Refugees ate human flesh to survive
2013-02-19 18:20
Colombo - At least some of a group of 32 Burmese
nationals stranded at sea without food for more than three weeks survived by
eating human flesh, a Sri Lankan monk who acted as the refugees' interpreter
said on Tuesday.
The 32 men were rescued on Sunday from a sinking ship by
the Sri Lankan navy.
"They had been in sea for two months, but had
exhausted the food and water after five weeks," said Buddhist monk
Maligawila Assaji, who had learnt Burmese from having lived in that country for
several years.
"Part of their food had been stolen by persons who
forcibly entered their boat," he said.
The men claimed that they had thrown into the sea the
bodies of as many as 98 of their fellow travellers who died of starvation and
sickness.
They said they had been heading by sea to Australia
illegally when the engine of the old wooden craft stalled.
The Burmese, rescued off the eastern coast of Sri Lanka
on Sunday, were brought ashore and admitted to hospital in the southern coastal
town of Galle mainly for treatment for dehydration.
Twenty-four of those rescued still remain in hospital.
- SAPA
