Vatican Says Rwanda Bishop Arrest Wounds Catholics

REUTERS, April 15—Bishop Augustin Misago has been arrested by Rwandan authorities on charges of genocide for his alleged role as a planner and instigator of the killing of more than 150,000 Tutsis in his diocese of Gikongoro.

London-based human rights group Africa Watch last year accused the Catholic Church of protecting clergy suspected of complicity in the 1994 slaughter of some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by harboring some in European countries or moving them to parishes in other African nations.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Holy See deeply regretted the arrest of Bishop Misago. “The arrest of a bishop is an extremely grave act which wounds not only the Church in Rwanda but the whole of the Roman Catholic Church,” Navarro-Valls said in a strongly worded statement. “Relations between the Republic of Rwanda and the Holy See are profoundly troubled by this.”

Bishop Narrowly Escapes

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CO., April 11—Bishop Carlos Belo of Dili escaped harm as the convoy carrying him back to Dili came under attack from a militia group that wants to see East Timor remain part of Indonesia, according to the Australian ABC.

The bishop was coming from celebrating Mass at nearby Liquisa, just days after an alleged massacre occurred at the parish plant. Bishop Belo was quoted by ABC as saying that at least 25 people were hacked to death by the militia in the Liquisa churchyard and in the priest's house last Tuesday. Indonesia put the death toll at five.

The church was deserted when Bishop Belo arrived under heavy police escort to pray for the injured and dead. Between 500 and 600 people finally gathered inside the church for the Mass, as police tried in vain to force the militia members to leave the area, said ABC.

The High Cost of Ireland's ‘Troubles’

THE IRISH TIMES, April 16—More than half the victims of the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland since 1969 have been civilians, according to a new book, whose contents were condensed in an Irish Times article by Suzanne Breen.

A total of 1,868 civilians have been killed, 53% of all those who have died through political violence in the North. The figures are contained in Northern Ireland's Troubles: the Human Cost by Marie-Therese Fay, Mike Morrisey and Marie Smyth.

Other statistics cited by Breen include:

A total of 3,506 people have been killed since 1969. Members of the security forces account for 30% of the victims.

A total of 511 were British soldiers.

Sixteen percent of those killed were paramilitaries.

Four times more republican (Catholic) than loyalist (Protestant) paramilitaries have died: 439 compared to 110.

The victims of the Troubles have been overwhelmingly male. Most were likely to be young men — more than a third were in their 20s.

The book says that more Catholics have died than Protestants and that both communities suffered the highest concentration of deaths from 1971-76.