Vatican ambassador to Burundi killed in shooting

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Vatican ambassador to Burundi killed in shooting

Gunmen killed the pope's ambassador in Burundi on Monday, firing on his car as he was returning from a funeral, and the country's president said the envoy was deliberately targeted.

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Gunmen killed the pope's ambassador in Burundi on Monday, firing on his car as he was returning from a funeral, and the country's president said the envoy was deliberately targeted.

Archbishop Michael Courtney was shot in the head, shoulder and a limb and died during surgery at Prince Louis Rwagasore Hospital, a hospital official said.

President Domitien Ndayizeye said the 58-year-old Courtney was deliberately targeted. "It was not an accident; he was killed," Ndayizeye told reporters. He and other officials, however, did not say what the motive for the killing might be.

The shooting took place in an area about 30 miles south of the capital, Bujumbura, on Lake Tanganyika that is a stronghold of rebels of the National Liberation Forces, or FLN, the only group that has not signed a peace deal with the transitional government. The FLN denied responsibility in the killing.

Courtney was "one of the church's most experienced diplomats," with over 30 years of work in the church, according to the Vatican's 2000 announcement of his appointment in Burundi.

Courtney was born in 1945 in Nenagh, 85 miles southwest of Dublin. He was ordained in 1968, and worked as a parish priest around Ireland until 1976, it said. He then moved to Rome and entered the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy.

Beginning in 1980, he was a papal representative in South Africa, then in Zimbabwe, Senegal, India, Yugoslavia, Cuba and Egypt, the 2000 announcement said. Prior to going to Burundi, he worked for five years as special envoy in Strasbourg, France, monitoring the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.

Source: Agencies

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