Why American citizen John Chau had to die in Andaman's North Sentinel Island

John Chau, the American tourist who was killed by a protected tribe in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said he was scared of them when he visited the North Sentinel Island for the last time, media reports said.

“I‘m scared,” wrote the 26-year-old American from Washington state. He had traveled to the island on a clandestine mission to convert its inhabitants to Christianity, reported The Washington Post.

“Watching the sunset and it’s beautiful — crying a bit . . . wondering if it will be the last sunset I see," he said.

His initial contacts with the Sentinelese, a tiny tribe of hunter-gatherers who reject contact with the outside world, had not gone well. One teenager shot an arrow at him, which pierced his waterproof Bible, reported the American newspaper.

However, the American returned to the island once again.

“Lord, is this island Satan’s last stronghold where none have heard or even had the chance to hear your name?” he wrote in a diary of his last days provided to The Washington Post by his mother.

Chau had left 13 pages written in pen and pencil with the fishermen who had transported him to the island.

A day after his final trip to the island, fishermen reportedly saw his body being dragged and then buried in the sand.

As per The Washington Post report, Chau’s diary reveals a portrait of a young man obsessed with the idea of bringing Christianity to the Sentinelese, who number in the dozens and have lived largely without contact from the outside world for centuries, protected from visitors by Indian law.

The diary showed that the American knew that his mission was illegal.

“God Himself was hiding us from the Coast Guard and many patrols,” he stated in a description of the boat journey as reported by the American newspaper.

He had told no one about his plan to hire local fishermen to take him to the tribal area because “he did not want to put others of his friends at risk,” one of his associates, Bobby Parks, wrote his mother after his death, according to an emailed she shared with The Washington Post. 

The Sentinelese, whose population in 2011 was estimated at 40, are known to resist contact with the outside world. 

Image: Indian Coastguard/Survival
 
The authorities in the Union Territory have launched helicopter search teams to look for the body. They said the helicopters are unable to land at the island as the Sentinelese are hostile to any attempt at approaching them.

The area is prohibited for travelling for the protection of endangered tribes and sensitive defence installations.. Only people who have high-level access and permission can visit the protected areas.

Did Chau go to Andaman and Nicobar Islands for proselytism?

A report by CNN, quoted Dependra Pathak, Director-General of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, saying that Chau went to the remote island with a purpose of proselytism.

"We refuse to call him a tourist. Yes, he came on a tourist visa, but he came with a specific purpose to preach on a prohibited island," Pathak told CNN. He also said Chau came to India on a tourist visa.

Pathak said Chau had asked a local friend to get him a boat and find several fishermen and a water sports expert to assist him in his expedition. The boat, which took Chau on Nov 15, stopped before half-a-mile away. Then Chau reportedly used a canoe to reach the shore of the island.

Chau had returned with some arrow injuries that day only but his canoe was broken by the tribes people on Nov 16. "So, he came back to the boat swimming. He did not come back on the 17th; the fishermen later saw the tribespeople dragging his body around," Pathak said as quoted by CNN.

Police, though are yet to investigate the case independently, suspected Chau might have been killed, based on the fishermen's statements.

Survivor International slams govt.

Survival International, the world's leading tribes rights nonprofit body, in a statement said: “This tragedy should never have been allowed to happen. The Indian authorities should have been enforcing the protection of the Sentinelese and their island for the safety of both the tribe, and outsiders."

“Instead, a few months ago the authorities lifted one of the restrictions that had been protecting the Sentinelese tribe’s island from foreign tourists, which sent exactly the wrong message, and may have contributed to this terrible event.

“It’s not impossible that the Sentinelese have just been infected by deadly pathogens to which they have no immunity, with the potential to wipe out the entire tribe.

"The Sentinelese have shown again and again that they want to be left alone, and their wishes should be respected. The British colonial occupation of the Andaman Islands decimated the tribes living there, wiping out thousands of tribespeople, and only a fraction of the original population now survive. So the Sentinelese fear of outsiders is very understandable.

The 2012 outrage:

Outrage had followed a London newspaper group back in 2012 posting a video of waist-up naked women members of the vanishing tribe of 403 dancing before tourists at the behest of tour operators in the Andamans. Visitors said it was common to spot a Jarawa on the Andaman Trunk Road, take pictures, and make them perform.

It had become an attraction tour operators were offering on the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. Many visitors returned with trophy images and video footage of the tribe.

Andamans:

Andaman is home to primitive tribes like Onge, Sentinelese, Jarawas, Great Andamanese, Shompen and Nicobarese. Among them Jarawas are the most threatened.

According to international NGO Survival International, that earlier exposed the vulnerability of the tribe to a nexus of corrupt police and tour operators, the ancestors of the Jarawa and the other tribes of the Andaman Islands are thought to have been part of the first successful human migrations out of Africa.

It says the Jarawas hunt with bows and arrows, and gather seeds, berries and honey. They are nomadic, living in bands of 40 to 50. About 1998, some Jarawas started coming out of their forest to visit nearby towns and settlements for the first time.

NGOs say the principal threat to the Jarawas comes from encroachment onto their land sparked by the building of a highway, the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR), through their forest in the 1970s. This exposed them to disease and poachers.

Meanwhile, Chau's family issues statement:

Chau's family has shared a statement on Instagram. In a post on Chau's Instagram profile, the family said: "We recently learned from an unconfirmed report that John Allen Chau was reported killed in India while reaching out to members of the Sentinelese Tribe in the Andaman Islands. Words cannot express the sadness we have experienced about this report. He was a beloved son, brother, uncle and best friend to us.

"To others he was a Christian missionary, a wilderness EMT, an international soccer coach, and a mountaineer. He loved God, life, helping those in need, and had nothing but love for the Sentinelese people. We forgive those reportedly responsible for his death. We also ask for the release of those friends he had in the Andaman islands. He ventured out on his own free will and his local contacts need not be persecuted for his own actions. As a family, we ask for your understanding and respect for him and us during this time."