Chikane in bid for peace in Burundi

GENEVA: Former presidency director-general Frank Chikane is among a delegation of world and African church leaders led by the head of the World Council of Churches (WCC) visiting Burundi as it teeters on edge of chaos.

Last week, President Jacob Zuma was in Burundi as the head of a five-member AU delegation of heads of state for talks aimed at bringing an end to the Burundi crisis.

It was triggered by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision in April last year to run for a third term‚ which he won in an election in July.

The Geneva-based WCC said it was sending its general secretary, Reverend Olav Fykse Tveit, and other leaders from the council, including representatives of the Nairobi-based All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC).

Chikane is in a group that includes: Tveit; Dr Agnes Abuom, moderator of the WCC’s main governing body, its central committee; Bishop Jan Janssen, of the Lutheran Church in Germany (EKD); and Archbishop Valentine Mokiwa, AACC president, among others. They are in Burundi until today.

From 1987 to 1994, Chikane was secretary-general of the South African Council of Churches, playing a key role in its struggle against apartheid.

Tveit said: “We want to express our great concern over the current escalation of tensions and violence in the country, following the recent election. As representatives of the ecumenical family, we pray for peace to prevail in Burundi.”

The delegates had called for “responsible leadership that does not tolerate complicity in the killings and other serious violations now so obviously prevalent in the country”.