The Rwandan Genocide and Justice

Clothing of the slain in a Rwandan Church

Last year Rwandans in places around the world acknowledged the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. Many of the perpetrators of the terrible violence which resulted in anywhere from 500,000 to a million deaths were brought to justice, including religious leaders. Others managed to escape and begin new lives despite their part in atrocities. 

Last week one of the most wanted fugitives 84-year-old Felicien Kabuga was arrested in a town near Paris, France. He was, a wealthy businessman accused of supplying machetes to killers and broadcasting propaganda urging mass slaughter.

The US offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Kabuga's arrest

In many Rwandan communities people took refuge in churches, only to be slaughtered there, sometimes betrayed by pastors and priests. Some of those churches became memorials to the murdered, grim museums to betrayal. Through the years I'e read stories of those who were able to forgive despite their profound losses and it's almost incomprehensible that they could do so. Ofen they were betrayed by neighbours and even family members. In 2016 Rwanda bishops ask for forgiveness for part Catholics played in 1994 genocide

There is a Forgiveness Project website which might interest you.  https://www.theforgivenessproject.com/stories/jean-paul-samputu/

This arrest brought to mind the Netflix series, Black Earth Rising, which is about the continuing efforts to find those who were behind the genocide to justice. They may not have held the machetes, but they are guilty of murder, just the same. It's important that people such as Kabuga are found and held to account. What a world.