Belgian priest faces Rwanda court

[emad]

A Belgian Catholic priest has appeared before a Rwandan village court accused of helping incite the 1994 genocide.

Guy Theunis, 60, denied reproducing articles inciting killings in a Rwandan magazine he edited, saying many pieces in question were just press reviews.

He is the first foreigner to go before one of the 'gacaca' courts set up to help investigate the genocide in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died.

A panel of judges will rule if he must face charges in a conventional court.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4234480.stm

[Trevelyan]

1. I just came across a site that mentioned this and said that the priest had

worked to create humans rights groups according to the Dutch government. Any links to protest what looks like a set up.

I think it was a link from a link on Daily Kos with a very nice website with a very sad but well done video on the genocide in Dufar.

On another site, it may have been Amnesty, Bette Midlar said that Dufar was a genocide we could do something about.

I know we are all concerned about what is happening to the people left in NOLA and what they are doing to the evacuees, sending them far away and not telling them or lying about where they are being sent. It is said that some of the evacuees in Utah are behind barbed wire. Go to The Left Coast.

When you write to Congress and the media about the Bush Nazi takeover, please mention the genocide taking place in Dufar and this priest who sounds innocent if you look at the evidence of his human rights work.

[Benhurst]

2. The Catholic Church seems more than willing to pull strings for

pederast priests. Will it do so for this good man of God?

[moobu2]

3. NPR did a story on Catholic Church/Rwanda Genocide complicity

on Morning Edition, April 05 concerning Priests being tried in International Court. I'm not sure what the status of the case's are but the priests were being tried for genocide and crimes against humanity. Several have already been convicted.

At one point the Catholic Church hid one of the accused priests, who was later captured.

It wasn’t only this priest, that's all I wanted to point out. At least 1 Bishop was accused as well. The Catholic Church denies any responsibility in the genocide.

Many Catholic Priests and nuns were murdered as well, reportedly for protecting Tutsis.

Catholic Complicity and Rwanda Genocide
by Jason Beaubien

Prosecutors say at least 2,000 people were killed at the Nyange Church in western Rwanda when the parish priest ordered the church to be bulldozed on top of Tutsi refugees. Graves of some of the victims are next to ruins of the church.


Morning Edition, April 22, 2005 · Human-rights advocates are demanding an apology from the Catholic Church for its alleged role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, arguing the church did not do enough to stop the killings.

Now, an international court is trying several Catholic priests for their alleged role in the massacres, in which Hutus murdered 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The Archbishop of Kigali declined to be interviewed but in a written response to questions by NPR he says the church didn't have the power to stop the killings. He adds flatly that no Rwandan clergy were involved in the genocide.

NPR