Kigali — So, good fathers, if according to you, the testimonies in Gacaca are false, and those in prison are innocent, who was responsible for the millions of Rwandans who perished during the Genocide? We might remind you that the dead are not a statistical projection.

They have names and faces. Were they killed by a hurricane? A volcanic eruption? Mass suicide? Who? The Vatican is living in denial, or in a time warp. How it pains me to say this - and yet I cannot- in all conscience, continue to keep silent.

During this year's commemoration of the Genocide, a number of Christian groups got together in what they have called a hundred days of hope. They are determined to return hope to the millions of Rwandans who are still living in trauma as a result of genocide. Medical teams have performed open heart surgery at the King Faisal Hospital, bringing Joy and hope to Rwandans. They have encouraged the telling of the truth, in churches, in Gacaca proceedings. They have encouraged genuine confession for doing the things they ought not to have done, and failing to do the things they ought to have done. If they continue in this vein, there will be some truth in them.

Not so the Catholic hierarchy. During the commemoration ceremony at Nyamasheke in Cyangugu, testimony of the terrible activities of Archbishop Ntihinyurwa during the Genocide left me deeply angry and saddened. A fellow priest, albeit in veiled terms, accused the Archbishop of complicity in the willful murder of thousands at the Church, and more poignantly, of standing by while Tutsi priests in his entourage were savagely butchered. The good Archbishop apparently left them to rot by the roadside. These testimonies have been constant in different Gacaca hearings. I think Rwandans deserve an explanation from the Archbishop. One would hope the Vatican would act and shed light on the activities of this gentleman during those terrible days but will they? Your guess is as good as mine. I do not know whether the Archbishop has a confessor. I am intrigued that he can simply continue to operate with these heavy charges against him. Of course, I do believe that he is innocent until prov ed guilty. That said however, his guilt or innocence is for the courts to determine, if it ever comes to that, but in the court of public opinion, continued silence is simply tantamount to guilt. I for one would like to hear his story. What a boost to Gacaca, truth telling and healing if the Archbishop could lead by example!

If the Vatican had their way, however, Gacaca would stop, the guilty would simply be released from prison, and Ibuka would be banned. In a document making the rounds in diplomatic circles, the Vatican Secretariat of State has come out swinging against Gacaca. They say the majority of the accused in gacaca courts are thrown into prison after the deliberation of 9 Inyangamugayo (Gacaca jurors). That those found to have been imprisoned after false testimonies are not released. That Gacaca does not promote truth, reconciliation, or lead to the reduction in numbers of those detained. That it does not therefore serve the objectives for which it was created.

There is more my friends, much more. That the innocent remain in prison while the criminals are released. That those who confess are criminals who are released, and those who refuse to confess are innocent and therefore stay in Prison. That over 20000 innocent people remain incarcerated ( do not ask me how they came to that figure- after all, figures do not lie, but liars figure!). That Gacaca is not an arena for truth telling but for false accusations, not a space for reconciliation but a tool for a re-emergence of hate and mistrust.

You think you have heard enough? Hold on my friend, hold on. The best is yet to come. The Vatican says the majority of the accused are Hutus with a Secondary school education, or who have property. That means teachers, communal authorities, traders, or former political figures. That the sentences are not determined by the courts but by the current government, and that the sentences are pre- determined. That the atmosphere in Gacaca proceedings is trying. To who, you may ask, I do not know, I will answer. That the presumption of innocence is denied. That testimony against the accused is mainly by government officials, and members of IBUKA, an organisation the Vatican derides as being strongly influenced by the current regime. That people are paid to produce false testimony in the process and at the ICTR.

Hold your bile, my friend, hold your bile. I myself, developed near permanent nausea at the lies propagated by some at the Holy See. Let us ask for clarifications from the Holy Fathers. Maybe they are in constant communication with the Almighty and can see what we do not. So, good fathers, if according to you, the testimonies in Gacaca are false, and those in prison are innocent, who was responsible for the millions of Rwandans who perished during the Genocide? We might remind you that the dead are not a statistical projection. They have names and faces. Were they killed by a hurricane? A volcanic eruption? Mass suicide? Who? Pray, is responsible for their death? Or yes, I had forgotten. You whisper that they were killed by the RPF. That their proximate killers were simply in the throes of a spontaneous, reactive righteous anger. That they were understandably irate at the death of their President. After all, that is the thesis Msgr Perraudin has advanced, and the Vatican has not disowned it. Please tell us. You seem to know the innocent. Do you also know who the guilty are? Do they confess to you? Can you share their names with Rwandans? Or, do you still tell them, as you used to, in the past, within the confines and privacy of the sacristy, that killing Tutsis is not a sin?

You say some in prison have no dossiers. Are you aware that almost all those without dossiers were released from prison? To the chagrin of some of us I might add? May I remind you that many of those without dossiers had been arrested by RPF soldiers in 1994, in the heat of genocide, caught while actively hacking Tutsis to death? They had no dossiers, not because they were innocent, but because the arresting soldiers had no time, training, or capacity to start writing neat dossiers in the midst of the carnage. The arresting soldiers were simple Rwandans, with a genocide to stop, and a war to wage. False testimonies my foot! You should, instead, be celebrating the humanity that allowed those soldiers to resist the impulse for vengeance and imprison them so they might have a rendezvous with justice. Now you are trying to suborn it.

Tell us please, why you so fervently deride the survivors of genocide. Why are you uncomfortable with the attempt to remember the millions of innocent dead? Why are you not patrons of IBUKA, the association of survivors of genocide? Why do you not share Jeremiah's cry for justice? I thought genocide was Deicide! That genocide as an attempt to exterminate a section of humanity is also an attempt to exterminate a part of God. After all humanity is made in the image of God, so you tell us!

Why is it, that in your churches and congregations, you have not encouraged the faithful to repent and ask for forgiveness? Why is it that the evil that was committed in this land leaves you indifferent? I am a Christian, and I demand, nay, I deserve an answer. Are you not afraid of the discovery that after a hundred years of your presence in Rwanda, 1994 Rwanda showed that it remains Pagan at heart? Does it say nothing to you that church leaders, at the highest levels are tainted with the blood of the innocent? Or is this how you had designed it to be? How can you, in the name of promulgating the truth, hide it?

I have, over the years heard nothing but criticism from Roman Catholic clerical circles on the post genocide reconstruction and reconciliation efforts in Rwanda. Criticism is cheap. What we need is a blue print of what the Vatican would propose for Justice and Reconciliation in the Country. It is an everlasting shame that in Rwanda's history, the clerical corps have consistently abandoned moral leadership for a bowl of soup. In the matter of genocide in Rwanda, the Vatican temporal State would do well to first remove the log in its own eyes before attempting to remove the speck in the eyes of others.