Unspeakable acts

By PNG Echo.

I spent last weekend, peering into Nietzsche’s abyss – not somewhere I’m happy to dwell but, sometimes, something so unspeakable happens that it’s necessary because lives depend upon us knowing what resides in that abyss. Sometimes we can’t and shouldn’t just look away.

A human tragedy with inhuman consequences

It all started when revered Papua New Guinean businessman and philanthropist, Jacob Luke, left his house in  Lakolam village, province of Enga, in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and never returned. His dead body was found sometime later in the surrounding bush. As I write, there has been no official reason given for his death, as yet.

But the local Chief instinctively knew.  With absolutely no evidence to back up his assertion, he gratuitously decided that It was sanguma (witchcraft).

With the outpourings of sorrow and grief palpable there was much crying, wailing and beating of chests in the village. But they were told not to cry because nine women had been identified (I don’t know how) who were suspected of having killed Mr Luke using sanguma. Apparently, they ate his heart, causing his death. Had the Chief opened the chest of Mr Luke, he would have found the heart still inside Mr Luke’s chest – and although it would have stopped beating, I doubt that would be found any evidence of its mastication and regurgitation.

Nevertheless, never letting the truth spoil an opportunity to enjoy a  beloved sado/sexual cultural practise, it was decided that the women would be tortured until they confessed and returned the heart – and that, he told them, would bring back Mr. Luke to life. (Yes, there are all sorts of “but hows…” to be asked). You’ll need to suspend your disbelief for a while and go along with me, as the villagers went along with their chief.

And so it was.

At the end of the “questioning” of the nine women, three of the nine were dead, one died some time later, five are now in hospital with extensive injuries, two of them in a critical condition. What’s more, it hadn’t worked (why would they expect it should?) Mr Luke is still dead.

I have no details of what exactly happened to the women but going by other torture sessions of women (an alarmingly frequent occurrence – so frequent that however sensational the story, the international press are reluctant to run it – “We just did that story recently.”) the acts perpetrated on these women were unspeakable.

I am aware of some of the things that occur during such torture sessions and even I find it hard to articulate the sheer horror of them. That’s what’s meant by the term ‘unspeakable.’ So, we don’t speak the difficult truth. We use blanket terms like ‘tortured’ its non-specific nature masking what’s unspeakable and we say the women were “killed” when, in fact there had been a mass, premeditated murder.

These women are covered in shame, although they are just the innocent scapegoats of lust for retribution and an unholy appetite for sexual sadism on the part of the perpetrators.

Neither do we speak the women’s names – they are just bodies to be counted. While Mr Luke’s family and friends can mourn and send their loved one off in style and reverence – the family of these women cannot. These women are covered in shame, although they are just the innocent scapegoats of lust for retribution and an unholy appetite for sexual sadism on the part of the perpetrators.

The irony of the situation is that Mr Luke was a strong advocate against accusation-related violence and with all that has happened in his village following his death, I doubt that he’s resting in peace. 

However, having been forced to look into the abyss, and because words are my trade, I am going to speak the unspeakable. It’s not pretty.

Speaking up

In general, torture sessions start by the trussing up of the women. They are stripped naked and tied between two poles. Their legs are forced apart and tied to the opposing poles. Their arms likewise. Often their heads are covered with bags, I guess so that their expressions of agony do not distract the crowd that usually consists of both men, women and children. I even read a survivor’s story of how her son 10-year-old son was one of the spectators that watched her own very sexual torture and humiliation.

With the women’s genitalia totally exposed and spread, men heat hot irons and insert them into her vagina and rectum – they cut off her nipples. No one objects. These sick people, watch with many enthusiastically physically aiding the atrocities. No doubt many are sexually titillated. Often a fire is lit beneath the suffering women – it must be terrifying because, she’d be well-aware that when the torture has ended, there’s every reason to suspect that she’ll be thrown on that fire and burned alive.

Mr Luke was a strong advocate against accusation-related violence and with all that has happened in his village following his death, I doubt that he’s resting in peace. 

A quick question: do you know what happens when burning hot irons are inserted into soft-tissue orifices? No, you’ve never had cause to contemplate this? 

Well, think about it now: Apart from the obvious agony, the flesh fuses together – so, even if she survives, the injuries will be life altering. She will not fully recover – her ongoing medical problems will be legion. I have no idea of what the consequences are of having one’s nipples cut off.

All this, and she’s done nothing – she’s totally innocent – and of that there’s no doubt because sanguma is not a real thing and no erroneous belief, however tightly held, will alter that.

What sort of psychopathy is this?

The perpetrators take shelter in the unspeakable nature of their atrocities. Decent people will shy away from the realities, so the gross nature of their actions will never be completely known. It’s evident: the Chiefs of Lakolam Village were certainly concerned that the extent of their barbarism would get out when they refused to allow the tortured women to be taken to get medical assistance for fear that they may talk to the media of their ordeal. Instead, they kept them locked up, by then there were six – three had died and during the incarceration of the remaining six, another woman succumbed to her injuries.

There’s been nary one conviction, yet a plethora of murder.

Ironically, the perpetrators were not at all concerned by the law enforcement agencies knowing that there was a massacre taking place. The villagers fought back any attempt to intervene with their superior fire power Anyway, why should the villagers worry? Even though their crimes against humanity are of the most heinous sort, not to mention that they were breaking PNG law, it’s unlikely that any one of the perpetrators will be charged. They know this. There’s been nary one conviction but many murders.

But getting back to the victims: let’s imagine the agony those women were in during that prolonged incarceration with no medical aid. What a horrific way for anyone to die – or indeed to live. What sort of people does this to others – and feels such satisfaction?  What sort of psychopathy is this?

…by then there were six – three had died and during the incarceration of the remaining six, another woman succumbed to her injuries.

When I spoke to a human rights’ advocate in the Highlands who was trying to get the women released, s/he was at a clothing store, buying clothes for the still naked women. Not only had these women been tortured, injured irreparably and been in excruciating pain where almost half of them died – they had been totally humiliated too. It seems that they are the ones bearing the shame. Why should this be?

The photographs of PNGean women being tortured are too horrific to look at, too upsetting to watch. But watch we must, because, if it is too hard to watch, how much harder would it be to have been one of the victims? By turning our heads in revulsion, we are abandoning her. Her persecutors have done their job well. Let’s let our repulsion motivate us to make sure no one ever goes through this ever again. Not on our watch.

But watch we must. By turning our heads in revulsion we are abandoning her.

The final irony is that while these women have been defiled, used for the sexual-sadistic pleasure of men with many agendas and totally humiliated (as well as injured – often fatally) the men involved are most chary of being shamed themselves. And so, what they do becomes unspeakable – and we don’t – because we recognise the perpetrators sensibilities. and yet, total humiliation is a weapon in the perpetrator’s own arsenal that he is quick to resort to. No such sensitivity towards them.

Why do we (well, you really – I don’t) save your sensitivities for the psychopathic perpetrators? Oh yes, because they are mostly men – PNGean men – and bik men at that. Start shaming these men. They are the ones that have something to be ashamed of. 

Start speaking the unspeakable.