Pope Offers Condolences To Relatives Of Massacred Burundians

VATICAN CITY, Aug 16 (AFP) - Pope John Paul II offered his condolences Monday to the relatives of 160 Congolese Tutsis massacred at the weekend in a refugee camp in Burundi, officials here said.
"The Holy Father instructed me to inform you that he joins in the prayer of the people affected by this drama," Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano wrote in a message to the Papal Nuncio, or Vatican ambassador, in Burundi.
The 160 mostly Tutsi refugees from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo were shot, burned and hacked to death on Friday night in an attack blamed on a coalition of armed extremists.
Some 20,000 Tutsis from the DRC have sought refugee in Burundi since late May as a result of clashes in eastern DRC.