# data[].attributes.headline
Some questions to consider before looking into the information given.

# data[].attributes.subject
Some questions to consider before looking into the information given.

# data[].attributes.body
1.) Do you think if others in the international community would have gotten involved when the warning was sent, could have accomplished the deterrence of the violence?

2.) What themes can you see throughout the testimonies of the witnesses?

3.) During your experience, do you believe that this genocide should be a part of education, just like the Holocaust?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How could the Rwandan genocide happen? - BBC Africa

# data[].attributes.body
Watch testimonies given by survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. They talk about life before 1994, the events leading up to the genocide, surviving the genocide, loss of family, friends and other topics.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Watch testimonies given by survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. They talk about life before 1994, the events leading up to the genocide, surviving the genocide, loss of family, friends and other topics.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Watch testimonies given by survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. They talk about life before 1994, the events leading up to the genocide, surviving the genocide, loss of family, friends and other topics.

# data[].attributes.body
Watch testimonies given by elders talking about life in post-independence Rwanda, how Rwandans were divided and other events leading to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Watch testimonies given by elders talking about life in post-independence Rwanda, how Rwandans were divided and other events leading to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To understand the Genocide against the Tutsi, it is important to learn about the history of Rwanda. Here you can listen to elders talk about their experiences before the 1994 Genocide and how division and segregation was fomented by politicians, religious leaders, the media and colonisers.

# data[].attributes.body
Watch testimonies given by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. They share their experiences and the consequences of the acts they committed in the 1994, including facing justice, rejoining society and reconciliation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Watch testimonies given by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. They share their experiences and the consequences of the acts they committed in the 1994, including facing justice, rejoining society and reconciliation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Watch testimonies given by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. They share their experiences and the consequences of the acts they committed in the 1994, including facing justice, rejoining society and reconciliation.

# data[].attributes.headline
Church Official Contributing to the Violence

# data[].attributes.subject
Church Official Contributing to the Violence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Rwandan Bishop Who Incited Genocide (2000)

# data[].attributes.headline
Eyewitness Testimony from Mary "Fifi" Mukangoga

# data[].attributes.subject
Eyewitness Testimony from Mary "Fifi" Mukangoga

# data[].attributes.body
Fifi was 16 years old when the Rwandan genocide began in 1994. As violence escalated in Butare, her hometown, she sought protection at a local government office with other Tutsi, including Chantal, who would become a close friend.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Eyewitness Testimony: Mary "Fifi" Mukangoga

# data[].attributes.headline
Eyewitness Testimony From General Roméo Dallaire 

# data[].attributes.subject
Eyewitness Testimony From General Roméo Dallaire 

# data[].attributes.body
The General was from Canada, a commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force for Rwanda deployed in late 1993 as part of a peace accord between the Rwandan government and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Eyewitness Testimony: General Roméo Dallaire

# data[].attributes.headline
Eyewitness Testimony From Jean-Philippe Creppi

# data[].attributes.subject
Eyewitness Testimony From Jean-Philippe Creppi

# data[].attributes.body
In 1994, Jean-Philippe Ceppi was an independent journalist based in Kenya.

# data[].attributes.headline
Eyewitness Testimony From Norah Bagrinka

# data[].attributes.subject
Eyewitness Testimony From Norah Bagrinka

# data[].attributes.body
she was a Tutsi, targeted during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. She survived, as many Tutsi did, by running and hiding for more than 100 days.

# data[].attributes.headline
Explain Involvement of the Protestant Church

# data[].attributes.subject
Explain Involvement of the Protestant Church

# data[].attributes.body
The minority of Protestant Churches had little to no experience in dealing with the political affairs within Rwanda. They led peace initiatives and called for de-escalation within the state even though they were considered to be on the outer boundary when it came to religion identity. That is not to say that they were to implicated in the genocide that occured.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
PRESS RELEASE: A NEW 24-PAGE REPORT FROM AFRICAN RIGHTS
An Appeal to the World Council of Churches' Meeting in Harare

As members of the Protestant Churches meet in Harare on the occasion of the World Council of Churches' fiftieth anniversary, African Rights asks Church leaders to examine the overwhelming evidence that leaders of the Anglican, Free Methodist and Presbyterian churches-amongst others-were implicated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It calls upon the WCC to seek new ways to make a contribution towards the process of justice in Rwanda, and through this, to healing and reconciliation in this troubled nation.

Rwanda was the most Christian country in Africa; the tragedy of the 1994 genocide shook all the Christian Churches, particularly the Catholic Church, to which the majority of Rwandese belonged. Not only were "Christian" members of the congregations of every single denomination in Rwanda responsible for the most appalling atrocities, but so many massacres took place in the parishes where the targets of the genocide sought sanctuary. Even more damaging to the Church was the behaviour of its leaders. Like the Catholics, many in the hierarchy of the Protestant Churches had close links with the regime of President Juvénal Habyarimana, the former President whose death when his plane was shot down on 6 April sparked the slaughter of up to a million Tutsis and well-known Hutu politicians and their families.

After years of accepting privileges from the Habyarimana regime and overlooking its injustices, the Church leaders maintained their silence in the face of genocide. It was five weeks after the killings began, by which time hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were dead, that the Protestant and Catholic leaders jointly issued a belated and feeble plea for peace, signed by some of the bishops who stand accused of involvement in the genocide.

Many Church leaders have acknowledged that the Church in Rwanda failed as an institution, although individual clergy showed immense courage, risking their lives to save those of others. They have been less willing to comment upon the specific accusations against certain clergymen. The Church in Rwanda was deeply divided by the end of the genocide, with most of its leaders fleeing the country following the military defeat of the former government. But it was left to struggle along without a decisive response to the crisis from any of the outside Churches, or the other Church bodies in a position to intervene.

The experience of Rwanda highlights an alarming lack of accountability within the Churches. In institutions of such size and influence, which, particularly in Africa, have a key role as the backbone of civil society, this is unacceptable. Ultimately the bishops and pastors concerned are employees of the Church. The overwhelming evidence that they not only failed in their duties, but that they violated Christian principles must surely be grounds for investigation and, if proven, for dismissal. The fact that so many of the accusations come from other members of the clergy shows how just how deep is the crisis for the Church.

In this report, African Rights gives details of the activities of a number of Anglican bishops who gathered at the Parish of Shyogwe in Gitarama during the genocide. Samuel Musabyimana, the former bishop of the diocese, has been accused by two Anglican pastors and several former friends of having betrayed the Tutsis who came to him for protection. Most of them he turned away into the arms of the militia waiting at nearby roadblocks. The few he did agree to hide were educated Tutsis, the first target of the genocide. On 6 May he is said to have brought militia to their hiding places, then to have supervised and encouraged them as they took the refugees away in a van to be killed elsewhere.

Musabyimana was often to be seen with ministers of the interim regime, who are said to have met regularly with him and other bishops at his house. There they planned the propaganda campaign which saw Archbishop Augustin Nshamihigo and the coadjutor Bishop of Kigali, Jonathan Ruhumuliza, describing the government responsible for orchestrating the genocide as "peace-loving" at a Nairobi press conference in early June 1994. The accusations against clergy of the Free Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist and Seventh-Day Adventist Churches are equally shocking. According to survivors, Bishop Aaron Ruhumuliza, head of the Free Methodist Church in Gikondo, Kigali, helped the militia carry out a massacre in his own church on 9 April 1994. Michel Twagirayesu, the President of the Presbyterian Church of Rwanda and a former vice-president of the WCC, is alleged to have worked closely with the killers in the Presbyterian stronghold of Kirinda, Kibuye, betraying parishioners and fellow-clergy alike. Yet these men, against whom there is such compelling evidence, remain immune from justice. In the meantime, men, women and children accused of lesser offences-whose participation in the genocide was without doubt influenced by the example set by church leaders-remain in Rwanda's overcrowded prisons. Given the enormous burden upon both the justice system in Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the burden of responsibility for ensuring that justice is done rests firmly with the Churches. As long as the Churches continue to harbour men and women accused of heinous crimes, they cannot offer the kind of moral leadership and spiritual leadership which Rwanda, and Africa, so badly needs.

In writing this appeal, we hope to ensure that all members of the WCC are fully informed of the nature of the accusations against their fellow clergy. They stand accused of participation in the genocide; their guilt or innocence may only be decided through a fair process of justice, but few have yet been the subject of investigations. We urge the WCC to listen to the voices of the survivors, some of them clergymen themselves. Their testimonies are extremely distressing accounts of human suffering and betrayal. They should be heard, and they demand an appropriate answer.

African Rights (afrights@gn.apc.org)

For further information, contact: Rakiya Omaar (0171) 717 1224

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rwanda: The Protestant Churches and the Genocide: press release - Rwanda

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
PRESS RELEASE: A NEW 24-PAGE REPORT FROM AFRICAN RIGHTS An Appeal to the World Council of Churches' Meeting in Harare As members of the Protestant Churches meet in Harare on the occasion of the World Council of Churches' fiftieth anniversary, African Rights asks Church leaders to examine the overwhelming evidence that leaders of the Anglican, Free Methodist and Presbyterian churches-amongst others-were implicated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

# data[].attributes.headline
Explain the involvement of the Catholic Church

# data[].attributes.subject
Explain the involvement of the Catholic Church

# data[].attributes.body
The Catholic Church and the White Fathers missionaries, were focused on teaching the Rwandan people obedience to authority instead of the teaching to respect their neighbors. The teaching of respecting their neighbors came second . This was important to the mission to convert the population as a whole. To have control within the government was a major advantage to the Vatican.

# data[].attributes.headline
6 Issues Related to the Genocide and Christianity in Rwanda:`

# data[].attributes.subject
6 Issues Related to the Genocide and Christianity in Rwanda:`

# data[].attributes.body
1.) it was not only the Tutsis that were murdered during the violence; Hutus and church officials who spoke out against the violence were also killed.

2.) Because of the Churches involvement in the genocide, many survivors are weary of the churches in the years after the conflict.

3.) During the genocide, ethnicity became a crucial actor in the Churches mission to convert individuals.

4.) June 1999, an article published by L'Osservantore Romano, spoke about the creation of churches into memorial grounds for those lives lost was the governments way of defamation against the Vatican.

5.) The Rwandan Genocide led to the realization that the presence of the Church guarantees nothing.

6.) Before the genocide, Hutus and the government started the killing of Tutsis at a smaller "number" (about 77%) of Tutsis, showing that the killings took place before the start of the genocide and then led to the boom of the killings in April of 1994.

# data[].attributes.body
1.) In Rwanda, the population was entirely Christian and the genocide and its violence did not occur over religious lines.

2.) Church officials and its members with also complicit  in the violence and even gave up those who sought refugee in their church.

3.) The majority of those killed were murdered within or on the churches grounds.

4.) Collusion with the government was the Catholic Church's advantage so that they can keep churches and schools under Vatican control.

5.) Leadership of Christian Churches played a vital role into the creation and push of racist ideology.

6.) The 1994 genocide was the fastest known genocide to happen in recent history, with approximately 1 million killed in 3 months.

# data[].attributes.body
References

(2004). In J. K. Roth, C. Rittner, & W. Whitworth (Eds.), Genocide in Rwanda: Complicity of the Churches. Paragon House.

AP Photos: 25 years ago, images exposed Rwanda's genocide. (2019, April 4). AP News. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://apnews.com/article/6b874574970b4670b362d7fbb2b07b39

Eyewitness Testimony — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/rwanda/eyewitness-testimony

Fertitta, M. M. (2020, January). When Priests Forgot About God: An Analysis of the Catholic Church's Role in Genocide. 7(1).

Journeyman Pictures. (2018, November 6th). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2ZZ-4Wda1U&t=6s

Photos: Remembering Rwanda's 1994 Genocide, 25 Years Later | Best Countries | US News. (2019, April 4).

USNews.com. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/photos/2019/04/04/photos-remembering-rwandas-1994-genocide-25-years-later

Schliesser, C. (2018, January). From "a Theology of Genocide" to a "Theology of Reconciliation" On the Role of Christian Churches in the Nexus of Religion and Genocide in Rwanda.

Testimonies. (n.d.). Genocide Archive Rwanda. Retrieved April 28th, 2022, from https://genocidearchiverwanda.org.rw/index.php/COLLECTIONS