OS ALBINOS NA TANZÂNIA

A Tanzanian Red Cross Society (TRCS) volunteer holds the hand of an albino toddler at a picnic organised by the TRCS at the government-run school for the disabled in Kabanga, in the west of the country near the town of Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika June 5, 2009

A teenage Tanzanian albino girl sits in the female dormitory at a government-run school for the disabled in Kabanga, in the west of the country near the town of Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika June 5, 2009. The school began to take in albino children late last year after albinos were being killed in Tanzania and neighbouring Burundi by people who allegedly sell their body parts for use in witchcraft.

An albino child poses at a picnic organised by the Tanzania Red Cross Society (TRCS) at the government-run school for the disabled in Kabanga, near Kigoma, Tanzania on June 5, 2009.

Albino children take a break on January 25, 2009 in a recreational hall at the Mitindo Primary School for the blind, which has become a rare sanctuary for albino children.

Neema Kajanja, 28, molds a pot from clay at her grandmother's home in Ukerewe, Tanzania on January 27, 2009, where she and two siblings, both albinos, curently live. Ukerewe, an island on Lake Victoria near the town of Mwanza, is a safe haven compared to other parts of Tanzania where people with albinism now live in fear for their lives as their body parts limbs, internal organs and even hair grow increasingly sought after to be sold for luck potions.

Albino children play at the Mitindo Primary School for the blind on January 25, 2009. The school has become a rare sanctuary for vulnerable albino children in Tanzania.

This picture taken on May 28, 2009 shows human body parts including a femur and what appears to be stack of skin tissue (edit: object appears more likely to be an elephant's tooth) exhibited in a courtroom during a trial of 11 Burundians accused of the murder of albinos, whose limbs have been sold to witch doctors in neighbouring Tanzania, in Ruyigi. A Burundi prosecutor, Nicodeme Gahimbare, demanded sentences ranging from one year to life in prison at a trial. Gahimbare requested life sentences for three of the 11 accused, eight of whom were in the dock over the killing of a eight-year-old girl and a man in March this year.

Desde há muitos anos, os albinos da África sub-saariana enfrentam discriminação, a situação tornou-se muito mais dramática e perigosa nos últimos anos na Tanzânia.

Os albinos na Tanzânia são procurados por aqueles que irão matá-los para com os seus órgãos, membros e até mesmo os cabelos fazerem “poções da sorte”.

Os mais velhos tânzaneses acreditam que estas poções, ossos ou cabelos de albinos trazem boa sorte e riqueza aos negócios e actividades do dia-a-dia.

Por exemplo, os pescadores tecem cabelos albinos nas suas redes esperando uma grande pesca no Lago Victoria.

Mais de 50 albinos foram mortos na Tanzânia e Burundi no ano passado o que levou à criação de uma rede de serviços de protecção de albinos e a algumas detenções e julgamentos por homicídio pelo governo da Tanzânia.

TONY KARUMBA e NDIKUMANA da agência AFP, ALEX WYNTER da REUTERS fizeram um excelente trabalho fotográfico no sentido de denunciar esta situação ao mundo.

Aqui vai também a minha pequeníssima denúncia, como sempre aqui digo, fazer pouco pode ser muito mais do que nada…