Murder for body parts
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Murder for body parts also known as medicine murder (not to be confused with "medical murder") refers to the killing of a human being in order to excise body parts to use as medicine or purposes in
The
Historically,
Medicine murder
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Purpose and frequency
The objective of medicine murder is to create traditional medicine based partly on human flesh. Medicine murder is often termed
The practice is commonly associated with witchcraft, although ethnographic evidence suggests that this has not always been the case, and that it may have been accorded local-level political sanction. Medicine murder is difficult to describe concisely, as it has changed over time, involving an ever-greater variety of perpetrator, victim, method and motive. Most detailed information about the minutiae of medicine murder is derived from state witnesses in trials, court records and third-party anecdote.
The phenomenon is widely acknowledged to occur in southern Africa, although no country has issued an accurate and up to date record of the frequency with which it takes place. This is not only because of the secrecy of the practice, given its controversial status, but also because of difficulties in classifying subcategories of murder. Medicine murder has been a topic of urban legends in South Africa, but this does not diminish its status as a practice that has resulted in legal trials and convictions of perpetrators.
Medicine murder in southern Africa has been documented in some small detail in
Methodology
The perpetrators are usually men, although women have been convicted as well, most notably in
was hanged in 1983 for commissioning a medicine murder. Perpetrators vary widely in age and social status.An individual or group of individuals commissions an
Victims vary widely in age and social standing. They are often young children or elderly people, and are both male and female. In some instances, the victim is identified and 'purchased' via a transaction involving an often nominal amount of money. The victim is then abducted, often at night, and taken to an isolated place, often in the open countryside if the murder is being committed in a rural area. It is usually intended that the victim be mutilated while conscious, so that the medicine can be made more potent through the noises of the victim in agony. Mutilation does not take place in order to kill the victim, but it is expected that the victim will die of the wounds.
Body parts excised mostly include soft tissue and internal organs – eyelids, lips,
Variances
Since the 1970s, the manner in which medicine murder is practiced has become altered to the methods described above, although the continued practice of medicine murder demonstrates that belief in human flesh as a powerful medicinal component remains strong in some communities. It would appear that medicine murder in the 18th and 19th centuries may have been considered the legitimate domain of traditional chiefs and leaders, in order to improve agriculture and protect against war (see Human sacrifice).
Following industrialisation and growth of commerce, the range of purposes for which medicine was used to increase influence expanded significantly. In the early 1990s when South Africa was experiencing internal political strife between several political groupings, it became clear that some mutilations for medicine were opportunistic and incidental to the assassination of political opponents. There have also been occurrences of mutilation of corpses in medical facilities. In not all cases does the employment of a traditional healer seem to have been thought necessary to the process.
Notable cases
1994 Segametsi Mogomotsi case
In 1994, a 14-year-old named
2001 Thames torso case
A little boy whose headless and limbless body was found floating in the
They struggled to formally identify the boy, whom they called Adam, despite travelling to the West African state to try to trace his family. Nigerian Joyce Osiagede, the only person to be arrested in Britain as part of the inquiry, has claimed that the victim's real name is Ikpomwosa. In an interview with ITV's London Tonight, Mrs Osiagede said she looked after the boy in Germany for a year before travelling to Britain without him in 2001. She claimed she handed the boy over to a man known as Bawa who later told her that he was dead and threatened to kill her unless she kept silent.
Police have passed numerous files on the case to the Crown Prosecution Service but it has never gone to court. A second suspect, a Nigerian man, was arrested in Dublin in 2003 but was never charged. Mrs Osiagede was first questioned by police after they found clothing similar to that worn by ‘Adam’ in her Glasgow tower-block flat in 2002. The only clothing on his body was a pair of orange shorts, exclusively sold in Woolworths in Germany and Austria. Dressed in a traditional gold and green dress, Mrs Osiagede denied any involvement with the death of the young boy.
Asked who killed him, she said a ‘group of people’. She added: "They used him for a ritual in the water." Claiming the boy was six years old, she said: ‘He was a lively boy. A very nice boy, he was also intelligent.’ Detailed analysis of a substance in the boy's stomach was identified as a ‘black magic’ potion. It included tiny clay pellets containing small particles of pure gold, an indication that Adam was the victim of a Muti ritual killing in which it is believed that the body parts of children are sacred. Bodies are often disposed of in flowing water.
2009 Masego Kgomo case
Illegal organ trade murders (the 'Red trade')
According to the
In some cases, criminal organizations have engaged in kidnapping of people, especially children and teens, who are
According to the most recent
Most countries have laws which criminalize the buying and selling of organs, or the carrying out of medical procedures for the illegal organ trade.[11]
Capital punishment and organ harvesting in China
In March 2006, three individuals alleged that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners had been killed at Sujiatun Thrombosis Hospital, to supply China's organ transplant industry. The third person, a doctor, said the so-called hospitals in Sujiatun are but one of 36 similar concentration camps all over China.[citation needed]
The allegations were the subject of investigative reports by Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice-President of the European Parliament, and by former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas.[12]
The
The report called attention to the extremely short wait times for organs in China—one to two weeks for a liver compared with 32.5 months in Canada—noting that this was indicative of organs being procured on demand. A significant increase in the number of annual organ transplants in China beginning in 1999, corresponded with the onset of the persecution of Falun Gong. Despite very low levels of voluntary organ donation, China performs the second-highest number of transplants per year. The report includes incriminating material from Chinese transplant center web sites advertising the immediate availability of organs from living donors, and transcripts of interviews in which hospitals told prospective transplant recipients that they could obtain Falun Gong organs.[12] An updated version of their report was published as a book in 2009.[15][16]
In 2014, investigative journalist
Data on availability and speed of transplants within China (under 2 – 3 weeks in some cases compared to years elsewhere) led several renowned doctors to state that the statistics and transplant rates seen would be impossible without access to a very large pool of pre-existing donors already available on very short notice for hearts and other organs; several governments also established restrictions intended to target such a practice.[citation needed]
The extent of evidence still led to many responses expressing "deep concerns" at the findings, and several countries took action as a result of the concerns and findings. Responses were noted from the Queensland Ministry of Health in Australia (abolished training programs for Chinese doctors in organ transplant procedures and banned joint research with China on organ transplantation),[21] A petition signed by 140 Canadian physicians urged the Government to warn Canadian nationals that organ transplants in China were "sourced almost entirely from non-consenting people".[22][23]
In 2012, State Organs: Transplant Abuse in China, edited by David Matas and Dr. Torsten Trey, was published with contributions from 12 specialists.[24] Several of the essays in the book conclude that a primary source of organs has been prisoners of conscience, specifically practitioners of Falun Gong.[25]
In May 2008, two United Nations Special Rapporteurs reiterated their requests for the Chinese government to fully explain the allegation of taking vital organs from Falun Gong practitioners and the source of organs for the sudden increase in organ transplants in China since 2000.[26]
In August 2009,
Murder for dissection and study
An anatomy murder (sometimes called burking in
See also
- Persecution of people with albinism
- Witchcraft accusations against children in Africa
- Child sacrifice in Uganda
References
- ^ a b "La policía detiene a Manuel Plancarte, sobrino de un líder 'templario'". CNN Mexico. 17 March 2014. Archived from the original on 30 April 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
- ^ Mdluli P (2 July 1983). "Worldwide Hangings". truecrimelibrary.com. Swaziland. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
- ^ Masuku L (2 April 2011). "Special judge to oversee hanging". times.co.sz. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
- ^ "Muti medicine: Herbs and murder". CNN. 19 April 2002. Archived from the original on 2 May 2012.
- ^ "Life sentence for muti killer". News24. 28 November 2011. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
- ^ PMID 19880230.
- ^ "Mexico cartel member held in organ theft case". Al Jazeera. 18 March 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
- ^ AP (17 March 2014). "Police nab cartel member in organ trafficking case". USA TODAY. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
- PMID 18278256. Archived from the originalon December 20, 2007.
- ISBN 9789833302093.
- S2CID 155776436.
- ^ a b c d Kilgour D, Matas D (31 January 2007) [6 July 2006]. "An Independent Investigation into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China". organharvestinvestigation.net.
- ^ Reuters, AP (8 July 2006) "Falun Gong organ claim supported" The Age, (Australia)
- ^ Endemann K (6 July 2006). "Ottawa urged to stop Canadians travelling to China for transplants". CanWest News Service. Archived from the original on 2015-10-17. Ottawa Citizen
- ^ Kilgour D, Matas D (2009). "Bloody Harvest, The killing of Falun Gong for their organs". seraphimeditions.com. p. 232. Archived from the original on 2010-04-03.
- ^ Duin J (27 April 2010). "Chinese accused of vast trade in organs". The Washington Times.
- ISBN 978-1-61614-940-6.
- ^ Turnbull B (21 October 2014). "Q&A: Author and analyst Ethan Gutmann discusses China's illegal organ trade". The Toronto Star.
- ^ "The Slaughter – An Interview with Doctors Against Forced Harvesting". ethan-gutmann.com. 25 April 2014.
- ^ Gutmann E (10 March 2011). ""How many harvested?" revisited". eastofethan.com. Archived from the original on 2011-12-20.
- ^ "Hospitals ban Chinese surgeon training". The Sydney Morning Herald. 5 December 2006. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
- ^ "The Medical Post, Canadian MD-activist likens Chinese organ trade to the Holocaust". david-kilgour.com. 12 March 2008.
- ^ "Excerpt from Hansard of 13 December 2007, Canadian House of Commons" (PDF). organharvestinvestigation.net. 13 December 2007.
- ^ Matas D, Trey T (2012). "State Organs, Transplant Abuse in China". seraphimeditions.com. p. 144. Archived from the original on 2012-08-18.
- PMID 23444249.
- ^ "China's Organ Harvesting Questioned Again by UN Special Rapporteurs". FalunHR Reports. Market Wired. 8 May 2008. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
- ^ "Organ harvesting". Chinaview.wordpress.com. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-14-100745-8.
- ^ Marcus DL (22 March 1992). "Corpse-selling case outrages Colombians Police say homeless slain to get bodies for med school". The Dallas Morning News. p. 1A. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2010-06-14.
Sources
- "Council to request tribal leaders to find solution to ritual murders". Daily News Online. Botswana. 11 June 2001. Archived from the original on 2002-02-24. Retrieved 28 February 2006.
- "Court of Appeal orders govt to pay Sekobye for unlawful arrest". Daily News Online. 31 January 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-03-11. Retrieved 28 February 2006.
- Jones GI (1951). Basutoland Medicine Murder: A Report on the Recent Outbreak of 'Diretlo' Murders in Basutoland. HMSO (Report). London.
- Evans JP (1993). ""Where Can We Get a Beast Without Hair?", Medicine Murder in Swaziland from 1970 to 1988". African Studies. 52 (1). Johannesburg: 27–42. .
- Deacon HJ (1992). "The Origin of Modern Humans and the Impact of Chronometric Dating". Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences. 337 (1280): 177–183.
- Murray C, Sanders P (2005). Medicine Murder in Colonial Lesotho: The anatomy of a moral crisis. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Sanders T (2001). "Save Our Skins: Structural Adjustment, Morality and the Occult in Tanzania.". In Moore HL, Sanders T (eds.). Magical Interpretations, Material Realities: Modernity, Witchcraft and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa. London & New York: Routledge.
- Schühle J (2013). Medicine Murder of People with Albinism in Tanzania (PDF) (Report). Freie Universität Berlin, Center for Area Studies. CAS Working Paper No. 2-2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-01-25. Retrieved 6 June 2015.