Myanmar Man Saved from Sea Kills Himself
Dawn Chia
Electric New Paper
_______________
Singapore:
He was found floating, desperately clinging to a log in the Malacca Strait.
He had been adrift for hours, perhaps days. He was thirsty, hungry, terrified and desperate to survive.
Yet, 34 days after he was rescued last month, he was found dead.
He had apparently hanged himself.
Why? The reason remains an ironic mystery, though it could be that he was desperate to avoid going back to Myanmar.
When a passing tugboat plucked Ah Ne, as he's known, from the Strait of Malacca on 7 Sep, he was naked.
It is not known for how long he had been adrift or how he came to be floating in the middle of nowhere.
But the man, who was in his 40s, survived against all odds, only, it seems, to take his own life.
On Tuesday, his body was found hanging in a cabin on a vessel where he was housed temporarily.
His death left a string of unanswered questions.
His cousin, Mr Maung Saw Oo, a 32-year-old painter, who has been working in Singapore for about 10 years, showed The New Paper a handwritten note that Ah Ne left behind.
On it, Ah Ne had scrawled in Mon (a language spoken in Myanmar) that he 'did not want to return to Myanmar'.
Nobody knows why Ah Ne had left Myanmar in the first place.
On Ah Ne's rescue from the sea, all Mr Maung knows is that his cousin was travelling on a small boat with two other men and it capsized.
The other men were swept away, but Ah Ne clung to the log.
The crew on board a Singapore-registered tugboat rescued the dehydrated and tired man. They gave him clothes and food.
The crew were not able to find out more about Ah Ne because he spoke only Mon.
Two embassies were contacted to establish the man's identity.
After interviewing him, a part of the mystery was cleared up - he was a Myanmar national.
A few days later, Ah Ne was told that he would be given the necessary documents to return to Myanmar.
Oct 16, 2005
Dawn Chia
Electric New Paper
_______________
Singapore:
He was found floating, desperately clinging to a log in the Malacca Strait.
He had been adrift for hours, perhaps days. He was thirsty, hungry, terrified and desperate to survive.
Yet, 34 days after he was rescued last month, he was found dead.
He had apparently hanged himself.
Why? The reason remains an ironic mystery, though it could be that he was desperate to avoid going back to Myanmar.
When a passing tugboat plucked Ah Ne, as he's known, from the Strait of Malacca on 7 Sep, he was naked.
It is not known for how long he had been adrift or how he came to be floating in the middle of nowhere.
But the man, who was in his 40s, survived against all odds, only, it seems, to take his own life.
On Tuesday, his body was found hanging in a cabin on a vessel where he was housed temporarily.
His death left a string of unanswered questions.
His cousin, Mr Maung Saw Oo, a 32-year-old painter, who has been working in Singapore for about 10 years, showed The New Paper a handwritten note that Ah Ne left behind.
On it, Ah Ne had scrawled in Mon (a language spoken in Myanmar) that he 'did not want to return to Myanmar'.
Nobody knows why Ah Ne had left Myanmar in the first place.
On Ah Ne's rescue from the sea, all Mr Maung knows is that his cousin was travelling on a small boat with two other men and it capsized.
The other men were swept away, but Ah Ne clung to the log.
The crew on board a Singapore-registered tugboat rescued the dehydrated and tired man. They gave him clothes and food.
The crew were not able to find out more about Ah Ne because he spoke only Mon.
Two embassies were contacted to establish the man's identity.
After interviewing him, a part of the mystery was cleared up - he was a Myanmar national.
A few days later, Ah Ne was told that he would be given the necessary documents to return to Myanmar.
Oct 16, 2005