Accra, (Greater Accra) 26 Oct.,

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative (CHRAJ) has stressed the need for public education to erase the negative beliefs about the activities of inmates of witches' camps in the Northern Region. It also called for a programme to ensure that the inmates, who are mostly women, are integrated into the community. These are contained in a summary report by the Commission on its investigations at the witches camps in Gambaga, Kukuo, Kpatinga and Nagani. The CHRAJ team learnt that the camps where people mostly women, accused of witchcraft are sent to be exorcised, also serve as protective custody for those accused of sorcery who otherwise could have been man-handled or lynched. The report said some of the inmates seek refuge at the camps for fear of accusing fingers being pointed at them, while most of them spend the rest of their life there since their families would not accept them. The Commission noted that the solution to the problem rest with traditional authorities since the practice can not be stopped overnight. "The practice is cultural and has permeated the society and there is therefore the need to mount extensive educational campaign in the communities where the practice is prevalent". It said any educational campaign should be done in conjunction with the Centre for National Culture and the house of chiefs in the areas concerned. The report said the CHRAJ team found out that the inmates, especially the women needed support to improve their health and living conditions. The population of the inmates at the Gambaga home for instance, according to the report, increased as a result of the Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis (CSM) outbreak which many people attributed to witchcraft. There are 123 women inmates at the Gambaga camp while the Kukuo camp in the Nanumba District also has 450 women, aged between 35 and 80 years. The Kpatinga camp in the Gushiegu/Karaga District has 42 inmates, all women, aged between 48 and 78 years while the camp at Nagani in the Yendi District has 193 inmates, made up of 13 men and 180 women, aged between 40 and 90 years. The report said while inmates at the Gambaga home are free to go back if their safety is assured, the Kukuo camp is more of a clinic where witches are sent to be exorcised. Some of the inmates, from various parts of the Northern Region and Togo, went there voluntarily to be cured. All except two of the witches at the Kpatinga home confessed, the report said, adding that conditions are better at the Nagani home and inmates there interact freely with members of the community. To encourage them to be self-dependent, the report said inmates at all the camps are allowed to engage in economic activities like charcoal production, sheabutter extraction, firewood picking and 'dawadawa' processing, while others are engaged as farm labourers. The report said the Gambaga home provides the inmates with loans to engage in petty trading, cotton spinning, soap making, cultivation and the sale of vegetables and spices, and tobacco. The CHRAJ said the biggest benefactor of the inmates at the Gambaga home is the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) which supplies the bulk of their food needs on a quarterly basis.