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Indian island police struggle to get body of American

By TIM SULLIVAN With help from a friend,
Associated Press Chau hired fishermen for
NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian $325 to take him there on a
authorities were struggling boat, Pathak said.
Thursday to figure out how After the fishermen real-
to recover the body of an ized Chau had been killed,
American who was killed they left for Port Blair, the
after wading ashore on an capital of the island chain,
island cut off from the mod- where they broke the news
ern world. to Chau's friend, who in turn
John Allen Chau was killed notified his family, Pathak
last week by North Sentinel said.
islanders who apparently Police surveyed the island
shot him with arrows and by air Tuesday, and a team
then buried his body on the of police and forest depart-
beach, police say. ment officials used a coast
But even officials don't trav- guard boat to travel there
el to North Sentinel, where Wednesday. Another trip
people live as their ances- was planned Thursday.
tors did thousands of years India has a hands-off ap-
ago, and where outsiders proach to the island's peo-
are seen with suspicion and ple. Tribespeople killed two
attacked. Anthropology professor at Delhi University P.C. Joshi speaks to the Associated Press in his office Indian fishermen in 2006
"It's a difficult proposition," in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018. when their boat broke
said Dependera Pathak, di- Associated Press loose and drifted onto the
rector-general of police on shore, but Indian media
India's Andaman and Nico- Joshi noted that the visit not ing of the following day, be full of confidence as reports say officials did not
bar Islands, where North only risked Chau's life, but the fishermen watched he wrote in his notes, "God investigate or prosecute
Sentinel is located. "We also the lives of islanders from the boat as tribes- sheltered him from coast- anyone in the deaths.
have to see what is pos- who have little resistance men dragged Chau's body guard and Navy," he said. India recently changed
sible, taking utmost care of to many diseases. along the beach and bur- In an Instagram post, his some of its rules on visiting
the sensitivity of the group "They are not immune to ied his remains. family said it was mourn- isolated regions in the An-
and the legal require- anything. A simple thing like Pathak said seven people ing him as a "beloved son, damans. While special per-
ments." flu can kill them," he said. have been arrested for brother, uncle and best mits are required, scholars
Police are consulting an- On his first day Chau inter- helping Chau, including friend to us." The family also say visits are now theoreti-
thropologists, tribal welfare acted with some tribesmen five fishermen, a friend of said it forgave his killers cally allowed in some parts
experts and scholars to fig- - who survive by hunting, Chau's and a local tourist and called for the release of the Andamans where
ure out a way to recover fishing and collecting wild guide. of those who assisted him they used to be entirely
the body, he said. plants - until they became Chau was apparently shot in his quest to reach the forbidden, including North
While visits to the island are angry and shot an arrow and killed by arrows, but island."He ventured out on Sentinel. Chau had no per-
heavily restricted, Chau at him. The 26-year-old the cause of death can't his own free will and his lo- mit, police said.
paid fishermen last week self-styled adventurer and be confirmed until his body cal contacts need not be Chau had wanted ever
to take him near North Christian missionary then is recovered, Pathak said. persecuted for his own ac- since high school to go
Sentinel, using a kayak to swam back to the fisher- He also said the police tions," the family said. to North Sentinel to share
paddle to shore and bring- men's boat waiting at a were examining whether Authorities say Chau ar- Christianity with the indig-
ing gifts including a football safe distance. Chau had tried earlier to rived in the area on Oct. enous people, said Mat
and fish. That night, he wrote about visit the isolated island. 16 and stayed on another Staver, founder and chair-
It was "a foolish adventure," his visit and left his notes Pathak said Chau and his island while he prepared to man of Covenant Journey,
said P.C. Joshi, an anthro- with the fishermen. He re- accomplices planned well travel to North Sentinel. It a program that takes col-
pology professor at Delhi turned to North Sentinel the for last week's visit by "cam- was not his first time in the lege students on tours of Is-
University who has studied next day, Nov. 16. ouflaging the visit as fish- region: he had visited the rael to affirm their Christian
the islands. "He invited that What happened then isn't ing." Andaman islands in 2015 faith. Chau went through
aggression." known, but on the morn- Also, Chau appeared to and 2016. that program in 2015.q