Transcript
The director of the Papua New Guinea Tribal Foundation is calling for the girl's perpetrators to be brought to justice, describing the attack as both vicious and horrific.
Ruth Kissam said because one of the girl's play mates caught a fever, some locals accused the girl of using sanguma or sorcery on her friend to cause the illness and so she was brutally tortured.
Ms Kissam said the victim is the daughter of the late Leniata Kepari who was falsely accused of sorcery and burned to death by a mob in 2013.
RUTH KISSAM: "We can condemn it in the strongest terms but then we have to back up our words with actions and that is something that still needs to be done and the perpetrators are still not arrested and then that is exactly what happened with the mum and that's like we are living that old nightmare all over again."
The secretary of the Papua New Guinea Constitutional Law Reform Commission Dr Eric Kwa says these so-called attacks have nothing to do with sorcery but are about violence.
DR ERIC KWA: "We are giving too much prominence to sorcery and we are distracted from the issue of violence. Sorcery is just another excuse. The fact of the matter is our people are becoming more violent. Our people are becoming the law unto themselves and we need to fix the processes. "
He says innocent victims get chosen because of their lack of support in communities.
DR ERIC KWA: "Mostly vulnerable people, women who have no relatives or women who are isolated, widows. If it is a man it is someone who is vulnerable and no relatives to support and defend them. So you find for some reason the perpetrators are using the excuse of sorcery to attack these poor innocent people."
Dr Eric Kwa says he backed the death penalty provision in the 2013 Sorcery Law because he says if someone takes a life violently, they should lose their life.
But he also says if people had employment and the opportunity to fully engage in modern PNG society these attacks wouldn't happen.
Auckland university law student Mary Kints, who is from Papua New Guinea, has been researching sorcery in PNG and says accurate data is hard to find as not many sorcery killings get reported.
She says because it is often deemed a cultural practice it does not get discussed openly.
MARYK KINTS: "I think what we need to see is a real grassroots change in mentality and not just in the minds of everyday villagers but institutional change in the local police forces where cases need to be dealt with in the first instance and where there seems to be some good progress in bringing perpetrators to justice is in the village courts."
Mary Kints says she also views sorcery as an affront to women's rights.
MARY KINTS: "That is something I am quite interested and passionate about especially in a country like Papua New Guinea where they don't have a good record re the treatment towards women not just sorcery but also domestic violence and so looking as a researcher like this it was really a way to try to understand what was happening in a country I feel connected to. "
Mary Kints says she is hopeful for change but leaders need to lead by example and act.
The Prime minister and the Governor of the Province both condemned the actions of the perpetrators but Ruth Kissam is calling on the government to act.
She says the six year old has recovered well from physical knife and burn wounds on her legs and back but there are other concerns.
RUTH KISSAM: "She's safe. She's much better now. Her wounds have healed pretty much so and only she has knife wounds on the back of her foot she has a knife wound and wounds on her back and on the back of her left leg. Those are the ones healing up slowly but otherwise her body is healed pretty much but we don't know the status of her mind and she is doing well but she has to be seen by someone like a counsellor to determine whether or not she is ok psychologically."
PNG Loop has reported the people responsible are still yet to be identified and investigating police have found that people are reluctant to help out with their inquiry but a sorcery unit has now been set up.
