...as Under the Same Sun (UTSS)launches documentary film on albino killings in the country
Story courtesy of The Guardian Newspaper, Tanzania (April 23, 2010)
IPP Executive Chairman Reginald Mengi has appealed to courts in Tanzania to speed up the hearing of cases involving suspected albino killers so that justice can be done.
He made the call at yesterday’s launch in Dar es Salaam of a documentary film on albino killings in the country prepared by a non-governmental organisation, Under the Same Sun (UTSS).
He said courts were supposed to speed up the process of dealing with cases involving the murder of albinos so that those targeted by the killers can also feel that they have rights just like people who have no disabilities.
“It is hugely unnerving seeing albinos being brutally killed and others having their hands and limbs chopped off, which is evidence of stigmatisation and discrimination in our society and a disgrace before the Lord,” said the IPP Executive Chairman.
He also urged human rights activists to fight for strict observance of the country’s laws, including the rights of people with albinism, and push for justice in all cases of suspected albino killers.
He wondered why albinos were being stigmatised instead of being loved, and called on society to seek an end to albino killings “in the knowledge that all human beings belong to God and have the right to live”.
“Every person is responsible for caring for albinos and stopping the stigmatisation and discrimination which have resulted in their vicious murders,” he said.
UTSS founder and chairman Peter Ash from Canada, currently on yet another working visit to Tanzania, concurred. He said people with skin disability had as much right to live as any other person and it would be totally unfair to stigmatise them.
No comments:
Post a Comment