Still Haunt

Days Of Evil Still Haunt Faa’ite Atoll

IN EARLY September 1987, on the re mote Tuamotu archipelago atoll of Faa’ite, six people were burned to death victims of an orgy of perverted reli gious fervour, some even dying by their own children’s hands.

A total of 10 people have been arrested and charged in connection with the “trag edy of Faa’ite”, and now await trial in Pa peete. Yet reports of the chain of events that led to this fatal rite of exorcism still retain an edge of mystery. According to Tahiti newspapers the first islander to die, a 35year-old man, was beaten to death by cel ebrants convinced they could only ward off prophesied disaster from their atoll by freeing him of his “devil”. Next, the other victims were burned alive on a ritual pyre by the hysterical congregation, led by a pair of religious crusaders who claimed holy inspiration for their orders.

After the alarm was sounded by radio telephone, the mayor of Faa’ite and a Catholic priest arrived on the far-flung atoll to restore order two days after the first slaughter and just half an hour before a further four “impure souls” were to be sacrificed to the healing fire.

In the wake of this chilling illustration of evil lurking within the heart of nature, French Polynesia remains dazed; a tactful