- AUCKLAND (AFP) - Mysterious
rafts made of giant bamboo have been washing up on Micronesian atolls,
two of them with human skeletons on board -- one with a hole through its
forehead.
"Were very mystified about it all, and there is only speculation about
what has happened," Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) chief of
police Pius Choitulag told AFP Wednesday from the capital Pohnpei.
He said an Indonesia diplomat was arriving later Wednesday and he might
be able to solve the mystery.
Since late last year a total of 13 rafts, all similar in design, have washed
up, most in FSMs western most state of Yap.
"Everybody was very puzzled by it all, and why they were all coming
at one time," Choitulag said.
"We knew they were not from here because they are made from giant
bamboos.
"The bamboos are too large. The ones that grow on the islands of Yap
do not reach that size. Furthermore, there have been no missing persons
reports filed on Yap."
It became much more sinister when a raft washed up on an islet in the Ulithi
atoll in October -- complete with two skulls on it.
The locals reported the find to the national police.
"They have buried the bones now, their chiefs believed they deserved
a decent Christian burial," Choitulag said, adding they knew where
the graves were if they need to be exhumed.
A month later another raft, this time with a small fibreglass cabin, arrived
at Faraulep Atoll with three skeletons aboard. One is suspected of being
a child as the skull is smaller, and a childs shoe was attached to the
foot.
Choilulag revealed one of the bodies had a small hole through its forehead.
"Its too small for a bullet."
He said they have also found an identification card in the tattered remains
of clothes on a skeleton.
"It was a faded, very faded card for a gentleman from Bitung in Sulawesi,
in Indonesia."
Sulawesi has been the scene of sectarian unrest and while there were no
Muslim versus Christian clashes in Bitung last year it is known that boats
carrying refugees from Halmahera island in the Malukus had capsized near
the waters in Bitung.
Yap is around 1,700 kilometres (1,054 miles) northeast of Sulawesi.
With no forensic capability Choilulag said they could really only speculate
on what might have happened.
Some of the tools on one of the rafts hinted at some kind of fishing project,
but he could not rule out foul play.
"We dont know why they have come here, but there is a current from
the south."
And in 1997 two sea dramas played out that might explain how the rafts
ended up in Yap.
In October that year six Indonesians including a child were picked up in
FSMs Chuuk state after drifting in a powerless fishing boat for three months
from Morotai, Sulawesi.
Then in November 1997 a boat from Manado, just near Bitung, drifted for
two months to Chuuk with four survivors but nine had died. It had set out
on an hour long journey to an offshore island.
At the time the US Coastguard in Guam expressed astonishment that the boat
had drifted so far without first coming ashore in the Philippines or Papua
New Guinea. But they said the area was swept by the Equatorial Counter
Current which swept in many directions, often turning back on itself.
- Copyright © 2001 AFP
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