Experts suspect Stefan Ramin was "hacked to pieces and burned" by cannibals. Picture: Courtesy of Stefan Ramin / Picasa Source: news.com.au
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CLAIMS that an islander killed and ate a German sailor in remote French Polynesia have been dismissed as "absolutely ridiculous" by bewildered locals.
"Trust me, we'd rather eat hot dogs than humans around here," journalist Alex du Prel said of the claims that Stefan Ramin met his end at the hands of an unhinged island cannibal.
Newspapers across Britain and Europe are running with accusations that the sailor, who went missing on Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas in September, was "carved up by a cannibal".
The 40-year-old traveller and his girlfriend Heike Dorsch, 37, had been sailing the world for three years when they anchored off the remote and mountainous island on September 16.
The pair planned to finish their adventures in New Zealand next year.
But all went awry when Ramin went goat hunting with local guide Arihano Haiti and never returned. Haiti told Dorsch the sailor had been injured but when she went with him to the scene he tied her up and tried to rape her.
She escaped but so did Haiti, who was last seen heading to the hills.
Police found a pile of charred remains and clothes believed to belong to Ramin, with officers saying it looks like his full body had been burned.
But the German newspaper Bild has reported that authorities suspect "the hunter carved his victim up, ate parts of the body and burned the remainder along with animals cadavers".
"He is regarded as a cannibal."
London's Telegraph repeated claims of cannibalism, outraging the island's deputy mayor, who told Nouvelles de Tahiti newspaper that locals were both angered and embarrassed by the international claims.
Du Prel, publisher of Tahiti-Pacifique magazine, said the foreign media was recalling a tradition that died out in the Marquesas 150 years ago.
"It's totally invented," he told NZ Newswire today.
There had been a return to some traditions "but it certainly doesn't go that far," he said.
"Believe me, French civilisation has taught these islanders to eat cheeseburgers and canned food, not people, and their wild pigs are far tastier."
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