And God in all this?
"On sunday, we left the Lord and our prayers inside to rush home. We changed from our Sunday best into our workaday clothes, we grabbed clubs and machetes, we went straight off to killing."
I'm actually reading some books for a primary sources research paper in my genocide class. The project that I work on deals with the involvement of the Catholic Church during the Rwandan genocide. In light of the extent of the events, religion is definitely not the only way to study the genocide. I could have chosen the French government... Anyway, I feel quite concerned about what happened in Rwanda, and this is the kind of papers that i don't want to dash off.
I was 8 years old in 1994, and i'm so suprised how i haven't heard about the horror of the genocide at that time. As a french citizen, keeping in mind the way our western governements treat Africa since the dawn of time, I am just worried to think that beyond a childhood oversight, the reason that i don't remember 1994 is the overall lack of consideration about "their" problems. 12 years after, we are looking at those Hollywood drama movies, realizing "Oh my God, it really happened!". As a child I cannot really blame myself; as a 20 years old student, i feel so angry at my ignorance. Why the hell do we still look at the Holocaust as something that does not have to happen again... "NEVER AGAIN!", and look at those massacres all over the world without reacting?
As Totten says, the past must be remembered, yes; but humanity must go beyond merely remembering a particular genocidal act... Inherent in authentic remembrance is vigilance and action.
In Cambodia, the United States’ action to help Pol Pot’s overthrow, and afterwards its inaction during the persecutions, are obvious. In the name of independence, Washington, Beijing and Bangkok all supported the continued independent existence of the Khmers Rouge regime.
In Indonesia in 1965, the US ambassador Marshall Green was aware of the repressions. However, the United States approved its action against the PKI (the communist party) and were disposed to help the Army in this effort.
Ten years after, the World is forgetting East Timor. Thus, the fight of Indonesia against communism is sustained once again by the United States, in the Cold War context and the alliance with the Indonesian government.
It is great time to educate people about the awareness of genocide as part of human culture, and not only genocide as part of history. Humanity is even more concerned than ever. And I feel the first concerned. And I may be the biggest issue.
Anyway, come back to Rwanda. If I took this topic, it was in part because of my faith. As a Christian I'm facing what people are doing in the name of God, in the name of their faith. As a Christian, i want to consider the difference between people's will and God's will. I am deeply convinced that what happens in those churches, the priests given their fellow believers to the murders, waiting for the bulldozers, and all this kind of unexplainable events did not depend on Bible-based actions. However, i can't avoid the facts that those murders had the same faith as I have. It could have been an easy way, but I feel quite uncomfortable hiding in explanations like "what people do in the name of God do not reflect what God asks us to do". Of course, it's not God's will. Of course. They still did it. How come? I try to understand. Right now, i can't. My "religious answer" is: Put God first. But now i'm looking for the answer that i'll give to my history teacher. Part of the anwser will hopefully be related to that testimony "Since Jesus was not saying anything through the priests' mouths, that suited us."
posted by Marie Duclos at 10:31 p.m.
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