It is made up of bright modern buildings. But once you're inside, the manners and faces of the students quickly let you know that much of what is left of the youth of small-town Ireland can be found here. If maidens still indulged in dancing at crossroads, you couldn't help but feel that Athlone IT would field a good team at the intervarsities.

It is not, in short, somewhere you would expect to find a member of the former Burundian royal family.

There are only a handful of black students in Athlone IT, but it is Sebastian Harushimana's dress that makes him stand out instantly. His fellow students are decked out in jeans, combats and teeshirts but in his purple jacket and chinos he looks more like an exchange teacher. He also looks about a decade younger than his 26 years.

Once in conversation, though, it soon becomes clear he has seen more and done more that even his oldest teachers could imagine or would want to.

His story is one part thriller, one part horror. Born the grandson of Burundi's last king, Sebastian displayed the "signs" of royalty (pots would fall over and break when he passed) and, in a traditional sense, succeeded his grandfather as king.

By the time this happened however, Burundi had long since become a republic dominated by the Tutsi minority. After pressure from the international community, democratic elections were held in 1993, and Sebastian's uncle became the first democratically elected Hutu president of Burundi. Barely a few months later, he was assassinated - and Burundi was plunged back into what amounted to a slow-burning civil war.

As part of this war, members of both ethnic groups mounted attacks on schools and universities attended by the others. One such attack, on the University of Burundi in Bujumbura, may have been aimed at Sebastian, but went much further. Warned by Tutsi soldiers that his life was in danger, Sebastian, then a third-year medical student, left the university. Shortly afterwards, Tutsi soldiers massacred many of the students with knives and grenades. Sebastian says they may have killed as many as 140; others place the figure nearer 100. One of those killed was Sebastian's brother, and Hutus were driven from the university.

"I went home and urged my parents to leave because I knew the militia would be looking for me. We stayed with friends and the next morning the army came to our house and destroyed it." Sebastian decided to flee the country entirely: neighbouring Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) was his first port of call. There he heard stories of his aunt being murdered with dozens of others at her house (as she was an MP, they had thought themselves safe). His father also disappeared, apparently never to be seen again.

For a time Sebastian seemed secure in Zaire but civil war erupted there also and he was warned yet again that his life was in danger from Burundian-backed rebels. With hundreds of thousands of others he fled into the forest for five months in what can only be described as a green hell.

"I saw babies sucking the breasts of dead mothers and could not do anything for them. I saw thousands of bodies lying in refugee camps murdered by brutal killers. Several times I wished to die because living was so painful," he says. He was captured by Zairean forces and would, ironically, have been executed as a Burundian spy had not a Belgian missionary rescued him and brought him to Zambia. It was here his association with Athlone IT began: he started an accountancy course accredited by the IT. Various people, including lecturers from Athlone, chipped in to help.

After two years, word came that his life was again in danger, and moves were made to get Sebastian a student visa and bring him to Ireland to finish his course.

Although his story makes him a candidate for asylum, if ever there was one, he is only in Ireland on a two-year student visa and has no intention of staying any longer. He clearly believes he has a role to play. "While I am a student I am also the official representative of the CNDDFDD [the Hutu rebels] here in Ireland." He wants to highlight the plight of many Hutus in Burundi who have been herded into "regroupment camps" in terrible conditions. (The Tutsi government says this is necessary to deny support to the rebels and also to protect the people.)

Although he says he is a convinced democrat, as the royal successor he finds many people in Burundi look to him for guidance on traditional matters and for a lead, rather like church leaders in this country. "I get many letters saying `our king, our king, why are you there? What should we do?' "

Because of his stature, the leadership of the CNDDFDD came to him for advice on a mediator to help in negotiations between the two warring factions. "I was in the kitchen with Father Shay [Casey, the Athlone IT chaplain with whom he is living] and I explained this to him, he just said what about Nelson Mandela?" Sebastian put the idea to the rebels, who assented - as did Mandela, who took up the post in January. "I think with people talking, it will be safe for me to go home when I am finished here." He says his education demands that he return, and that this is the key factor in preventing wars and atrocities.

Sebastian doesn't indulge in ethnic hatred: his mother was a Tutsi, those who warned him first were Tutsis and he is very aware of the genocide inflicted by Hutu on Tutsi in neighbouring Rwanda.

"I think things like this would not happen in Europe anymore. In Burundi, in Rwanda, people use hate to lead; they say `meet here and kill these people', and because people do not have education they do not think `why is this man asking us to do these things?' They just do them."

The best things western nations can do is to help to educate the countries' inhabitants; Sebastian cites teaching schemes run by Irish groups in places such as Lesotho and Namibia as well as Zambia. A cause especially close to his heart though is that of Burundian refugees. "The chaplaincy is trying to raise funds to help educate people, refugees from my country, into the knowledge to develop themselves."

A fund has been set up by the chaplains in Athlone, the head of the accountancy faculty and Gordon Brett, a member of the Council of State, to fund a number of Burundian refugees studying in Lusaka, Zambia. Any donations are welcomed and should be sent to Burundian education and humanitarian fund in Bank of Ireland, Athlone.