Burundi papal nuncio shot dead
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An undated picture of Monsignor Courtney.
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VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The pope's ambassador in Burundi was shot and killed by gunmen who opened fire at his car in the Central African nation, the Vatican and a missionary news agency said Monday.
Monsignor Michael Courtney was shot in the head, shoulder and a limb, according to the Misna missionary news agency. He died from a major hemorrhage during surgery.
A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the death of the papal nuncio but would offer no details until his relatives had been informed.
Burundi has been torn by violence and civil war for a decade, and at least one rebel group still carries out attacks in the capital. Banditry is also common on many roads in Burundi.
The Irish-born Courtney, 58, was shot in Minago, about 30 miles south of Burundi's capital of Bujumbura, the Misna news agency said. It described the circumstances of the attack as "still not completely clear" and did not say when the attack occurred.
The agency said Courtney had been traveling by car with three other passengers when gunfire from a nearby hill sprayed the vehicle. A priest in the car was lightly injured, while the driver and a hitchhiker were unharmed.
Bullets also struck the wheels of the car, slowing its arrival to the capital and medical help there, Misna said.
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.
Major violence has torn Burundi for a decade. Conflict broke out there in 1993, when rebels from the Hutu majority took up arms after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected leader, a Hutu.
Peace deals have taken hold in Burundi, with three rebel groups, including the largest agreeing to join the transitional government and integrate their forces into a new national army. However, one main rebel group, the National Liberation Forces, is still fighting.
The group carried out attacks around the capital over the weekend, although there is no indication yet that it was involved in the attack on the Vatican envoy.
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.
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