Vatican Notes & Quotes
Pope Saddened as Rwanda Executes 22
The BBC reported April 24 that, “The public execution of 22 people for involvement in the 1994 genocide followed last-minute appeals for clemency to the Rwandan government.”
One of those appeals came from Pope John Paul II who sent a telegram to Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimung urging him to halt the executions, the report said.
The BBC went on, “the Rwandan authorities said that the executions were a lesson that mass killings cannot be carried out with impunity.
“In a statement to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Rwanda likened the effect of the executions to that of the Nuremberg trials of Nazis charged with crimes against humanity during the Second World War.”
A statement from the Vatican said the Pope was disappointed when the executions took place.
“I can tell you of the sadness of the Pope over the executions,” papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
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- May 10, 1998
