Genocide and Kate's Skirt

This week marks the 20^th anniversary of the beginning of one hundred days of insanity that resulted in more than 800,000 people being killed in the Rwandan genocide. 

The details of the murders are horrific: shootings, mutilations and mass burnings were common place; often victims were specifically sought out and ‘executed’ by those known personally to them.  Age, sex or infirmity offered no protection from the bloody carnage.

The atrocities were made all the more horrific in that many murders took place in or near churches, where terrified people huddled together seeking protection.  Not only did hate-fuelled groups ignore any suggestion that they were ‘on holy ground’, incredibly in many cases the murderers were regular worshippers in church, sometimes even clergy.

Of course, not all Christians acted in this way; there are many accounts of clergy and others hiding potential victims, sometimes risking their lives to do so.  I have to ask, however, was that anything more than ought to have been expected of anyone who made a claim to be a follower of Jesus?

One story that has emerged over the past few days has stood out particularly for me.  It is of a woman whose baby was killed by a machete-wielding church choir member who then slashed her in the head, severed her right hand and left her for dead.  Some years later, the man met with her, knelt before her and asked for forgiveness.  Almost unbelievably, she forgave him and they now both work together for a charity that seeks to provide ongoing help to victims of the genocide.

His account of how easy it was for him to turn from his Christian principles, to be seduced by ethnic hatred, is chilling to the core.  After the first few murders, he explained, he just stopped thinking about it, choosing to believe that he was ridding his country of vermin.  It all sounds so familiar.  The depth of humanity, spirituality and love that enabled his victim to forgive him is beyond my ability to comment on.  He now feels intensely for his victims and experiences ongoing remorse for his actions; something that might well not have happened had his victim not forgiven him. 

Of course, we all know that for the tabloid media, the death of one white British child is more newsworthy than the death of a hundred or more black Africans.  A plane crash in ‘the developed world’ will blot our genocide in Africa.  There was something particularly crass, however, in one of the UK tabloid’s coverage yesterday.  Its commentary on the Rwandan genocide was placed alongside snickering comment about the Duchess of Cambridge’s skirt billowing in the wind.  Hundreds of thousands of Africans killed, injured or traumatised; oh well, at least they didn’t suffer a wardrobe malfunction….