Friendship Games Ambassador Returns Home to Combat Ethnic Violence

(ATR) Paralympian Jean-Baptiste Alaize tells Around the Rings he is returning to his home country of Burundi to help "heal the wounds of war" with a sporting endeavor.

Alaize is a Paralympian from France, who lost his leg during the Burundi Civil War in 1998. He was able to escape Burundi and seek asylum in France. Since then he has competed for France in para-athletics, and won a bronze medal at the 2017 para-athletics world championships in the long jump.

Alaize is returning to Burundi this week for the 2017 Friendship Games. The Games, organized by non-governmental organization Peace and Sport, feature athletes from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda competing in 12 sports.

It is Alazie’s second trip back to his home country, last visiting in 2013. He told ATR traveling home remains "very intense for me to come back to a place so strongly related to a very violent period of my life during which I lost a part of myself and of my childhood."

"It is important for me to meet the children who still suffer from the consequences of the civil war and to share with them a message of peace and unity," Alaize said. "At the end of the day, we are all equal despite our differences and we need to look beyond ethnic tensions to a wider story of peace."

Violence has continued sporadically since the Burundi Civil War ended in 2006. After President Pierre Nkurunziza sought a third term, violence flared up in Burundi. A coup attempt was thwarted two years ago, and isolated acts of violence continue from time to time. A large number of refugees have fled the country in recent years due to ethnic violence.

Alaize says that sport could be used as a tool to "erase ethnic differences" that exist in the three countries competing. Both Burundi and Rwanda suffered through brutal genocides and the Democratic Republic of Congo struggles with regional violence.

"Unfortunately, not all [peace efforts] have been successful but this really feels different," Alaize said. "Sport goes beyond politics - it is a universal language, it can bring people together, it can ease tension, it can overstep borders, and that is why it feels like Peace and Sport can make a real difference here.

"It really breaks down barriers and gives new perspectives on life – the perspective that everyone is equal. Sport has the power to heal the wounds of war, to rebuild the bonds broken and to patch over the disputes that forced people apart."

Written by Aaron Bauer

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