A/HRC/7/10/Add.4 page 15 retribution meted out to them by the community. 16 This preoccupation is fomented by the tendency for the accusations of witchcraft to fall on children who are already in a situation of need and vulnerability. After a child accused of witchcraft was stabbed to death in 2000, Government officials and Save the Children Fund rounded up 432 street children and reintegrated 380 of them with relatives. Eleven churches were reportedly shut down because of reports of child exploitation and abuse and eight Congolese pastors were expelled from Angola. 17 Committees on the Protection of Children set up in 2002 in Zaire Province have been regarded as effective in sensitizing and educating pastors, ultimately converting them into defenders of the rights of the child, controlling violence against children and diminishing the need for sanctions against churches that use violence as part of treatments against witchcraft. It has been reported that the number of children who are mistreated or abandoned in the province has substantially reduced. 38. The Special Rapporteur interviewed ten such children from Christian and Muslim backgrounds now living in a centre for street children in Luanda. All had been accused of being witches by their parents or relatives. The vast majority were taken to pastors, witchdoctors or traditional healers to be “cured”. Such treatment included being effectively detained, frequently for lengthy periods, in one case for two years. The treatment often included having cooking oil poured into their eyes at night-time to prevent escape, and frequently being starved, sometimes for a week at a time. One of the children was subjected to death threats and reports were received that sometimes children are injected with poison. The Special Rapporteur subsequently visited a nearby house of worship in Luanda where children are sent to be “treated”. While she was not able to meet the pastor there, she spoke with an elderly lady present who confirmed that the children observed there were witches and they had now been “cured”. 39. In its 2004 concluding observations to Angola’s report, the Committee on the Right of the Child “expressed its deep concern at the re-emergence of the persecution of children accused of witchcraft and the very negative consequences of such accusations, including cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and even murder. The Committee urges the State party to take immediate action to eliminate the mistreatment of children accused of witchcraft, including by prosecuting the perpetrators of this mistreatment and intensive education campaigns that involve local leaders” 18 . Angola’s report stated that in M’Banza Congo, the provincial capital of Zaire province, at least 23 young boys are forced to live in an orphanage run by the Catholic Church. They were thrown out of their homes for allegedly possessing supernatural powers. “Children accused of witchcraft, who are considered to fall outside the mainstream, are thought of by the community as belonging to a sect - a religious or mystical group whose teachings and hierarchy these 16 http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=48287. 17 “Impact of Accusations of Witchcraft against Children in Angola: Analysis from the human rights perspective”, UNICEF report July 2006, p. 34. 18 Concluding observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted on 1 October 2004 (CRC/C/15/Add.246, paras. 30-31).