After being stabbed with hot metal rods, four women from Papua New Guinea confessed to witchcraft. Later, the women’s bodies were found in an old pit. The women’s village, located in a remote area 250 miles north of the capital, Port Moresby, accused them of using witchcraft to cause a car accident that killed three prison guards.

Sorcery and superstition have always been a part of the culture in Papua New Guinea. Killing suspected witches has become a common practice in certain regions.

Throughout the 1980s, anthropologist Bruce M. Knauft conducted extensive research on the village of Gebusi, located in the Western province. His studies showed that one in three adult deaths in the village were homicide. Eighty-six percent of those murdered were accused witches.

Villages frequently name sorcery and black magic as the sources of mysterious illness or death that befalls them.

“It’s not a question of what caused the death but who caused it,” director of the Melanesian Institute in the Eastern Highlands capital of Goroka, Herman Spingler, said to The Age.

The accused are most typically elderly women who hold little power within their village.

Villagers and witnesses usually refuse to speak with the police after the alleged witches have been executed, making it nearly impossible to prosecute the murderers effectively.

Papua New Guinea also has the highest HIV rate in The South Pacific, with 2 percent of its population living with AIDS or HIV. Many tribes and villages see witchcraft as the cause of the disease.

“People blame (AIDS) on witchcraft and sorcery,” Secretary for Health Dr. Nicholas Mann said to the BBC. “It will take some time and, unfortunately, loss of life before the message catches on.”

According to Spingler, deaths of alleged witches are becoming a weekly occurrence in some parts of the country such as the Chimbu and Eastern Highland provinces.

“(If) people who get sick from HIV/AIDS . don’t tell anyone because of fear of stigmatization, their deaths could spark witchcraft accusations,” Spingler said.

Many human rights activists fear that the ever-increasing rise of AIDS will lead to more witch-hunts, thereby increasing violence towards women.

Missionaries have a major presence in the country, hoping that Christianity will steer Papua New Guineans from belief in black magic.

According to the 2000 census, 96 percent of the country is Christian. However, the introduction of Christianity has done little to reduce the fear of witchcraft.

“Consider what you would think if you had no scientific knowledge and someone suddenly died,” said missionary and administrator of New Tribes Mission Jim Tanner to Time Pacific Magazine. “I tried to tell people about germs – tiny things you can’t see which cause harm – and they thought I must have some kind of white magic to see them.”

AIDS educators still have optimism about Papua New Guinea fighting its HIV/AIDS epidemic despite the prevalence of supernatural beliefs among the villagers.

“All over the world, supernatural phenomena are blamed for HIV/AIDS,” said John Bartlett, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health at Duke University Medical Center, in an e-mail. “The answer for this anxiety is information; providing transparent and clear education within a trusting relationship is the key.