Madam, - I am from Burundi and have lived peacefully in Ireland with my wife and four children for the past six years. The welcome and hospitality we have all enjoyed and still enjoy in Ireland is tremendous and we are very grateful both to the Irish people and the Irish Government.
When we left Burundi, the terrible civil war was raging, killing hundreds of innocent people every day. My wife's aunt was locked in her house and burnt alive with her two disabled children. My elder brother was savagely killed at one of the main roads in Bujumbura, the capital. My other three brothers and myself were targeted and forced to leave the country. More than 200 children in a boarding school in Giheta were locked in and burnt alive.
Many other horrible killings occurred nearly every day from the beginning of the civil war in October 1993 until 2003.
Archbishop Michael Courtney didn't want to ignore the danger that confronted him in Burundi and chose to fight for the peace of this country and to denounce the international community for wilfully ignoring one of the most intractable human tragedies.
We can understand the trauma his family is currently experiencing and would like here to express, on behalf of the Burundi community in Ireland, our most sincere and deepest sympathy to all of them.
It might console them to know that Dr Courtney was admired and loved by the majority of the people of Burundi who aspire to peace. His Mass services in the beautiful, open-air church adjacent to his residence at Chaussee Prince Louis Rwagasore were always packed with his trustful and hopeful followers. I regularly used to visit the very same church with my family when I was in Burundi.
Archbishop Courtney was the victim of greedy and short-sighted warlords opposed to his peace initiative and in search of macabre publicity.
The Burundi community living in Ireland urgently appeals to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, to use all their influence and diplomatic skills during Ireland's EU presidency to end the conflict in Burundi by putting continuous and effective pressure on fighting factions and also on Burundi's politicians.
The fragile peace process in Burundi has been brokered by Nelson Mandela but is largely funded by the European Union and therefore by Irish taxpayers' money.
Supporting the peace and ending the terrible suffering of people in Burundi would also be the best tribute the Irish Government and the Irish people could pay to Dr Courtney's family and to the most noble cause he died for. - Yours, etc.,
JOSEPH NTIDENDEREZA, Mount Bellew Rise, Lucan, Co Dublin.