Necklacing

Necklacing (sometimes metonymically called Necklace) refers to the practice of execution carried out by forcing a rubber tire, filled with gasoline, around a victim's chest and arms, and setting it on fire.

The practice became a common method of lethal lynching during South Africa's national liberation struggle of the 1980s and 1990s. Necklacing sentences were sometimes handed down against alleged criminals by "people's courts" established in black townships as a means of circumventing the apartheid judicial system. Necklacing was also used to punish offenders, including children, alleged to be traitors to the liberation movement, as well as their relatives and associates. The practice was frequently carried out in the name of the African National Congress (ANC), and was even endorsed by Winnie Mandela, wife of the imprisoned Nelson Mandela and a senior member of the ANC, although the ANC officially condemned the practice. [1]

Photojournalist Kevin Carter was the first to photograph a public execution by necklacing in South Africa in the mid-1980s. He later spoke of the images "I was appalled at what they were doing. I was appalled at what I was doing. But then people started talking about those pictures... then I felt that maybe my actions hadn't been at all bad. Being a witness to something this horrible wasn't necessarily such a bad thing to do." [2] [3]

The same practice of extra judicial lynching is found in the Caribbean country of Haiti, prominently used against supporters of the Duvalier dictatorship at the beginning of the democratic transition (from 1986 to 1990). The term used in popular language is "Père Lebrun" (Father Lebrun), because of the well known autoparts dealer Mr LEBRUN, in whose shops tires can be bought by motorists.

Desmond Tutu once famously saved a near victim of necklacing when he rush into a large gathered crowd and threw his arms around a man who was about to be killed. Tutu's actions caused the crowd the release the man.

At least one person has died by necklacing in the deadly Muslim protests of satirical cartoons drawn of the Prophet Muhammad. [4]