Yahoo – AFP,
26 Aug 2014
An albino
child sits in a school in Mwanza, Tanzania, on January 28, 2009
(AFP Photo/Tony
Karumba)
|
Geneva
(AFP) - A UN expert Monday condemned the abuse of young albinos in government
care centres in Tanzania, a country where many are killed and their body parts
sold as lucky charms.
At least 74
albinos have been murdered in the east African country since 2000.
After a
spike in killings in 2009, the government placed youngsters in children's homes
in a desperate effort to defend them, Alicia Londono, of the UN human rights
office, told reporters.
"It
was a protective measure, and welcome at the beginning," said Londono, who
has just returned from an inspection tour in Tanzania.
"But
the conditions are appalling. They are overcrowded, hygiene conditions are very
poor," she said.
"There
are abuses going on in these centres, cases of sexual abuse," she added.
Out of
Tanzania's 23 children's homes, 13 host albino youngsters, according to UN
figures.
Londono
said that all too often the children were forcibly removed from their families,
and lose all contact with them.
"They
are really a neglected population, they are not considered in many places as
human beings," she explained.
Segregating
albinos from the wider community was not the answer, she said.
But
shutting the centre would put the children at the mercy of sorcerers and
traffickers, she claimed. Instead, it was crucial to improve conditions in the
centres, she said.
Londono
noted that the perpetrators of crimes against albinos were rarely punished in
Tanzania or in other countries in Africa's Great Lakes region.
A
hereditary genetic condition which causes a total absence of pigmentation in
the skin, hair and eyes, albinism affects one Tanzanian in 1,400, often as a
result of inbreeding, said Londono.
In the
West, it affects just one person in 20,000.
Londono
warned that attacks were on the rise because Tanzania's October 2015
presidential election was on the horizon, encouraging political campaigners to
turn to influential sorcerers for support.
Albino body
parts sell for around $600 in Tanzania, with an entire corpse fetching $75,000,
she said.
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