I don’t know if readers had noticed the recent story about the Christian missionary who decided to visit the Andaman Islands, which are under the authority of India, but I doubt the villagers know that, as they tend to attack and even kill anyone who comes nearby.
Yep, he’s dead.
Now India is going to try to retrieve the body:
Authorities have started the arduous task of trying to retrieve a US missionary feared killed on a remote Indian island, careful not to trigger conflict with the islanders.
John Allen Chau was last seen last week when he traveled to the forbidden North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal to try to convert the island’s residents to Christianity. The Sentinelese, as they are known, have a decades-long history of repelling outsiders, a fact that is near certain to make the journey to find Chau a treacherous one.
Indian authorities along with the fishermen who reported seeing Chau’s body last week, went near the island on Friday and Saturday in an effort to figure out how to recover the body. [CNN]
I have one message for India: Don’t Bother.
Chau irresponsibly endangered the villagers by potentially introducing deadly pathogens to the villagers. It’s unethical to continue to do so. Since Chau elected to go of his own free will, leave his damn body there, and if anyone else tries to go there, slam them into the pokey and charge them with attempted genocide.
That’s right. That’s what it is. I don’t care how great a family guy this Chau dude might have been, his behavior earned him this end, and there’s no reason to retrieve his body unless it’s a hazard to these villagers.
