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.<\/p>\n
At least 74 albinos have been murdered in the east African country since 2000.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“It was a protective measure, and welcome at the beginning,” said Londono, who has just returned from an inspection tour in Tanzania.<\/p>\n
“But the conditions are appalling. They are overcrowded, hygiene conditions are very poor,” she said.<\/p>\n
“There are abuses going on in these centres, cases of sexual abuse,” she added.<\/p>\n
Out of Tanzania’s 23 children’s homes, 13 host albino youngsters, according to UN figures.<\/p>\n
Londono said that all too often the children were forcibly removed from their families, and lose all contact with them.<\/p>\n
“They are really a neglected population, they are not considered in many places as human beings,” she explained.<\/p>\n
Segregating albinos from the wider community was not the answer, she said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Londono noted that the perpetrators of crimes against albinos were rarely punished in Tanzania or in other countries in Africa’s Great Lakes region.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In the West, it affects just one person in 20,000.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Albino body parts sell for around $600 in Tanzania, with an entire corpse fetching $75,000, she said.<\/p>\n
NMG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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