From ........... National Catholic Reporter

August 26, 1994

page 11

RWANDA CHURCH LEADERS TARGET OF CRITICISM

Churches in Rwanda have been discredited by aligning themselves with the former Hutu dominated regime and its tribal politics, according to Samuel Isaac, a deputy director for the World Council of Churches, who recently returned from a fact-finding visit to Kigali.

He cited one incident in which a [Roman] Catholic Hutu priest was alleged to have shot 10 of his Tutsi parishioners who came to seek refuge in the church.

"In every conversation we had, with the government and church people alike, the point was brought home to us that the church itself stands tainted, not by passive indifference but by errors of commission as well," Isaac said. "From what we have seen and heard, (this claim) was valid for all churches in Rwanda, Protestant and Roman Catholic alike."

According to Isaac, there are virtually no official church structures left in Kigali. Church leaders have either been killed or are living as refugees outside the country.

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