HUTU rebels dragged the Tutsi archbishop of the Catholic Church in Burundi from his car on Monday and apparently murdered him in the central Gitega region, the army said yesterday. His body has not been found, it added.
"We have just had a report that Monsignor Joachim Ruhuna, the Archbishop of Gitega, was assassinated by armed bands Irebelsl," an army spokesman, Lieut Col Isaie Nibizi said, adding he could not yet confirm the archbishop was dead.
"They found his burned out car this morning on the road," said Col Nibizi. Aid workers said the area was a stronghold of Hutu rebels.
Col Nibizi said a nun and the archbishop's driver who were travelling with the archbishop were also missing and presumed dead.
The archbishop was booed at a funeral for Tutsi massacre victims in Bugendana on July 23rd, when he said there were extremists among both the Tutsi minority and the Hutu majority in the country.
"There are no names for this. I have seen it many times but I condemn violence on both sides," he said at the chaotic mass funeral of 304 Tutsi massacre victims.
Angry Tutsi mourners also pelted (the Hutu) President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya with rocks and cow dung, forcing the head of state to flee the funeral by helicopter.