A Burundian living in Ireland has appealed to the Irish Government to intervene in the conflict there.
Mr Joseph Ntidendereze said the recent assassination of the Papal Nuncio to Burundi, Irish-born Archbishop Michael Courtney, was intended to attract international attention to the conflict. Mr Ntidendereze's brother was killed in Bujumbura, capital of Burundi, while his wife's aunt was burned alive in her house along with her two disabled children.
He and his three remaining brothers have been forced into exile.
Nearly every family in Burundi had been touched by the violence, said Mr Ntidendereze, who is of a mixed Hutu/Tutsi background and who has been in Ireland for six years.
He lives in Dublin with his wife and four children, and works with Aer Rianta.
He has been in regular telephone contact with relatives in Burundi since Archbishop Courtney was killed. Speaking on behalf of about 30 people from Burundi living in Ireland, he said Ireland is perceived in Burundi as having no political baggage, unlike some other EU countries.
He said the peace process in Burundi is funded mainly by the EU. Both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs were perceived internationally as being "very good diplomats", he said, and Ireland should use its current role as EU president to put pressure on the political leadership in Burundi to bring about peace. "The majority of people want peace, they do not want war," he said.
Hutu and Tutsi lived and worked together peacefully in most cases, but were being manipulated by warlords unhindered by an ineffectual political leadership, he said.
