Military

DATE=12/29/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=BURUNDI/VATICAN (L-O)

NUMBER=2-311310

BYLINE=CATHY MAJTENYI

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The Vatican has confirmed its representative in Burundi, Archbishop Michael Courtney, was killed in an ambush outside the capital, Bujumbura. Cathy Majtenyi reports from V-O-A's East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.

TEXT: The pope's envoy to Burundi died in a Bujumbura hospital from gunshot wounds he suffered in an ambush.

Missionary News Agency reported that the 58-year-old Irish prelate was on his way back to the capital from Minago, 50-kilometers south of Bujumbura.

He was traveling with three other people - a priest, another passenger, and the driver - when bullets fired from a nearby hill hit the car. According to MISNA reports, the priest was slightly injured in an arm, while the others were unharmed.

It was unclear who was responsible for the attack. Burundi's army officials blamed it on rebels belonging to the National Liberation Forces. Attempts by V-O-A to contact the rebels and Burundi government officials were unsuccessful.

The Burundi government and the country's main rebel group, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, recently signed a peace agreement. The National Liberation Forces did not join in the peace process.

MISNA reports that there were rumors of a rebel attack in the area where Archbishop Courtney's car was hit.

Archbishop Courtney became a papal representative in 1980, and served in a number of countries, including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia, Cuba and Egypt. (SIGNED)

NEB/CM/MAR/RAE/TW