Indian Island Police Struggle to Get American Corps

NEW DELHI – The Indian authorities were struggling to find a way to find the body of an American killed last week after landing ashore on an isolated island in the modern world.

John Allen Chau was killed by residents of northern Sentinels who apparently shot him with arrows and then buried his body on the beach, police said.

But even officials do not go to North Sentinel, where people live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, and where strangers are seen with suspicion and attacked.

"It's a tough proposition," said Dependera Pathak, chief executive officer of the Andaman and Nicobar Indian Islands Police, where North Sentinel is located. "We must see what is possible, taking the greatest care of the group's sensitivity and legal requirements."

The police are consulting with anthropologists, tribal welfare experts, forestry experts and specialists to find a way to recover the body, he said.

While visits to the island are forbidden, Chau paid fishermen last week to take him to the island. He used a kayak to row ashore, bringing gifts, including a football and fish.

He has traded with some members of the tribe – who survive by hunting, fishing and picking wild plants and known to attack anyone who approaches with bows, arrows and spears – until they reach the end of the day. they get angry and shoot an arrow at him. The 26-year-old Christian adventurer and missionary then swam back to the fishing boat waiting at a safe distance.

That night, he wrote about his visit and left his notes to the fishermen. He returned to North Sentinel the next day, November 16th.

It is unclear what happened at the time, but the next morning the fishermen observed from the boat the men of the tribe who were dragging Chau's body on the beach and burying him.

Pathak said the seven people were arrested for helping Chau, including five fishermen, a friend of Chau and a local tourist guide.

"It was a misguided adventure case," Pathak said.

It seems that Chau was shot by arrows, but the cause of death can only be confirmed when his body is found, said Pathak.

In a post on Instagram, her family said she was crying like "her beloved son, brother, uncle and best friend". The family also said that she forgave her killers and called for the release of those who had helped her in her quest to reach the island.

"He ventured voluntarily and his local contacts do not need to be persecuted for his own actions," said the family.

The authorities claim that Chau arrived in the area on October 16 and stayed on another island while he was preparing to travel to North Sentinel. It was not his first time in the region: he had visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 2015 and 2016. North Sentinel is part of the Andaman Islands and lies at the intersection of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

With the help of a friend, Chau hired fishermen for $ 325 to take him on a boat, Pathak said.

After the fishermen realized that Chau had been killed, they left for Port Blair, the capital of the chain of islands, where they announced the news to a friend of Chau, who informed his family said Pathak.

Police inspected the island by air on Tuesday and a team of police and forest officials used a coast guard boat to get there on Wednesday. Another visit was scheduled for Thursday.

India has a very passive approach vis-à-vis the inhabitants of the island. Tribespeople killed two Indian fishermen in 2006 when their boat detached and drifted to shore, but Indian media reported that Indian officials had neither investigated nor sued the perpetrators of these death.

Chau wanted since high school to go to North Sentinel to share Jesus with indigenous peoples, said Mat Staver, founder and president of Covenant Journey, a program that offers students touring Israel to affirm their Christian faith. Chau went through this program in 2015.

"He did not go there purely for adventure, I have no doubt that it was to bring them the gospel of Jesus," Staver said.

Chau was carrying a Bible that had been hit by an arrow when members of the tribe shot him on November 15, according to notes that he would have left with the fishermen Staver would have seen.

Staver said that Chau's latest notes to his family, dated November 16, had told them that they might think he was crazy, but that he felt it was worth it and asked that they not be angry when he was killed.

One of Chau's friends said that the American had spent a month at his home in Cape Town, South Africa, before traveling to India.

"If he took a risk, he was very conscious of it," said 39-year-old Casey Prince.

The two men met for the first time about six years ago, while Chau was director of the Oral Roberts University football team in Oklahoma. Chau and other members of the team traveled to South Africa to participate in a football program founded by Prince

Prince described it as being easy to love and driven by two passions: a love of the outdoors and a fervent Christianity.

Prior to attending Oral Roberts University, Chau had lived in southwestern Washington State and had gone to Vancouver Christian High School. Telephone messages left to relatives were not immediately returned on Wednesday.

Survival International, an organization that works for the rights of tribal peoples, said the killing of the American should prompt Indian authorities to properly protect Sentinel lands.

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Associated Press editors Tim Sullivan in New Delhi, Gene Johnson and Phuong Le in Seattle and Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.