A woman has been tied to a stake, shot full of arrows and
burned alive in Paraguay after being accused of witchcraft.
According to Dailymail, Indigenous woman Adolfina Ocampos,
45, was killed by members of the Mbya Guarani ethnic group after the
community's chief sentenced her to death.
While the date of the killing was unclear, it occurred in
the village of Tahehyi, 180 miles north of the captial Asuncion.
Fany Aguilera, a local prosecutor, charged nine men in the
village with first-degree murder and they have admitted to killing the woman.
The UN Refugee Agency estimates that thousands of people
worldwide are accused of being witches every year.
They are often abused, cast out of their families and
communities and sometimes killed.
However Jose Zanardini, an Italian anthropologist and
Catholic priest, said the recent case in Paraguay was unusual.
He said: 'I've been working in Paraguay for 40 years and I
can't remember a similar episode of an execution for alleged sorcery.
'The tragic death of this woman is isolated and out of the
ordinary within the co-existence of Paraguay's 20 ethnic indigenous groups.
In
general, the Indians are very peaceful and tolerant.'
The state agency for the protection of indigenous peoples
said Wednesday that 'although the indigenous communities are ruled by customary
law, their acts cannot violate the constitutional rights of respecting the life
and the liberty of people'.
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