The commutation request was part of the message Catholic Church bishops in Rwanda delivered to Christians for the 25th commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi on 7th April 2019 as commemoration activities began. The message was read in all churches across the country. <\/p>\n
Following criticism of the request, the Catholic Church released the apology statement on 13th April 2019 as the commemoration week closed. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are clauses from the letter that hurt people especially the ones concerning the request for commuting sentences of old and sick genocide convicts,\u201d reads part of the statement signed by the President of Episcopal Conference in Rwanda, Bishop Philippe Rukamba. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe regret that the message hurt people especially considering the period during which it was communicated. This was not our intention. We apologize for having communicated the message during the commemoration period,\u201d adds the statement. <\/p>\n
Speaking to IGIHE, the president of IBUKA, Prof Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu has said that the apology of the Catholic Church is wanting because it sought apology for communicating the message in commemoration period only. He explained that the church should be aware that these convicts were not remorseful they were given enough time to do so. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy does the Catholic Church want the convicts to be pardoned yet they are reluctant to repent. Our concern is beyond what the church is apologizing for. The Catholic Church may seek apology over communicating the message during the commemoration period with the intention of doing it again after this period. We blame two things. The time during which the apology is sought and asking for a reduced sentence of these convicts\u201d added Prof Dusingizemungu. <\/p>\n
He explained that \u201cThe statement of the Catholic Church is wanting. We think there are people who don\u2019t feel the severity of genocide crime. Those people in advanced ages are the ones who developed genocide ideology. Why don\u2019t they want them punished? Their sickness might persist after release because they are old. Do they want someone handed a life sentence to be commuted? It is like abolishing the punishment, or they might not be aware of the severity of genocide crime.\u201d <\/p>\n
As he attended the commemoration of politicians killed during the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi on 13th April 2019 at Rebero, the Executive Secretary the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) Dr. Jean Damasc\u00e8ne Bizimana criticized the request of Catholic Church. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen there are people requesting to release these older inmates yet they are the ones who poisoned Rwanda, it is suffocating the truth,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IBUKA, the umbrella organization of survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi has expressed dissatisfaction over the apology of Catholic Church on the recent message it communicated requesting authorities concerned to assess how punishments for older and sick genocide convicts can be computed and integrate them into the program of reconciling with people they offended. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-39175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39175"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=39175"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=39175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}