Catholic Complicity and Rwanda Genocide 1994

[BikerDude]

Gosh a theme seems to be developing.....

Several Roman Catholic clergy members have been indicted and convicted for genocide and crimes against humanity by the traditional Rwandan village courts, referred to as gacaca [or "justice in the grass"], by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in neighbouring Tanzania (IWPR 1 Dec. 2006), and by courts in Belgium (UN 16 Feb. 2006; BBC 20 Sept. 2004; The New York Times 10 June 2001). The following paragraphs provide a brief description of some of these cases.

In 1998, a gacaca court sentenced two Rwandan Catholic priests to death after finding them guilty of "genocide and complicity to genocide" (CNN 18 Apr. 1998). The two priests, Jean Fran?ois Kayiranga and Edouard Nkurikiye, allegedly encouraged approximately 2,000 Tutsis to seek refuge in their church in Nyange before it was attacked by Hutu militias (ibid.). The priests reportedly then had the building bulldozed with the bodies inside (ibid.).

In 1999, Rwandan bishop Augustin Misago was arrested and brought to trial in Kigali on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity (BBC 20 Aug. 1999; ibid. 15 June 2000). Misago was accused of failing to protect Tutsis in his church and was also thought to have close ties to the Hutu authorities, including those involved in leading "death squads" (ibid. 20 Aug. 1999). In 2000, he was acquitted of the charges (ibid. 15 June 2000).

In 2005, Archbishop Thadd?e Ntihinyurwa, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Rwanda (UN 22 July 2005), appeared before a gacaca court in southern Rwanda to answer questions regarding his alleged participation in the genocide (The New Times 20 July 2005; UN 22 July 2005). Archbishop Ntihinyurwa was accused of being a member of a "death squad" (The New Times 20 July 2005), and of ordering approximately 600 people from a church into a soccer stadium, where they were killed by Hutu militia and government soldiers (UN 22 July 2005). Sources consulted by the Research Directorate do not indicate whether the Archbishop was charged or convicted for his alleged involvement in the genocide; however, as of December 2007, the Archbishop was still preaching at St. Michael's Cathedral in Kigali (The New Times 26 Dec. 2007).

http://www.refworld.org/docid/49b92b279.html

Human-rights advocates are demanding an apology from the Catholic Church for its alleged role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, arguing the church did not do enough to stop the killings.

Now, an international court is trying several Catholic priests for their alleged role in the massacres, in which Hutus murdered 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The Archbishop of Kigali declined to be interviewed but in a written response to questions by NPR he says the church didn't have the power to stop the killings. He adds flatly that no Rwandan clergy were involved in the genocide.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4615171

[^eagle^]

fuck the [pope, fuck Johnny cash and fuck all that reactionary buulshit.  It's in the symbol.  pure genius.

[HnauHnakrapunt]

Add the cooperation of Pope with Nazis. Yeah. Some of our guys were not angels for sure. Some of them were pure a##holes. Like some of the atheists, promising peace and prosperity at the beginning.