Rwanda Stories
Former 麻豆社 Religious Affairs Correspondent Mike Wooldridge leads today's Sunday Worship marking the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide and examining its spiritual legacy.
Former 麻豆社 Religious and World Affairs Correspondent Mike Wooldridge leads today's Sunday Worship marking the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide and examining its spiritual legacy. The scale and brutality of the genocide, which began on this day thirty years ago, caused shock worldwide, but no country intervened to forcefully stop the killings. Up to one million perished across one hundred days. Mike reported from Rwanda as the response of churches in the highly Christianised country came under increasing scrutiny. In some cases they either stood aside or were even complicit. We hear the harrowing experiences of those who suffered in the genocide or witnessed the brutality. How could this have happened? It remains a profound question today, and one we hear reflected in our worship and in prayers offered in remembrance and in repentance. Producer: Philip Billson.
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The script below is an indication of what the broadcast but is not checked for accuracy. It may contain spelling and grammatical errors, and the link descriptions are sometimes summaries of what was said, sometimes longer versions of what was heard in the programme.听
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Mike Wooldridge: I鈥檓 Mike Wooldridge. Thirty years ago today, the fastest recorded genocide in human history erupted in Rwanda, urged on by local radio stations. In the following 100 days, it was estimated that between 800,000 and one million people were killed.
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(over historic actuality of Rwandan radio station - Excerpts from RTLM broadcasts during the genocide in 1994: . Source: International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda archives)
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Insert David Williams
鈥淚 grew up on the border with Rwanda鈥.joyous, vibrant faith鈥gainst that you stare into the abyss that was the Rwanda genocide.鈥
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MW: David Williams, today the bishop of Basingstoke and co-ordinator of a diocesan link with Rwanda. As the Hutu population heard their minority Tutsi neighbours being dehumanised and threatened,听 Tutsi families feared only one outcome.
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Insert Chantal on brother: 鈥淢y brother said we are finished, we are done鈥 don鈥檛 think we are going to survive this.鈥
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MW: In today鈥檚 Sunday Worship, we reflect on what it was like to be in Rwanda during that terrible time. We hear the experiences of two survivors of what was often intimate extreme violence, neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend, frequently using machetes and clubs. Wee seek to understand how it could have happened in one of Africa鈥檚 most Christianised countries鈥.why churches responded as they did and the impact it had on the faith of their followers. And we will hear from the former Archbishop of Canterbury who went to Rwanda soon after the genocide, the first public visit by a church dignitary. On the day before April 7th 1994,听 as two presidents flew home from a mission to shore up peace and power sharing in Rwanda, the firing of a surface-to-air missile set everything in motion for violence on a scale the country had never seen before.
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Ibuka by Nyiranyamibwa Suzanne (Kwibuka Genocide yakorewe Abatutsi mu Rwanda) 鈥
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FROM: One in a million_麻豆社 World Service Masterpiece, 2004 Prod Ruth Evans ACT 鈥淭he presidents of the central African countries of Rwanda and Burundi have been killed in a plane crash in the Rwandan capital, Kigali. There has been shooting in the streets of Kigali鈥.鈥
ACT: 鈥淭his morning they attacked the parish of Nyamirambo and killed several persons鈥.鈥
ACT: 鈥淭he evacuation of foreigners is set to continue with the arrival of the Belgians. Rwanda will be left to face a brutal civil war.鈥
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Agnus Dei no 1
niyonzima oreste
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ACT: Prayer from David Williams. IN:鈥淚n the introduction to John鈥檚 Gospel鈥..
OUT: 鈥淚n Jesus鈥 name we pray. Amen.鈥
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Reading from Genesis 4 (Cain and Abel) Read in Kinyarwandan and English by felin Gakwaya with music: Remember / 讝讻讜专 / Ibuka - Philip Miller -
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Ese mbaze nde ? (+lyrics) - Rwanda 1994
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MW: How should I be, what should I do? Who should I ask, that the person I asked is no longer there鈥. A Rwandan commemoration song about the Genocide. (pause) As a 麻豆社 correspondent, I reported on conflicts in Africa, in the Middle East and in Asia. It is the storytelling of individuals caught up in these conflicts that stays with me鈥n some cases many years later.听 I have just been to XXX to interview Beatha, who came to Britain from Rwanda just over 20 years ago, and to YYY to meet Marie, who came here shortly after the genocide. Both are Tutsis. Some of the events they describe you may find both graphic and shocking. Chantal was 16 at the time of the genocide.
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ACT Chantal:听听 Comments.
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Psalm 22 vv 1-2. Read in Kinyarwandan and English by felin Gakwaya with music: Remember / 讝讻讜专 / Ibuka - Philip Miller -
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MW: Beatha 鈥 14听 in 1994 鈥 also talked about coming face-to-face with the Hutu militias, the Interahamwe, a week into the genocide.
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ACT Beatha听
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Psalm 22 vv 6-7. Read in Kinyarwandan and English by felin Gakwaya with music: Remember / 讝讻讜专 / Ibuka - Philip Miller -
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MW听 The Hutu extremists behind the killing, who attempted to whip up hatred towards the Tutsis and so multiply their killing power, failed not only in the case that Beatha describes with such personal gratitude. They also failed in the case of the person responsible for Chantal鈥檚 survival. It is a deeply touching story.
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ACT Chantal听
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AGNUS DEI-GREGORIEN Covered by Chorale Christus Regnat
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MW: Many of the killings of Tutsis 鈥 and of moderate Hutus 鈥 took place in churches where people had sought refuge鈥long with schools, hospitals, stadiums. There were听 accusations of priests helping the killers. I asked Beatha: everything you experienced and saw over those 100 days, what effect did it have on your own faith?
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ACT Beatha
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Senzeni Na _ Cape town Youth Choir
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ACT: Beatha and Chantal prayers
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AMENIWEKA HURU KWELI - PAPI CLEVER & DORCAS Ft MERCI PIANIST
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MW: So why did Rwanda lose its way? And what are the lessons鈥ot just for Rwanda鈥ut potentially for every society? Antoine Rutayisire is a highly respected Rwandan Anglican priest who gave a landmark address at a Lausanne Movement听 Congress in Cape Town, describing himself as a 鈥渨ounded healer鈥.
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ACT: Rutayisire -
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Wyclef Jean feat. African Children's Choir听 - Million Voices
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MW: I went to Rwanda in May 1995 to report on the visit by George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury鈥.I was at the time 麻豆社 religion correspondent.听 It was hardly surprising that controversy over the role played by the Roman Catholic, Anglican and other churches continued after the genocide.听 Priests who had allegedly been complicit, bishops accused of deserting their flock at a time of greatest need.听 But when we visited a church at Ruhanga, I found a different 鈥 and remarkable 鈥 story to report:
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ACT听 MW TV News report.听 IN words: 鈥淲here Dr Carey鈥檚 procession鈥.
OUT words: 鈥溾..happened here months ago.鈥澨
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MW: I went to see Dr Carey for this Sunday Worship.
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ACT Carey
My feeling is not of judgement. I can understand the fear, The paralysing fear that you could lose your life鈥.the way in which all values seemed to go out of the window鈥nd the churh lost its authority during that time 3.40听 Thank God there were outstanding people who stood up鈥eople we know鈥 bishops who safeguarded their own flock鈥nd at Ruhanga particularly the way in which the Hutu and the Tutsis stood together and said we belong to Christ. There鈥檚 more to this than life itself鈥e are prepared to die and they did. One Roman Catholic said to me "the blood of tribalism is thicker than the waters of baptism." And that struck home to me鈥he way in which actually what you value in terms of your faith is something you put to one side as you become a Hutu or whatever and you go to the tribe for identification. Rwanda is a very good example that when churches get too close to political parties they are in danger of losing their soul.
Q All churches speak a lot about forgiveness. But what about Rwandan genocide survivors and the family members they lost forever in those terrible 100 days. BU told us for this programme how she still mourns her mother who like many other victims was killed and thrown into a river. Who is she to forgive, she says, her mother鈥檚 killer? It would be for her mother to do that and she is dead. What鈥檚 your answer to her question.
My answer would be one of understanding. I think it鈥檚 quite difficult to forgive in situations like that. What I would say is we don鈥檛 forgive鈥t鈥檚 God鈥檚 job to forgive. What we have to do is to be in a position where we say: Your Will Be Done.
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NYAGASANI TUBABARIRE (Kyrie) By Aimable Ft Pacis & Regina Pacis choir KCN Studio
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ACT: Carey prayer
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MW:听 Some of Rwanda鈥檚 church buildings tell stories of courage in the face of the genocide鈥thers stories of callous and cruel tragedy. That has left a legacy of distrust, says Jean Pierre Methode Rukundo, a Rwandan bishop I met when he visited Winchester diocese recently. It was evident when severe flooding hit his region last year.
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ACT Jean Pierre听 In: Still the spirit of distrust and fear is also there鈥.
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 OUT: 鈥渨ill take time and honestly I don鈥檛 know.鈥
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MW: Some say that Rwanda as a nation needs to complete a journey of lamentation, the biblical prayer for coming out of pain. At the end of the genocide, Chantal Uwamahoro discovered that she had lost no fewer than fifty members of her family.
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ACT:听 In: 鈥淵our mother, you didn鈥檛 know what had鈥..
听听听听听听听听听听 OUT: 鈥溾till had a mother.鈥
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Music - Missa Luba (Sanctus)
Broadcast
- Sun 7 Apr 2024 08:10麻豆社 Radio 4