Dar Es Salaam — THE good relationship between albinos and human rights activists has been strained in recent days. Some albinos complain bitterly saying that some human rights activists ignore their rights and instead defend their arch enemies -- killers who hunt for albino limbs.

The disgruntled albinos allege that the human rights activists defend their foes on the pretext of human rights. What baffled albinos is the logic behind this 'anomaly.' They do not understand why people who do not appear to harbor stone-hard insensitivity for human suffering are defended.

Dozens of witchcraft-related murders of albinos in Tanzania have left the albino living in fear. A recent report in the killings, "Through Albino Eyes," by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), found that around 300 children were hiding in schools for the disabled or emergency shelters in Tanzania.

The children are afraid that hunters employed by witchdoctors could murder them for their body parts. "It has been a crisis for over two years, 56 albinos have lost their lives as a result of killings done by hunters," Matthias Schmale, IFRC Under Secretary General for Development, told journalists at the report launch.

There are 7,000 registered albinos in Tanzania although officials believe actual numbers are higher. According to the IFRC, these albinos are unable to live normal lives due to the threat of murder. The attacks kicked off in 2007 and quickly spread across Tanzania - where the majority of the murders have occurred - and into Burundi.

A lull in the matter led to hopes that the attacks were over, but in late October, hunters beheaded 10-year-old albino boy Gasper Elikana in front of his family in Tanzania, then made off with his leg.

Police in Tanzania, estimate that a complete set of albino body parts - including all four limbs, genitals, ears, nose and tongue - are worth as much as 75 thousand dollars to witch doctors, who use them to concoct portions believed to bring wealth and good luck.

The witch doctors commission people to look for these body parts, according to the police.Tanzania sentenced four men to hang for killing an albino in November.

Albinos lack melanin pigment in their skin, eyes and hair. The condition comes with a host of attendant health factors, poor eyesight and susceptibility to skin cancer among them.

Many albinos living in poverty cannot afford life-saving suntan lotion and the IFRC report found that 98 per cent of Albinos living in Dar es Salaam die by their 40th birthday. Albinos also face discrimination and segregation and are often shunned by their families and communities.

The Tanzanian government has demonstrated its desire to end albino killings. In March, this year, President Jakaya Kikwere urged the public to come forward with any information that might help the government to deal incisively with the problem.

The presidents also called for a ban on witchcraft activities but, so far, many witch doctors are believed to be carrying on with their activities. It is these superstitious activities that triggered albino killings.

Ngeme Luhagula has not had a peaceful night's sleep since she saw her daughter hacked to death before her eyes two years ago. "I have endured the torture of living with that pain ever since. The images come and haunt me every night," she told a journalist at her village home on the shores of Lake Victoria.

Eventually, she could not suppress a smile when she was informed that four men had been sentenced to hang for killing a 50-year-old man - an albino who had the same condition as her 18-year-old daughter, Vumilia.

The men were found guilty of murdering Lyaku Willy and cutting off his head and legs. The verdicts brought to seven the number of people sentenced for killing albinos after the first such convictions last September.

"I want these killers to be hanged in public so that the punishment would act as a lesson and deter other killings," Ms Luhagula said quietly.

Demand for the body parts comes from people looking for magical assistance, from illegal miners looking for help in their search for gold and gems or fishermen who believe that by tying body parts in their nets they will have increased catches.

The murder of more than 50 albinos, some of them as young as six, has spoilt the Tanzania's image as one of the most liberal and stable countries in Africa. The recent rulings have been widely welcomed, although critics say that criminal gangs and the main players behind the trade have not been brought to justice.

"These prosecutions will be useless if the government does not provide security, good housing and help albino children to get access to education," said Ms Luhagula, whose daughter sold peanuts in Mwanza.

"Prosecutions alone will not stop the killings."

Although Tanzania still has the death penalty, no executions have been carried out since 1995. "Albino killings will not come to an end until we are all dead," Zaida Nsembo, a 50-year-old albino woman, said.

"Our bodies have become a business - they will pay as much as five million shillings for our right leg and arm alone. It is a secret who buys our bodies but it is here in Tanzania. I cannot call this place home now."

Albinos have complained that human rights activists defend killers when they are brought before courts of law and tend to condemn the courts when the culprits are sentenced to death.

The albino complaints were made recently at a four-day training seminar on human rights and the rights of persons with disabilities held at Mkuranga in Coast region. The seminar was prepared by a non-governmental organization, the Action on Disability and Development Tanzania (ADD).

A participant at the seminar, Ms Aichi Ngure, said that the activists were ignoring the rights of the albinos for no apparent reasons.

Ms Ngure who is an Albino and an activist defending persons with disabilities, condemned the activists saying that they did not appear to realize that albino killers were moral outcasts, who deserved the maximum legal penalty for murder - the death sentence.

She said that killing an albino for his or her body parts was an atrocious crime committed with stone-hard insensitivity against the hapless. Witchdoctors, 'prescribe' the slaughter of albinos in order for greedy wealth seekers to succeed in their quests.

Accusing fingers, in this respect, have mostly been pointed at gold and tanzanite miners, fishermen and business people. "Albino killing is nefarious murder in cold blood. This can only happen in a rabid world where morons have no qualms about killing socially disadvantaged people.

Participants at the seminar were of the general view that albino killers lacked all the good senses of a kind heart and the normal faculties of what makes a normal mind. A normal human being in the moral sense must possess all the characteristic feelings of regret, remorse, fear, anxiety, guilt and righteous indignation.

Killing is an atrocity whose commission makes one realize that human compassion and sanity have already departed one's soul. Killing merely serves to confirm this atrocious departure from compassion to callous disregard for life to hate for humanity and sanity to rabid insanity.

A private lawyer, Mr Frederick Mkatambo, said that the rights for the people with disabilities will be more conspicuous after the government ratifies the United Nations Human Rights Convention on Persons with Disabilities.

Mr Mkatambo was a facilitator at the training which brought together about 30 participants including Albinos, disabled persons, visually impaired persons, deaf persons and mentally retarded persons.