rwanda genocide

A Message of Hope From Rwandese Priest

By Henrietta Gomes
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 5/10/07) rwandan priest

The world silently watched as nearly 1 million people were slaughtered in just 100 days in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. For the last 13 years the country has been picking up the pieces in wake of one of the most rapid mass killings in modern times. Although consequences of the brutal massacre are great to bear, hope remains instilled deep in the hearts of the people, said Father Salvain Ndayizeye, a Rwandese priest, who spoke at Good Shepherd Church in Alexandria last week.
The priest discussed the ongoing peace efforts and the role of the youth in the country. The pastor of two parishes in Rwanda and a youth ministry chaplain spoke of how young people are spreading the message of peace, justice and reconciliation.
“Many hearts have been broken” especially among the youth, he said, noting their efforts to bring awareness to the situation in Rwanda. Nearly 2,000 young people work with the priest to educate themselves and others about the genocide and how to ensure it will never happen again.
Father Ndayizeye’s visit was made possible by Springfield-Cape Girardeau Bishop John J. Leibrecht, who invited the priest to visit his diocese in Missouri. From there he traveled to the Diocese of Arlington where he was hosted by a parishioner at Good Shepherd who met him during a visit to Rwanda with Catholic Relief Services.
During his talk, Father Ndayizeye explained the origins of the social groups of the Hutus and Tutsis and the history behind the conflict that initiated the genocide. The Hutu militia and extremists slaughtered the Tutsi people and moderate Hutus, who were not in accord with the campaign to wipe out the Tutsis in the name of “ethnic cleansing,” according to Father Ndayizeye.
Beginnings of the genocide were sparked in 1959 when Hutu extremists killed 20,000 Tutsis and forced others to find refuge in neighboring countries, the priest said. It was during that time when Father Ndayizeye’s family left their native Rwanda and found a safe haven in Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The distinguishing names originated with the Europeans who wanted to differentiate the people by social class. In order to stay longer the “Europeans tried to divide our country,” he said. The names of Hutu and Tutsi were social, not ethnic, the priest said emphasizing the country’s desire to move away from the segregating names. The names became so prevalent that identity cards were created to distinguish people accordingly.
In the 1970s the ideology of separating the Hutu and Tutsi pervaded society and even infiltrated into classrooms where Hutu and Tutsi school children sat on opposite sides of the room.
Later the Tutsis, who were the minority but ruled over the people were distinguished by leaner bodies, longer faces and weaker hands, the priest explained. The Hutus were seen as shorter, stout and with bigger noses. “The language and culture are the same,” Father Ndayizeye said about the arbitrary aspect of the distinctions.
The insurrection precipitated on April 6, 1994, with the assassination of Rwanda’s president, a Hutu, in Kigali, the nation’s capital. Prior to the genocide, “the government trained the militia and gave them machetes and wrote the names of all the Tutsis,” he said describing the organized killing.
As the events unfolded, Western nations sent troops to evacuate their citizens, but then left to avoid any intervention. Despite seeing footage of the carnage and bloodshed in the media, “everyone in the world kept silent,” said Father Ndayizeye. It was not for lack of knowledge that the murders continued. “When the genocide took place the peace-keeping forces left all the people, so the militia killed as many as they could.” Murder continued, “Without the [intervention] of any country in the world,” the priest said.
Tutsis were shot and tortured to death. Pregnant Tutsi women were slit open, others were cut up or dragged behind cars, and many were injected with blood infected with HIV/AIDS, Father Ndayizeye said. The soft-spoken priest noted one of the reasons of the AIDS epidemic in the country.
The killers included mostly men, however, some women and children were brainwashed to murder their Tutsi neighbors. When the militia killed the Tutsis they envisioned killing snakes and cockroaches, said the priest, whose extended family was wiped out in the genocide, he said. Although many priests and members of the clergy helped hide Tutsis, Father Ndayizeye lamented the fact that some priests aided and abetted the killings. “They did so in their own name, not in the name of the Catholic Church,” he said.
This type of ideology destroys the spirit, the intellect, and the heart, said the priest who grew up in the Congo and was later ordained in Rwanda in 2000.
After the mass killings over 1 million children were left orphans, many women left widowed, and nearly 500,000 prisoners are still waiting to go on trial. “There should never again be a genocide in the world,” said the priest who considers himself “an advocate for the children.”
Rwanda, the once war-ravaged country, is now a place of peace, he said. “The Rwandese people are hopeful in God. According to the priest, Rwanda, the ninth poorest country in the world was 80 percent Catholic and after the genocide is only 60 percent Catholic. “God gives us spiritual forces and the physical strength,” he said.
Toward the end of his presentation, Father Ndayizeye shared photos of Rwanda and the people there.
During his visit to the diocese, Father Ndayizeye spent time speaking to the Youth Apostles in Arlington.
Good Shepherd Church is sponsoring Rosaries for Rwanda, where parishioners are invited to make rosaries. To learn more about the situation in Rwanda visit www.crs.org.

Henrietta Gomes can be reached at hgomes@catholicherald.com.