KALMUNAI, Sri Lanka (AP) — “Give us our baby!” a distraught Sri Lankan mother cried yesterday after a judge kept her from the 4-month-old boy she says was torn from her arms in Asia’s tsunami.
- Chelsea Trull
- Murugupillai Jeyarajah a man who claims to be the parent of the tsunami survivor infant dubbed “Baby 81,” cries as his wife Jenita Jeyarajah holds the baby at a hospital in Kalmunai, Sri Lanka.
kilometers (131 miles) east of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri La
In the disaster zone’s most heart-wrenching custody case, a court ordered Jenita Jeyarajah and her husband to undergo a DNA test to prove they are the parents of the child known as “Baby 81,” triggering a melee at a hospital that led to the would-be parents’ arrests.
The couple had hoped to take custody of the child at yesterday’s hearing, and became inconsolable when told he would be put back into hospital care until at least April 20 — the next available date on the court calendar when the judge will hear the DNA results.
Jenita Jeyarajah beat her chest and shouted she couldn’t be away from her child that long. Then, accompanied by dozens of relatives and friends, she and her husband, Murugupillai, marched a half-mile to the hospital where the baby has been kept since the Dec. 26 disaster and forced their way into the pediatric ward.
“Here is my baby — look, look!” the 25-year-old woman screamed.
“Please give us our baby!” she pleaded before dropping to her knees at the feet of the head nurse and begged to take the child home.
The couple and two supporters were arrested and briefly held by police, then released and ordered to appear at a hearing on Thursday.