January 16, 2002

by Michael Field

 Mysterious rafts of giant bamboo have been washing up on Micronesian atolls and two of them have had human skeletons aboard -- one with a hole through its forehead.

"We’re very mystified about it all, and there is only speculation about what has happened," Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) Chief of Police Pius Choitulag said.

He said an Indonesia diplomat was arriving later Wednesday and he might be able to solve the mystery.

Late last year a total of 13 rafts, all similar in design, have washed up, most in FSM’s 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 all 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 child’s shoe was attached to the foot.

Choilulag revealed one of the bodies had a small hole through its forehead.

"It’s 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 unrest and while there have been no Muslim vs Christian clashes in Bitung last year its known boats carrying refugees from Halmahera island in the Malukus had capsized near the waters in Bitung.

Yap is around 1,700 kilometres north-east 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 raft hinted at the possibility of a fishing project of some kind.

He could not rule out foul play and he said it was speculation among locals that they might be refugees or people smugglers.

"We don’t 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 FSM’s Chuuk state after drifting in a powerless fishing boat for three months from Morotai, Sulawesi.

Then in November 1997 an 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 off-shore 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: Michael Field