Sudanese priest exhumed after 43 years
Jul 07, 2011
THE remains of a Southern Sudanese Catholic priest were on Friday exhumed in Kitgum district and airlifted to his country for reburial.
By Wokorach Oboi
THE remains of a Southern Sudanese Catholic priest were on Friday exhumed in Kitgum district and airlifted to his country for reburial.
Two Southern Sudanese ministers led a delegation of over 10 people to oversee the exhumation of the Rev. Fr. Leopold Anywar’s body. The ministers included Benjamin Benaiah Kitara (humanitarian affairs and disaster management) and Jerome Gama Surur (agriculture, forestry, cooperatives and rural development).
Anywar was buried in St. Joseph’s Hospital cemetery near Kitgum town 43 years ago. The priest, who is now revered as a freedom fighter and national hero, was killed under unclear circumstances by residents of Pauma in Palabek Kal sub-county, Lamwo district in 1968.
The exhumation exercise lasted about six hours as it took the grave diggers a long time to locate the remains. The exhumation was also witnessed by the Vicar of Christ the King Church Kitgum, Monsignor Mathew Ojara, and Kitgum LC5 chief Luka Nyeko.
Ojara and Nyeko appealed to the familiy and government of Southern Sudan to forgive the people of Palabek Kal in particular and Ugandans in general for murdering their son.
“The Rev. Father was killed and buried here. His blood mixed with our soil, which now accompanies his remains to go and mix with the soil in Sudan. This is a call for us to live as brothers and sisters in Uganda and Sudan,†Ojara said.
Anywar was an Acholi from Palotaka village in Southhern Sudan, who fled to Uganda in the early 1960s after Sudanese authorities accused him of supporting the Anya-nya rebellion.
He later sneaked into rebel -eld territories in the south, ferrying with him food, medicine and clothes to his people.
He also carried out his priestly work in parts of Acholi and West Nile sub-regions as well as in the then Zaire.
The Southern Sudanese team said their government wants to remember all its freedom fighters. They said there are plans to exhume the remains of all their freedom fighters from wherever they were buried and take them for decent burial in Southern Sudan.
THE remains of a Southern Sudanese Catholic priest were on Friday exhumed in Kitgum district and airlifted to his country for reburial.
Two Southern Sudanese ministers led a delegation of over 10 people to oversee the exhumation of the Rev. Fr. Leopold Anywar’s body. The ministers included Benjamin Benaiah Kitara (humanitarian affairs and disaster management) and Jerome Gama Surur (agriculture, forestry, cooperatives and rural development).
Anywar was buried in St. Joseph’s Hospital cemetery near Kitgum town 43 years ago. The priest, who is now revered as a freedom fighter and national hero, was killed under unclear circumstances by residents of Pauma in Palabek Kal sub-county, Lamwo district in 1968.
The exhumation exercise lasted about six hours as it took the grave diggers a long time to locate the remains. The exhumation was also witnessed by the Vicar of Christ the King Church Kitgum, Monsignor Mathew Ojara, and Kitgum LC5 chief Luka Nyeko.
Ojara and Nyeko appealed to the familiy and government of Southern Sudan to forgive the people of Palabek Kal in particular and Ugandans in general for murdering their son.
“The Rev. Father was killed and buried here. His blood mixed with our soil, which now accompanies his remains to go and mix with the soil in Sudan. This is a call for us to live as brothers and sisters in Uganda and Sudan,†Ojara said.
Anywar was an Acholi from Palotaka village in Southhern Sudan, who fled to Uganda in the early 1960s after Sudanese authorities accused him of supporting the Anya-nya rebellion.
He later sneaked into rebel -eld territories in the south, ferrying with him food, medicine and clothes to his people.
He also carried out his priestly work in parts of Acholi and West Nile sub-regions as well as in the then Zaire.
The Southern Sudanese team said their government wants to remember all its freedom fighters. They said there are plans to exhume the remains of all their freedom fighters from wherever they were buried and take them for decent burial in Southern Sudan.