Police ponder how to retrieve body of slain missionary
THE POLICE said they had mapped the area of a remote Indian island where tribespeople were seen burying the body of an American adventurer and Christian missionary after allegedly killing him with arrows this month.
But before they can even attempt to recover the body of 26-year-old John Allen Chau, authorities have to learn from experts “the nuances of the group’s conduct and behaviour, particularly in this kind of violent behaviour”, said Dependra Pathak, the director-general of the police of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where North Sentinel Island is located.
During their visit to the island’s surroundings on Friday, investigators on a boat spotted four or five North Sentinel islanders moving in the area from a distance of about 500m, and studied their behaviour for several hours, said Pathak.
“We have more or less identified the site and the area in general,” Pathak said by phone on Saturday.
Indian authorities have been struggling to figure out how to get the remains of Chau, who was killed by North Sentinel islanders who apparently buried his body on the beach.
Officials typically don’t travel to the North Sentinel area, where people live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. The only contacts, occasional “gift giving” visits in which bananas and coconuts were passed by small teams of officials and scholars who remained in the surf, were years ago. Indian ships monitor the waters around the island, trying to ensure outsiders do not go near the Sentinelese.
Chau went to “share the love of Jesus”, said Mary Ho, international executive leader of All Nations. All Nations, a Kansas City, Missouri-based organisation, helped train Chau, discussed the risks with him and sent him on the mission to support him in his “life’s calling”, she added.
“He wanted to have a long-term relationship, and if possible, to be accepted by them and live among them,” she said.
Police say Chau knew that the Sentinelese resisted all contact by outsiders, firing arrows and spears at passing helicopters and killing fishermen who drift on to their shore.