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Article: In Rwanda, 'blood is thicker than water - even the water of baptism.'
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- June 3, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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OXFORD, England -- if the estimates about the death toll in Rwanda are right, then nearly half of the Tutsi population of 1 million has been killed. They were already a minority compared with the 6 million Hutu. Pope John Paul, from his hospital bed, essayed the word "genocide." It seems to fit.
For an understanding of what has been happening in Rwanda, I turned to Adrian Hastings, professor of theology at Leeds, England, and author of the standard, History of the Church in Africa.
He deplores the shortsightedness of commentators, who imagine this is a recent conflict that has suddenly and unaccountably flared up. He takes the view that massacres and ...