Over here, we just elect them to Congress.
Posted on 01/10/2003 7:42:20 AM PST by Happy Valley Dude
BLANTYRE, Malawi (Reuters) - Hundreds of angry Malawians hounded a senior political figure from his house and stoned him late Wednesday, accusing him of harboring vampires. Blantire Urban Governor Eric Chiwaya, a member of the ruling United Democratic Front, was the latest victim of a bizarre rumor that the country's government is colluding with vampires to collect human blood for international aid agencies.
Bearing severe cuts to his face and body, he told Reuters from his hospital bed that a crowd had hailed him with stones and other missiles, chanting "vampire" and threatening to kill him.
Chiwaya said he knew some of his assailants, adding that political opponents were trying to discredit him and the government.
The vampire rumors have sparked several vigilante attacks on suspected bloodsuckers in recent weeks, despite official attempts to stop the rumor. One man was stoned to death, and three priests were attacked by angry villagers in the south.
Political tensions are already high in Malawi. President Bakili Muluzi's attempts to stay in office for another five-year term have already sparked protests, while many face starvation in the face of a regional food crisis.
How do you cheer up a depressed vampire?
B positive!
Vampire Rumors Drain Africa's Malawi
BLANTYRE, Malawi, Dec. 24, 2002
President Bakili Muluzi calls the rumors unfounded and malicious (AP)
"There is no truth in this. There is no such thing as blood suckers anywhere in Malawi." police inspector general Joseph Aironi
(AP) Horrifying stories of vampires attacking villagers in the dead of night and sucking their blood has forced Malawi's government to wage a massive public relations blitz to calm the public.
The rumors began three weeks ago in the south of this impoverished nation in southeast Africa and have intensified in recent days.
Last week, frightened villagers beat to death a man suspected of being a vampire, attacked and nearly lynched three visiting priests and destroyed an aid group's encampment they feared was the vampires' headquarters.
President Bakili Muluzi called the rumors unfounded and malicious, and accused unnamed opposition groups of trying to undermine him by saying his government gave aid agencies human blood in exchange for food aid.
"No government can go about sucking (the) blood of its own people," Muluzi said Sunday. "That's thuggery."
The rumors were hurting efforts to pull Malawi out of its severe hunger crisis, Muluzi said, since many families were too scared to leave their villages to tend their fields.
A series of statements from the police, Information Ministry, Home Affairs Ministry and Internal Security Ministry have condemned the rumors and top government officials have journeyed to the districts of Thyolo, Mulanje, Chiradzul and Blantyre trying to quash the stories.
"There is no truth in this. There is no such thing as blood suckers anywhere in Malawi," said Joseph Aironi, the police inspector general.
But the fears have continued.
Some villagers are fleeing to the city of Blantyre for safety.
Others sleep clutching drums so they can wake up the village if they suspect they are about to be attacked.
A mob in the southern tea-growing district of Thyolo last week beat to death a man accused of being a vampire, police said.
Three visiting Roman Catholic priests also were beaten in Thyolo by a mob of angry villagers who did not recognize them and suspected them of being vampires, police said. The priests, who were held overnight until a local Catholic family identified them, were treated for severe bruises.
In the same district, villagers destroyed tents pitched by an aid group that was in the area to drill wells for drinking water. The villagers believed the vampires were using the tent camp as their headquarters. No one was injured in the attack.
The frenzy has been fueled by several people's stories of being attacked by vampires.
Edna Kachisa said the vampires drilled a hole in her mud-and-thatch house and sprayed a suffocation gas inside. The attackers fled after she banged on a drum and awoke the village, she said.
"Because of the smoke I inhaled I could not speak for three days and I am still suffering from a recurrent stomach ache," she said.
Another woman outside Blantyre showed journalists a mark on her forearm she said was where vampires inserted a needle to try to draw her blood.
The Zimbabwe Guardian ^ | The Chronicle | TZG reporters
THE community of Lower Gweru and its surroundings in the Midlands Province was left shell-shocked when a goat gave birth to human-like creature that had the combined features of a man and a goat.
A report in The Chronicle newspaper said the goat gave birth to the 'creature' on Sunday morning in Maboleni area.
The creature had a human head, face, nose, shoulders and human-like skin that had very scanty furs.
It had goat features from the “shoulders” to the legs.
Its sagging stomach prevented curious villagers from determining whether it had human or animal sex organs as it protruded covering the front part.
Villagers said the end product was so scary that even dogs were afraid to move close to the goat.
Reuters
Published: March 18, 1996
JOHANNESBURG, March 17— A pet baboon suspected of being a witch in disguise was killed by "necklacing" by South African villagers, a Johannesburg newspaper reported today.
A crowd of about 150 people caught the baboon as it passed through their village near the popular Kruger National Park game reserve, beat it with metal poles, soaked it with gasoline and put a burning tire around its body, The Sunday Times said. "Necklacing" with burning tires was a type of punishment meted out in South African townships to suspected black collaborators with the former white apartheid government.
God answers prayer.
Food crisis!
Blame vampires! blame witches!
Don’t blame socialist government policies though, that would be strange.
Nothing screams modern country like a government that sends John Doe to an exorcist
That pic reminds me of a monster pic I used to see online occasionally
Would that were true; "The X-Files" was an inherently conservative show...
You can steal and have all the sex you want in Washington, but you bite through one jugular vein, and all of a sudden it's 'Vampire!' this and 'Vampire!' that all the time."
I also liked Fringe, especially Olivia and Walter.
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