30.04.09 - RWANDA/GENOCIDE - 83 CHURCHES FAILED TO SHELTER FLEEING TUTSI REFUGEES

Kigali, 30 April 2009 (FH) - The Churches where Tutsis were massacred during the 1994 genocide will be marked with a particular inscription, according to an official statement of the Chamber of Deputies received Thursday by the Hirondelle Agency.

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Speaking Tuesday before of the Chamber on the burial of the remains of the victims and the state of the memorial sites of the genocide, the Minister for Culture, Joseph Habineza, stated that 83 churches, inventoried as places of massacres in 1994, were soon going to be marked with this epigraph.

The minister also indicated that the inscription would also comprise for each church the list of the victims, added the statement.

The role of the churches, particularly the Catholic Church, in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, still stirs debate.

At the time of the anti-Tutsi pogroms of 1959 and 1962 in Rwanda, Tutsis who had taken refuge in churches had their lives saved.

Three decades later, they had thus flowed per tens of thousands into churches to try to escape their killers. But, this time, most of them were slaughtered by grenades, burnt alive or crushed by bulldozers.

According to the non-governmental organization, London-based African Rights, more Tutsis perished in places of worship than anywhere else in the country.

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© Hirondelle News Agency