Missionary's body flown to Australia


By Godfrey Olukya in Kampala

September 01, 2005


THE body of Australian missionary James Coulter, who drowned in a river in Uganda, has been flown home to Sydney.
"We took the body to Entebbe Airport in one of our vans and placed it on an Australia-bound plane," said the managing director of Uganda Funeral Services, Regina Mukibi, overnight.

Mukibi said the plane would fly to Sydney via South Africa .

Edward Mwesige, the director of Uganda Evangelists Enterprise which hosted Mr Coulter and five other Australian volunteers, was at the airport to see the body off.

Also there was Mr Coulter's friend David Cooper and the director of Australian Enterprise Africa, Jonathan Anderson.

Witnesses said Mr Coulter, a science graduate, slipped on a rock and plunged into the fast-flowing Musanya River while taking photographs of a waterfall last Monday.

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Local police recovered his body from a 15-metre underwater cave on Friday.

Yesterday, Children and staff at an East African orphanage farewelled Mr Coulter at a funeral service in Njeru, 80 km from the Ugandan capital Kampala.

The service was conducted by the Reverend Geofrey Byamugaba, who said Mr Coulter had been an exemplary servant of God.

He noted the young man's age and his dedication to the children and the needy in Uganda.