(Death, Heaven, Purgatory, Hell)
Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
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Murdered nun asked forgiveness for killers as she lay dying
The Associated
Press
Published: September 18, 2006
NAIROBI, Kenya Sister Leonella, a nun who devoted her life to
helping the sick in volatile regions of Africa, used to joke that there was a
bullet with her name engraved on it in Somalia. When the bullet came, she used
her last breaths to forgive those responsible.
"I forgive, I forgive," she whispered in her native Italian just before she died, the Rev. Maloba Wesonga told The Associated Press at the nun's memorial mass in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Monday.
Sister Leonella's execution-style murder over the weekend has raised concerns that she and other foreigners who have been killed in Somalia recently are victims of growing Islamic radicalism in the country.
Her slaying was not a random attack and could have been sparked by remarks by Pope Benedict XVI about Muslims that have sparked angry reaction from Muslims around the world, added Willy Huber, regional head of the Austrian-funded hospital where Sister Leonella worked.
The killing has once again turned the spotlight on the lawless Horn of Africa nation where a powerful, radical Islamic group, accused of having ties to al-Qaida, have all but wrested control of the country from the weak and factional Somali government.
With it has come a hardline Taliban-style rule complete with public floggings and executions. Its leaders have pledged to wage holy war against an African peacekeeping force which is supposed to arrive early next month to help stabilize the country.
On Monday a car bombing and a subsequent gunbattle killed 11 people in Baidoa, the headquarters of the weak government, 250 kilometers (150 miles) from Mogadishu. No one has claimed responsibility or been blamed for the attack, but the government spokesman said it was meant to kill the president, who escaped unharmed.
While most Somalis said they thought Sister Leonella's attack was linked by remarks the pope made linking Islam with violence, Abdurahman Mohamed Farah, the deputy leader of the Supreme Islamic Courts Council said the nun's killing was unrelated to the pope's speech, blaming it instead on Somali warlords who lost control of Mogadishu in June after intense fighting with the Islamic militia.
In recent months the Islamic group has extended its control over much of southern Somalia, challenging the weak, U.N.-backed government that hasn't been able to exert any power outside Baidoa.
"We will punish the culprits behind this nasty killing," he told journalists
in the capital. One man has already been arrested in connection with the murder.
The rise of the Islamic militants has coincided with a wave of assassinations of both foreign workers and moderate Somali intellectuals.
Among them were Swedish journalist Martin Adler, who was killed in June during a demonstration in Mogadishu and a prominent Somali peace activist Abdulkadir Yahya Ali, who was murdered a month later. BBC journalist Kate Peyton was shot dead last year.
The United States has accused the Islamic group of sheltering suspects in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, while in recordings attributed to al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, he portrayed Somalia as a battleground in his war on the U.S.
The Islamic militia also replaced its moderate leader with hardline cleric Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, whom the U.S. has linked to al-Qaida. Aweys denies the allegations.
Matt Bryden, a regional analyst, said a renegade Islamic militia or warlords hoping to use the killings to taint the image of the Islamic courts could be behind the killings.
Either way instability and insecurity, which has sparked mass waves of refugees, is a threat to the entire region. "The rest of the world needs to be concerned about Somalia," he told the AP.
Sister Leonella, whose birth name was Rosa Sgorbati, had lived and worked in Kenya and Somalia for 38 years, her family said.
She was shot as she left the Austrian-run S.O.S. hospital Sunday. Her bodyguard also was slain. The two had been walking the 10 meters (30 feet) from the Mogadishu hospital to the sister's home, where three other nuns were waiting to have lunch with her.
"She had no chance," Huber added. "It was like an execution."
Sister Leonella was aware of the dangers in Somalia and used to joke that there was a bullet with her name engraved on it. "But this never deterred her or discouraged her," said Wesonga, who is secretary of the archdiocese of Nairobi.
In Mogadishu, Halima Hassan said Sister Leonella was a "kind person who loved mothers and children. We have lost a great person."
She added she hoped the killing would not lead to curtailed aid to Somalia.