JAKARTA POST (Indonesia) 06 December 06 Hands, body parts found in giant female croc (Yemris Fointuna)
Kupang: Villagers in East Nusa Tenggara area have found two hands and other human body parts inside a huge, man-eating female crocodile recently trapped and killed in Kupang Bay.
Soleman Patola, 54, caught the savage reptile weighing 500 kilograms and measuring five meters in length, which is believed to have eaten at least one of three missing men.
It was disabled by a nylon snare laid by Soleman near the Dusan II River mouth.
Angry residents later slashed at the beast with machetes until it died.
When they slit open the animal's abdomen, officers from the local Natural Resources Conservation Center were startled when they found human parts inside its digestive system.
The officials found two human hands including fingers, a leg, a T-shirt and some shorts.
Strands of human hair and skull fragments were also found on the wall of the crocodile's abdomen. Residents believed the remains were those of 59-year-old Soleman Bauk of Babau village, who was last seen near the river on Nov. 27, after going fishing.
After the parts were removed from the crocodile's stomach, residents cut it up and divided its meat to be taken home and cooked.
Bauk is one of the three people thought to have gone missing after fishing at the river mouth in Kupang Bay. Felipus Adat, 40, went missing on March 13, while the latest victim is an unidentified refugee from Timor Leste who disappeared on Dec. 3.
At least two other large crocodiles also live in the area and may have eaten the other two men.
Patola said there were initially three crocodiles tangled in his trap but two escaped and swam up the river.
The reptiles are also believed to have devoured dozens of cattle, pigs, goats and poultry.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20061206.A06
BOSTON GLOBE (Massachusetts) 06 December 06 Croc blamed in Indonesia disappearances
Jakarta, Indonesia: Villagers found two human hands, a leg and a pair of shorts inside a half-ton crocodile they trapped and killed in eastern Indonesia, a conservationist said Wednesday.
At least five people have gone missing in recent months in the same area of East Nusa Tenggara province and are believed to have been eaten by a crocodile or crocodiles, said local conservationist Lorens Mbatu.
The 16-foot-long reptile captured Monday is suspected of having eaten a 59-year-old fisherman, who was last seen a week ago near a river in the province about 750 miles east of the capital, Jakarta.
Thousands of crocodiles inhabit this vast archipelago of 17,000 islands. Man-eaters are rare.
But residents have been warned that at least two more dangerous saltwater crocodiles -- suspected of devouring dozens of cattle, pigs, goats and poultry -- remain at large.
The villagers who found human body parts inside the captured crocodile's abdomen -- along with skull fragments and strands of hair -- cut the beast into pieces and shared the meat, Mbatu said.
"People here believe they must eat the flesh of a crocodile that has eaten a human so there will be no more victims," he said
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/12/06/croc_blamed_in_indonesia_disappearances/
