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Caring for Victims of Rwanda’s TragedyAwake!—1994 | December 22
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Sudden End to Established Order
On April 6, 1994, about 8:00 p.m., the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi, both of whom were Hutu, were killed in an airplane crash in Kigali. That night police whistles could be heard everywhere in the capital, and the roads were blocked. Then during the early morning hours, soldiers and men armed with machetes started killing people who were Tutsi. Ntabana Eugène—the city overseer of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kigali—his wife, his son, and his daughter were among the first massacred.
A European family of Jehovah’s Witnesses had studied the Bible with several neighbors who were Tutsi. Nine of these neighbors took refuge in the home of the Europeans as crazed killers went from house to house. Within minutes, some 40 looters were in the house, smashing things and overturning furniture. Sadly, the Tutsi neighbors were killed. However, the others, despite their efforts to save their friends, were allowed to escape with their lives.
The slaughter went on for weeks. Eventually an estimated 500,000 or more Rwandans were killed. Thousands fled for their lives, particularly Tutsi.
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Caring for Victims of Rwanda’s TragedyAwake!—1994 | December 22
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By July the Tutsi-dominated forces, called the Rwandan Patriotic Front, had defeated the Hutu-dominated government forces. After that, Hutu began fleeing the country by the hundreds of thousands. Chaos resulted as two million or more Rwandans sought refuge in hastily established camps in neighboring countries.
They Tried to Help One Another
Two of the six who worked in the Translation Office of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kigali were Tutsi—Ananie Mbanda and Mukagisagara Denise. The efforts of the Hutu brothers to protect them were successful for a few weeks. Toward the end of May 1994, though, these two Tutsi Witnesses were killed.
At the risk, and even sacrifice, of their own lives, Jehovah’s Witnesses sought to protect fellow Christians of a different ethnic background. (John 13:34, 35; 15:13) For example, Mukabalisa Chantal is a Tutsi. When Rwandan Patriotic Front members were searching for Hutu in the stadium where she was staying, she intervened in behalf of her Hutu friends. Although the rebels were annoyed by her efforts, one exclaimed: “You Jehovah’s Witnesses really do have a solid brotherhood. Your religion is the best there is!”
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Caring for Victims of Rwanda’s TragedyAwake!—1994 | December 22
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Altogether, about 400 Witnesses were killed in the ethnic violence. Yet none of these died at the hands of fellow Witnesses. Tutsi and Hutu members of Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, however, slaughtered thousands.
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