Tutsi bishop brings God's word to Hutus

Kevin Morrow
SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Thursday, February 5, 2009

John Kabango Rucyahana stood facing a crowd of killers in a prison yard at Gitarama, Rwanda. Years earlier, during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Gitarama's Hutu inmates would have hacked or clubbed to death this stout, bespectacled Tutsi preacher and former refugee. Today, they were all ears, for Bishop Rucyahana had come with a simple, powerful, badly needed message: Confess your crimes to God and to your victims, and you will be forgiven.

"I was speaking to prisoners at Gitarama," said Bishop Rucyahana, 62. "And I said to them, 'Close your eyes. Remember yourself hacking people. Remember them lifting up their hands begging for their lives, and you hacking their hands and arms and cutting their necks.'

"In about 10 minutes, everyone was crying, sobbing. I said, 'Open your eyes. That which makes you cry is what God wants you to repent of.' " the rest