Tsunami baby 81 couple arrested after storming into hospital
The couple claiming tsunami Baby 81 were arrested today after they stormed into the Sri Lankan hospital where the baby is being treated.
They rushed to the hospital after a court ordered lengthy DNA tests to determine whether they are his mother and father.
The judge ordered that the baby stay in the hospital until the DNA tests are completed, a process which could take more than eight weeks.
The plight of Baby 81 – so named because he was the 81st admission to the hospital on December 26, the day the tsunami struck the Indian Ocean island - has become emblematic of the disaster’s effect on families.
In the days immediately after the tsunami, nine women claimed the boy as their own, though only one couple, Murugupillai and Jenita Jeyarajah, lodged a formal custody claim. They said documents proving the boy was theirs were swept away.
The Jeyarajahs had hoped to be granted custody of the baby at today’s hearing in Kalmunai, although they had said they would submit to any tests the court ordered to prove their parentage.
When told that the child would be put back into hospital care until at least April 20, when the court will reconvene to hear the test results, Jenita beat her chest and cried out that she couldn’t be away from her child that long.
The couple then walked about a half mile to the hospital with relatives and friends and forced their way into the paediatric ward where Baby 81 is being kept.
“Here is my baby, look, look,” cried Jenita, 25, after she stormed into the glass cubicle where the baby is staying for security reasons.
“Please give us our baby,” Jenita pleaded with doctors before handing the infant to her husband. She then fell at the feet of the head nurse and pleaded.
“You are a mother. So am I. Give me my baby,” she said, surrounded by 70 to 100 relatives and friends.
Murugupillai threatened to commit suicide “if I don’t have the baby”, as two men stopped him from swallowing some white powder.
Authorities shut the hospital’s gates and called police, fearing the group would try to take the child away. Police came and told the crowd to leave the hospital, which they did peacefully without the baby.
More chaos followed when the 200 hospital staff went on strike alleging that two of them had been assaulted by the crowd. They soon resumed their duties when police promised to investigate.
Police then arrested the Jeyarajahs and two supporters.
“We had no other option but to arrest them because they did assault hospital staff,” said WP Wijeyatilleka, a police officer.
Judge MP Mohaideen told today’s hearing that ”thousands of babies have died and maybe hundreds of them are missing. It’s only after a DNA test that we can be sure that we are correct”.
Mohaideen also said the other people who had claimed to be the child’s parents should report to police and have DNA samples taken.
“This is very important in case the DNA test does not match this couple,” Mohaideen said.
Doctors at the hospital had opposed the baby being handed to the Jeyarajahs without a court ruling, saying that even though the others had not followed up on their initial claims there was no other way to be sure whether the Jeyarajahs were truly his parents.
Baby 81 survived among dead bodies and rubble until he was found by rescuers nine hours after the disaster.
The judge also ruled that the couple could visit the baby daily, instead of twice a week.
“This baby has suffered terrible losses – loss of familiar faces, familiar sounds and familiar smells,” said Anula Nikapota, a London child specialist who has gone to Kalmunai to help children recover from the trauma of the tsunami.
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