Selling child bodyparts (No, not a bullshit Asmo topic)

[Asmodean]

Part of the original article from Dagbladet, translated using Google Translate without editing for errors. I might get to it eventually.

I guess it's nothing new, but still...

Maputo (Dagbladet) - My neighbor invited me to hunt rats. We walked between banana trees, and then beat him myself in the chest with a stone. Another man came from behind and closed my eyes. I wanted to scream but could not. My neighbor cut out my eyes and my genitals. He cut off my penis and testicles. I was left on the ground, says Luis (12).

He was only nine years old when the genitals and the eyes were cut away. The neighbor, who performed the deed, was stopped between Mozambique and Malawi with Luis'kroppsdeler wrapped in plastic - he explained that he had just under 1600 pounds for the mission, and that the parts would be used for black magic.

- It is horrible to think that you attack children, and while they are live cuts from their body parts, then let them be left to die, says Simon Fellows, director of Humane Africa, told Dagbladet.

They have interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses, and the report "Trafficking Body Parts in Mozambique and South Africa," which is the first work done in order to document the trade in body parts in the country.

Every two weeks on a similar assault at least once in Mozambique and parts of South Africa.

According to the strong religious superstition body parts used in herbal medicine to give people strength. Children are often the victims - and the genitals and eyes are most often stolen and resold. According to superstition, it is important that the victim is in life when body parts are removed, then the effect of it was the greatest.

Most victims are still too to die, only one in five survive such attacks.

-They mutilated me
- They attack me because they saw that I was a child and that I could not do anything. I am sad because I am no longer a man. They mutilated me, says João, who was 14 when he got genitals cut off and stolen.

He was tricked out in the woods of a nursery guard.

- He tied my hands with a t-shirt, and began to beat me. Then came two other men to, they held me down, and when I shouted for help, put the soil in your mouth and nose. When they started to cut me, I fainted. When I woke up I saw one of the men pack my genitals in a cloth, before he ran away. They thought I was dead. I fainted again, when I awoke there was blood from my head, says João.

He was lying in a ditch for two days, before he managed to drag herself up on a road. Here he was found and taken to hospital.

In Joãos case he knew the attacker. It is not uncommon. Usually the attacker only an intermediary that has been given a specific assignment from a witch doctor, and they use simple tools such as stones, knives, machetes or screwdrivers. They usually attack children they know, such as a neighbor's son or distant relatives.

- They get an order for such genitals of a boy of 10 years, also harvest it. Witch Doctors sell this on to their clients as part of a treatment. People from local communities go to witch doctors if they want that job will go well, for improved health, for the relationship to last, to become pregnant or more sexually active, says Susana Ferreira, coordinator for the Humane Africa.

In the report, they point out that not only the victims who suffer, even neighborhoods where the attacks have taken place are traumatized. The stories are numerous:

- I saw a trail of blood and followed it. I thought it was a lamb that was illegally harvested. Here I found a woman and her 13-month-old son. The chest was missing, and the child was up to the other. His mother's ears and nose were removed. The boy had no pants on, the genitals were removed. The right hand was cut off, but the boy was still alive. I screamed for help and fainted, says one woman.

Many are anxious to drop the kids of sight.

- I am very afraid, because we are all in danger, we can not live safely anymore, especially not at night. We live in constant fear In this village, tells a woman who witnessed the 16-year-old got genitals removed.


Frozen heads
Fellows first heard about the sale of body parts when some nuns away at the border between Mozambique and Malawi had seen a man carrying frozen child heads across the border. Shaken by what he heard, he wanted to map the extent of the body part sales.

With funding from the Norwegian Embassy in Mozambique, he completed the first survey of the trade in body parts.

According to Fellows research has only the demand for body parts has increased. An increased pressure to succeed in a job and get rich, and a desperate battle to improve their lives, getting people to go to witch doctors. They take courses despite the fact that it clearly comes from the body parts.

One woman admitted that she wore a belt with several children's fingers and penises and drank a mixture consisting of blood, because the witch doctor said it would help her become pregnant.

- I was desperate, says the woman.

The subject is very taboo, and so far none has been convicted of theft of body parts in Mozambique. Until the report was available, the authorities denied that this took place.

- People are afraid of the witch doctors can do to them. It's not just ordinary people, but this fear is also at the police and the authorities, says Fellows.

It is also difficult for authorities to track the body parts back to the victim: the trade takes place across borders, and countries have a poorly developed system for DNA tracking.

[Tank]

Shocking. Another example of the effects of superstition.

[Guardian85]

THis is disgusting. And a fine example of the horrors that follow when reason is chucked out the window.

[Ali]

What.  The.  Eff?!?

I just.  I think maybe part of it comes from being in place of privilege - I've never been in danger of starving to death or anything like that, and even if husband and I both lost our jobs tomorrow, we have other resources.  So I get that I'm looking at this from through the eyes of First World Privilege.  But serious, what the eff?!?  The idea that getting a job or getting pregnant is more important than..I dunno...letting little kids keep their fingers and eyes and genitals...I seriously feel like throwing up.   And how anyone could believe that wearing a belt made of children's penises would help you get a job or get pregnant....*stunned*

[The Magic Pudding]

How sure are we of the source of this.
There has been dodgy stuff like this before, guy in ice bath tub missing a kidney type stuff.
If it is legit it should be every where very soon.

[Asmodean]

A translation error: The article refers to NOK, not GBP, when talking about the price. 1600NOK amounts to just over 173 pounds by today's local rate.

The rest did, while poorly translated, convey the right meaning.

That said, beyond some possible corrections to Google's translating job, I'm staying away from this topic because of my tendency to turn death and mutilation into entertainment and bullshit.

How sure are we of the source of this.

Dagbladet generally do mediocre to good journalism. The article seems based on the report from 2008, so one would assume the journalists on the case checked to see if it was shown to hold water.

[Buddy]

I feel sick to my stomach after reading that.

[Crow]

  What the fuck! This is beyond messed up.

[pytheas]

Proper scary story fit for story-telling around the fireplace.
Impressive at least, a living window of experience and practice from 3000 bce.
Disgusting for sure, but perhaps even more sad and dissapointing actually.
Just like bacteria, past a certain point in  population density toxicity starts to appear and take effect.

Good call Asmo

[Sweetdeath]

There was a special about this happening in Africa on PBS last year. It was about suspersition; people who go to witch doctors because they think children's blood  has special abilites.
Voo doo and black magic. I wanted to vomit.

I play games like fatal frame (about ghosts and old shinto rituals, etc), and none of it is nearly as disturbing as people who harm children in real life. Children are kidnapped in villages in africa to be slaughtered.

I cant even think of it, or else i'll cry.

[Guardian85]

There was a special about this happening in Africa on PBS last year. It was about suspersition; people who go to witch doctors because they think children's blood  has special abilites.
Voo doo and black magic. I wanted to vomit.

Suspersition? 

[Asmodean]

Suspersition? 

Superstition. Seeing patterns where there are none. The "force" that drives people to religion, voodoo and belts made of baby penises, apparently.

[Buddy]

There was a special about this happening in Africa on PBS last year. It was about suspersition; people who go to witch doctors because they think children's blood  has special abilites.
Voo doo and black magic. I wanted to vomit.

Suspersition? 

That's fisgusting.   

[skwurll]

I'm adding this to the list of reasons I'm glad I don't live in Africa.

[Sweetdeath]

There was a special about this happening in Africa on PBS last year. It was about suspersition; people who go to witch doctors because they think children's blood  has special abilites.
Voo doo and black magic. I wanted to vomit.

Suspersition? 

That's fisgusting.   

Damn xD stop pointing out my spelling mistakes! LOL

;P

Yeah, Africa is sadly a pretty insane place. It has amazing wildlife, amomgst other things, but this isn't part of its charm.