Colonial period
Although the ethnic divisions and tensions between Hutu and Tutsi predate the colonial era, the
Organization of African Unity (OAU) report on the genocide states,
In the colonial era, under German and then Belgian rule, Roman Catholic missionaries, inspired by the overtly racist theories of 19th century Europe, concocted a destructive ideology of ethnic cleavage and racial ranking that attributed superior qualities to the country's Tutsi minority, since the missionaries ran the colonial-era schools, these pernicious values were systematically transmitted to several generations of Rwandans…
[2]
A
Human Rights Watch report notes that the leaders of the Catholic Church refrained from condemning
the 1994 genocide. Four days after the genocide began, the Catholic church issued a statement asking its followers to support the new government. Similarly, Archbishop
Augustin Nshamihigo and Bishop
Jonathan Ruhumuliza of the
Church of the Province of Rwanda acted as spokespersons for the government in a news conference, blaming the rebel
Rwandan Patriotic Front for the genocide. The lack of a clear stance from the leadership resulted in many clergy members continuing to attend local security committee meetings, in their roles as prominent members of the community, despite the work of those committees in organizing the mass killings. It further allowed politicians and propagandists to claim divine inspiration for the genocide; interim president
Théodore Sindikubwabo assured listeners in a speech that God would help them against the "enemy".
Many clergy did not protect civilians who sought their help, either out of fear for personal repercussions or out of desire to see them killed. A smaller number actively incited the genocide. These include most prominently
Seventh-day Adventist Church pastor
Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, who was convicted by the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the case of
Theophister Mukakibibi and
Maria Kisito, Rwandan nuns sentenced for helping to kill hundreds of Tutsi during Rwandan genocide. Also involved were
Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and
Athanase Seromba. At the same time, some individual members of the religious community attempted to protect civilians, sometimes at great risk to themselves. For example, Mgr.
Thaddée Ntihinyurwa of
Cyangugu preached against the genocide from the pulpit and tried unsuccessfully to rescue three Tutsi religious brothers from an attack, while Sr.
Felicitas Niyitegeka of the
Auxiliaires de l’Apostolat in
Gisenyi smuggled Tutsis across the border into
Zaire until she was executed by a militant militia in retaliation.
[3]. Through the recently published book "Left to Tell" Immaculee Ilibagiza, a Tutsi woman, describes hiding with seven other Tutsi women in a bathroom in the house of Pastor Murinzi for the majority of the genocide. At the St Paul Pastoral Centre in Kigali, about 2,000 people found refuge and most of them survived due to the efforts of Fr Celestin Hakizimana. This priest 'intervened at every attempt by the militia to abduct or murder' the refugees in his centre and even in the face of powerful opposition he tried to hold off the killers with persuasion or bribes.
[4]
