Source: The New York Times
December 24, 2002, Tuesday
BLANTYRE, Malawi, Dec. 23 - A rumor that
Malawi's government is colluding with vampires to collect human blood for
international aid agencies in exchange for food has led to a rash of
vigilante violence.
President Bakili Muluzi accused
unidentified opposition politicians on Sunday of spreading the vampire
stories to try to undermine his government.
Spreading paranoia has set off several
attacks on suspected vampires. Last week a man accused of helping vampires
was stoned to death, and three Roman Catholic priests were beaten by
villagers who suspected them of vampirism. Both attacks happened in Thyolo
District, in the south.
At a news conference on Sunday, Mr. Muluzi
called the vampire stories malicious. ''No government can go about sucking
blood of its own people,'' he said.
The rumors have increased political
tensions in the country, where protests have already broken out over Mr.
Muluzi's efforts to change the Constitution to stay in office for another
five years after his second (and final) five-year term ends in 2004.
According to the United Nations World Food
Program, more than three million people need emergency food aid in Malawi.
Stories of vampires sucking people's blood
have been circulating in Mulanje, Thyolo, Chiradzulu and Blantyre for three
weeks. A number of people, mainly women and children, have said they were
attacked.
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