Mercy Global Concern - 2003
Special Report: The Church and Genocide
At a recent conference held on the Church and Genocide, the Rwandan massacre,
its roots and causes were examined.
According to statistics compiled by US political scientist R.J.
Rummel, no fewer than 170 million human beings were murdered by their own governments
between 1900 and 1987. Rummel's statistics need some explanation. First, these
figures refer to victims who lost their lives not on "official" front-line duty
or during bombing raids carried out by foreign air forces, but within a territory
for which a given government bore juridical and administrative responsibility.
Second, these killings were deliberate or implicit actions for which the governments
in charge bore full responsibility, because they took place within national
frontiers. Then there was the blood spilled during the colonial system, nations,
which saw themselves as "civilized", and "Christian" caused enormous human losses.
Often military campaigns were carried out in a spirit of racial and cultural
superiority. Furthermore, because the colonial system could only function by
playing off one ethnic or religious group against another, countless conflicts,
which continue up to the present, were deliberately orchestrated.
Rwanda reputedly "the most Christian in all Africa" - in 1994
had been seized by utter madness. It is now clear that the mass murder was carefully
planned. The reporters and television crews from all over the world who covered
the situation could not comprehend what they were seeing. Rwanda took place
in an age of information and as the world looked on, it seemed that the protection
of civilians was not a priority for anyone. Was it a tribal war between Rwanda's
two main tribes or was something much more sinister taking place?
Before the genocide began there were early warning signs. There
was fear in the air and a climate of racism and violence was waiting to happen.
The investigative journalist, Linda Melvin asks the question… "Why did the church
not speak out about the reign of terror about the racism and the brutality?
Why was the Papal Nuncio among the first to be evacuated and why once the genocide
began was the Vatican so slow to act?"
" When the genocide began in Rwanda the country was on the brink
of ecological disaster. Overuse of land had diminshed this once fertile soil.
The food situation was precarious and competition for every kilometer of land
was acute. The situation was made even more desperate during the late 1980's
by the drastic decline in the market for coffee and tea, Rwandans two main major
exports.
Three major factors accounted for the high population:
- The mountainous terrain and well-organized military structure of the former
Tutsi kingdom protected Rwanda's young people from being abducted by Arab
slaves.
- The general medical introduced by the missionaries reduced the death rate.
1. R.J. Rummel, Death by Government: Genocide and Mass Murder since
1900, New Brunswick NJ, Transaction Publishers, 1994
2. L. Melvin: The Church and Genocide: St. Edwards Monastery, Westminster
Abbey, London. March 21-24, 2003
- The decisive influence of the Roman Catholic Church in the society and government
prevented any effective birth control. When pope John Paul came to Rwanda
in 1990 he condemned all forms of birth control despite the obvious over-population.
Colonial Racism:
The problem of land is key to understanding the conflict. The Hutus (85 percent
or more) are an African Bantu people came to Rwanda during the 11th century.
They organized in large families, clans and kingdoms, ruled by chieftains. During
the 15th century the Tutsis, a Nilo-Hamite tribe from Ethiopian highlands migrated
to Rwanda in search of grazing ground for their cattle. There was interaction
between the two tribes while the land was plentiful.
The Tutsi tribes although fewer in number were well disciplined and better
armed, and were able to subdue the various Hutu chieftainships. Eventually,
they were assimimilated in terms of language and religion. Ethnic distinctions
became less pronounced and it could be said that Rwanda, on the eve of European
colonialism was a fully integrated society. Belgium occupied Rwanda in 1916
and after the First World War it was granted a League of Nations mandate. The
Belgians sharpened the ethnic distinctions and introduced the mention of "Hutu"
or "Tutsi" on identification papers. Although Belgian colonial power rested
mainly with the Tutsis, they were in effect a puppet government for an absentee
landlord. To ensure a supply of trained government officials the missionary
schools were reserved mainly for the Tutsi children. When the injustice of this
arrangement was challenged, Archbishop Leon-Paul Classe, the apostolic vicar
of Rwanda issues the following statement….
" The greatest harm the government could do, is to do away with the Mututsi
caste"
As a result of this arrangement the Tutsis held 88 percent of all administration
post while 90 percent of the Rwandan population were Hutu. The colonial government,
encouraged by the church hierarchy created an apartheid system and the seeds
of the conflict, which erupted in 1994, were in place. This arrangement created
tension and hatred against the Tutsi and the relationship became one of oppressor
and oppressed.
After the Second World War during the movement for Independence, the attitude
of favoritism was changing. After the war, a new breed of missionary arrived
in Rwanda. They identified with the oppressed class and encouraged the oppressed
to seek liberation. The effort to seek social justice became instead an ethnic
problem. The racial ideology generalized and attributed all oppression to the
Tutsi. The Church, however found itself walking on shaky ground. There were
Hutu Christians and priests and Tutsi Christians and priests. For this reason,
ethnic problems were avoided and not talked about in an open fashion.
Society- Wide Silence
What was happening in Rwanda was considered a civil war. It was not treated
as a genocide demanding immediate action. The UN stood by and did nothing! A
fever had descended upon
3. Steering Committee of the Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance
to Rwanda; Nordic Africa Institute, 1996. Pp27
Rwanda. Lists of victims had been prepared ahead of time. Tens of thousands
of Tutsi fled their homes in panic and where butchered at checkpoints. Because
the Hutu and Tutsi had lived intermingled and, in many instances had intermarried,
the outbreak of the killing forced Hutu and Tutsi friends and relatives into
life-altering decisions about whether or not to desert their loved ones in order
to save their own lives. The Rwandan genocide was the fastest most efficient
killing spree of the twenty-first century. In 100 days, some 800,000 Tutsis
were murdered. The target groups were systematically selected and murdered.
The war and slaughter had a devastating impact on children. Many had witnessed
the hacking to death of their parents.
Despite its poor showing the UN has a central role to play, as do Church leaders.
As already noted church leaders offered neither protests nor warnings when human
rights were being violated. Despite many cases of courage, the Church must face
up to the problem of Christian killing Christian. Jose Chipenda, the general
secretary of the All African Conference of Churches put is finger on the issue
when he said " No amount of church activity on behalf of refugees, reconstruction
or social and economic development could replace the quest of Christian to become
the Salt of the Earth. We have seen this moral vacuum, this lack of sufficient
emphasis on justice in both Rwanda and Burundi. The Churches must recover that
commitment if they are to plan any role in the future."
Deirdre Mullan RSM
Director
Mercy Global Concern
New York
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