Press Releases03 Apr 08

President's peaceline visit

The President of the Republic of Burundi, the country in the heart of Africa where more than 200,000 people died during its recent civil war, is to pay a visit to one of Belfast’s peacelines on Friday, 4 April 2008

As part of his four-day visit to Northern Ireland, President Pierre Nkurunziza will go to the Forthspring Inter-Community Centre on the Springfield Road in west Belfast. While there, he will address an invited audience of community activists, voluntary sector workers and policy makers about the challenges involved in trying to achieve post conflict reconciliation, and the relationship between poverty/social need and the search for accommodation between ethnic communities.

Burundi is situated in central Africa, bordering Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has recently emerged from years of ethnic violence, predominantly between members of the Hutu and Tutsi tribes, in a conflict similar to that experienced by its neighbour, Rwanda.  During this time upwards of 200,000 people died as a result of the 12 year civil war in Burundi—one of the poorest countries in the world.

President Nkurunziza was formerly a member of a Hutu rebel army and was seriously injured in a bomb explosion during the civil war in Burundi. Now an active Christian, he is visiting Northern Ireland as a guest of the Northern Ireland administration. The Church of Ireland’s Hard Gospel Project has been closely involved in developing the programme for his trip.

The Revd Earl Storey, director of the Hard Gospel project, said:

"The President is firmly committed to meeting the challenge of reconciliation and social need in Burundi.

"He will talk of the lessons learned in Burundi in addressing both reconciliation and poverty, and reflect on how both challenges interact. It is hoped that this input will feed into a wider discussion taking place within our own community regarding the effectiveness of community relations work, the relationship between poverty and division, and ask the question whether work for reconciliation can take place in isolation from meeting social need and addressing poverty."

The event will begin at 11am on Friday, 4 April, at the Forthspring Inter-Community Centre on the Springfield Road in west Belfast. Immediately upon his arrival at Forthspring, there will be a photo-opportunity as the President views the “peace-wall”.

Later that afternoon, the President will meet the leaders of Northern Ireland’s four main churches in Armagh. He will brief them on the role of the Church in Burundi during its years of conflict, and subsequent peace building. The Church of Ireland Primate Archbishop Alan Harper and his Catholic counterpart, Cardinal Sean Brady, will speak about the challenges facing the churches here in dealing with reconciliation.

The meeting will take place at 3pm at Church of Ireland House, Abbey Street, Armagh. There will be a photo opportunity prior to the President’s meeting with the church leaders.