moyo said children were no longer safe.

He said the prevailing socio-economic situation in the country has left many people desperate, some with psychotic disorders and others driven to gruesome acts like ritual murder in a vain attempt to alleviate their plight.

"We will not hold our peace when ghoulish rape and ghastly murders are increasingly becoming the order of the day," he said.

According to sociologists, reasons for abduction and murder were diverse but more often than not these killers often murder children for ritual purposes.

Children are often targeted for ritual murders because it is believed that their young bodies produce the best juju, especially when it comes to enhancing a business enterprise.

However, it has since been established that there is no such thing, but people are often hoodwinked by some bogus traditional healers into believing that it works.

These claims have put the future of children in a precarious position and could further worsen unless meaningful measures are taken to curb the practice.

It is now imperative for the Government to come up with stiff penalties for those who perpetrate such heinous acts.

While the nation is trying to come to grips with these horrifying acts, the problem seems to be growing to unimaginable proportions in several countries, where abductions and subsequent deaths of children in suspected ritual killings occur on a regular basis.

In neighbouring South Africa, ritual killings continue to haunt the citizenry and there seems to be no solution in sight.

The suspected ritual killings are not only confined to children but include adults, if statistics are anything to go by.

Conservative estimates are that at least 300 people have been murdered for their body parts in the past decade in South Africa. And Dr Anthony Minnar, of the Institute for Human Rights and Criminal Justice in South Africa, fears the toll could be much higher. "We have children going missing every week from our townships," he says.

"The assumption is that those missing children are being put into prostitution and also that they are being used for muti murder.". . . But the police have found it difficult to investigate because in such cases, no one is prepared to come forward.

Similarly in London, the phenomena seems to be catching up with the dwellers of this developed nation, who now live in constant fear following the discovery of the torso of a boy in the Thames River last September.

Whether or not he was indeed the United Kingdoms first recorded victim of a muti killing, the Metropolitan Police are convinced it was ritualistic. Their worst fear is that if indeed the boy was killed for ritual purposes, the killer will strike again. But when, is the question they cannot answer, but they are indeed haunted, like millions of Zimbabweans who also now in fear for the safety of their children.


© Copyright of Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Limited 2001.

http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=34842&pubdate=2004-08-14