UN official condemns kidnapping of albinos in Mozambique
Xinhua, November 7, 2015 Adjust font size:
A United Nations official has regarded the wave of kidnappings of albinos in Mozambique as a "grave" violation of human rights, local media reported on Friday.
The UN Women representative in Mozambique, Florence Raes, said that the discrimination against albinos is inadmissible.
"All forms of discrimination worries us. I think that following the answer from government, the community and the authorities, we see that there is an intolerance against this phenomenon, and we hope that there will be an end of this phenomenon," she said.
Since December 2014, when the first kidnapping case was reported, there have been dozens of crimes committed against albino citizens in the northern Mozambican province of Nampula.
Such cases also occurred in other regions including the Zambezia province, said Justice Minister Abdul Remane Line de Almeida.
The main motive for abducting and murdering albinos is to obtain body parts for sale to people who believed in their magic qualities such as healing diseases and bringing about wealth.
Almeida said that 91 people, all of them Mozambicans, had been arrested for these crimes. Eight of them had been tried and sentenced to prison terms of up to 20 years, with the others awaiting trial. Enditem