Gibbs, who has spent more than four decades in Papua New Guinea, has met surviving victims of accusation and torture, as well as those who have committed witch-related torture and killings.

The Church's message against witch hunting is delivered with particular emphasis in the Highlands region, where much of the nation's witch-related violence takes place.

In those communities, many of which are remote, the Catholic bishops have posted anti-witch hunting statements on noticeboards and addressed the issue during Sunday services.

One Catholic bishop, Arnold Orowae, is threatening excommunication for any Catholic who perpetrates a witch hunt.

Although Gibbs said he doesn't know how many perpetrators have been excommunicated formally, he points out that, "in a way, the people involved excommunicate themselves".

Although most Papua New Guineans identify as Christian, their Christianity often is mixed with indigenous beliefs, which include magic: both "white magic", such as medicinal faith healing, and "black magic", such as hexes and sorcery.

These are so ingrained in Papua New Guinean culture that as recently as 1971 the government passed the Sorcery Act, which instituted prison for witches and, even more problematically, made suspicions of witchcraft a legitimate legal defence for attacking someone.

The Sorcery Act was repealed in 2013.

But old habits die hard, particularly when they involve the supernatural, and even more so in a place like Papua New Guinea, where many inhabitants are unacquainted with scientific explanations for illness and natural disaster.

During the "witch craze" of Europe, which lasted about three centuries, it is estimated that at least 50,000 people (and possibly many times more) were executed.
Source

• asopa.typepad.com
• Image: i1.wp.com

A recent intervention preventing the murder of four women accused of sorcery is being hailed as a victory in the push to eradicate witchcraft-related attacks in Papua New Guinea, but those fighting the battle say the violence is still increasing.

Eves says the Catholic church in Chimbu province has quite a good response, "When somebody dies they are quickly on the scene, and start talking about alternatives."

Father Philip Gibbs is based in Mount Hagen in PNG's Western Highlands province, which shares a border with Chimbu.

He has taken a "particular interest" in working to combat sorcery-related violence, both in rescuing people and raising awareness among communities.

Often when he arrives at a town or village after hearing a person has been accused of sorcery, he faces strong resistance.

"I went to one place recently and … I wanted to speak to a woman who'd been tortured and they said 'no.'"

"There had been all sorts of intertribal tensions and they thought my presence would exacerbate those tensions."

"Where my coming might make that worse I have to really decide what's best to do.

"If someone's going to die out of it you have to intervene, but sometimes you can't."

There has been some "patchy" progress made in combatting sorcery related violence, Gibbs believes, but it predates government efforts.

Anecdotally, there seem to be fewer accusations in neighbouring Chimbu province after the Catholic church initiated a plan, he said.

"On the other hand I've seen a growth into areas where it wasn't there before. I think there is a net increase at the moment."

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• The Guardian
• Image: The Guardian

She says a recent case of witchcraft related hangings in Vanuatu had raised fears that the phenomenon had extended to other Melanesian nations.

He was speaking at the Sorcery and witchcraft-related killings in Melanesia: Culture, law and human rights perspectives Conference at The Australian National University in Canberra, last week.

The conference was attended by a number of people seen to be critical to solving the problem of sorcery killings in PNG.

Sorcery in PNG has been in the spotlight for a number of recent gruesome incidents involving women being tortured and killed after being accused of witchcraft.

One of the main topics discussed at the conference is the influence of churches in PNG, and how they can bring about change.

Gibbs said when someone dies, some people will immediately blame black magic and hunt down the alleged sorcerer, and then proceed to torture and kill them.

He says a culture of blame and revenge is pervasive in PNG, and people need to be better educated.

"To try to help people come to a more scientific understanding of how things happen and why things happen. For instance, if somebody has an accident here usually the question asked will be 'well, who's behind it?' They're always looking for a personalised form of evil that's behind it."

Fr Philip Gibbs, SVD, is from New Zealand. He is a Divine Word Missionary and was ordained in 1978. Fr. Philip is an anthropologist and directs the Melanesian Institute in Goroka, Papua New Guinea.

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• Radio New Zealand International
• Image: Amnesty Australia

The Catholic Bishops of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands tackled the issue of new media and social networks on the second day of their Annual General Meeting on 10 April at Alexishafen, Madang.

Fr. Giorgio Licini PIME, CBC Secretary for Social Communications, and Fr. Phil Gibbs SVD, CBC Secretary for Social Concerns, introduced the topic referring also to the 2013 World Communication Day Message by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, "Social Networks: Portals of Truth and Faith: News Spaces for Evangelization".

While it is clear that Social Communication is now definitely interactive, the main problem for PNG and Solomon Islands still lies in weak, unreliable and expensive Internet services. Young people, however, already live online in urban areas while remote places also gain progressive access to the world wide web through Digicel services.

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• The Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
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Based in Mt Hagen, Gibbs, 65, said it was hard to work out what to say to congregations which included people who would have taken part in burning alleged witches.

"If as an expat you tell people they are longlong (crazy) to believe such superstition, many will just close down," he said.

Witch doctors are paid well to identify witches.

"Divination is a lucrative job, and there is also the temptation to accuse others falsely just to get one's hands on the money," Gibbs said.

Gibbs, who marked 40 years as a priest in PNG last December, advised the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission which last year reported that it was commonly believed that sanguma - sorcery - was the cause of sickness and early deaths, and that the Act was not working.

"When people die, especially men, people start asking 'who's behind it?', not 'what's behind it?'," he told the commission.

Gibbs said sanguma or puripuri (also meaning sorcery) attacks have become much more brutal.

Issues of old beliefs and Christianity, which in part still preached of demons, was part of the growing increase in violence, he said.

"As a Catholic I try to introduce more modern and scientific concepts, such as asking a medical doctor the cause of death," Gibbs said.

He believed more than just changing the law needed to happen. He said even the well-educated were not quite sure about witchcraft.

Gibbs says he wishes to take a constructive approach developing what Bishop Anton Bal has been doing in Simbu

(1) Helping people broaden their understanding of the causes of illness and death

(2) Early intervention before or during a funeral,

(3) Promoting law and order in communities,

(4) Fostering faith to influence attitudes and emotions

(5) Immediate family members taking ownership of the death of a family member

He wants to look at the effectiveness of this as a strategy and examine how it might be revised and promoted elsewhere.

Medical authorities needed to be more open about causes of death and in a country that often had no death certificate system, he wanted one introduced.

In Papua New Guinea the Catholic Church has banned the sacraments and any role in church life to anyone who has accused others of being witches and who were involved in abusing, torturing or killing.

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• PNG Attitude
• Image: AllVoices.com

Father Philip Gibbs says law changes are one thing but implementation is another given that the police force is really stretched.

"And also many of the police are not really trained or don't really have an attitude that's conducive to peaceful solutions to problems. They can come in pretty strongly and pretty hard sometimes and can get rather violent themselves. So it is more a matter of how to influence the way people are going to think and that comes into the sort of work I do for instance in terms of anger management."

A United Nations independent expert has called on Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to reinforce mechanisms that protect women against violence and provide victims of gender inequality and discrimination access to justice.

‘Accountability, rather than impunity, should become the norm for all acts of violence against women,' UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Rashida Manjoo said this week in a report on Papua New Guinea after finishing her fact-finding mission in the Pacific country yesterday.

‘The responsibility to prevent violence, protect against violence, provide remedies for victims, and to punish perpetrators for all acts of violence against women, is primarily an obligation of the State.'

Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• The Examiner.com
• Image: Courier Mail