Rwandan Nuns Deny Genocide Charges

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, May 4–Two nuns accused of crimes against humanity in the 1994 Rwandan genocide that claimed 800,000 lives testified in a Belgian court that they had done everything in their power to protect hunted Tutsis who sought refuge in their monastery, the news agency reported.

The nuns, Sister Consolata Mukangango and Sister Julienne Mukabutera, have pleaded innocent to charges of “serious violations of international humanitarian rights” in the landmark trial. Both are now Belgian residents.

“We did everything we could, not ostentatiously but discreetly, to avoid the worst,” said Sister Mukangango, in testimony repeated by Sister Mukabutera.

The nuns, located at the time in Sovu in southern Rwanda, are accused of having turned over to Hutu militia some 5,000 to 7,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus who had sought shelter in their convent, where Sister Mukangango was mother superior.

Ugandan Cardinal Attacks ‘Gospel of Death’ Promoters

ALL AFRICA.COM, May 7–At a Mass marking the end of a five-day pastoral visit to parishes of his archdiocese, Archbishop Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala of Kampala called Westerners who promote abortion and contraception in his country of Uganda “enemies of the Church.”

“I would like to show you areas that the enemy has attacked,” Cardinal Wamala said. “The enemy has attacked three fronts. It has attacked health where the gospel of death is being preached. Abortion and contraceptives are preached daily. The clinics doing this are here. You know them and they all speak the same language…sensitization seminars with catchy names like ‘reproductive heath,’ ‘family planning,’ ‘safe motherhood’ and others have been organized for you. These words are very persuasive but what is contained inside is the gospel of death.”