_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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Rwanda
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Priest returns to face trial
Charged in 1994 killings
The apostolic nuncio in Rwanda has expressed his “admiration and satisfaction” for a priest who has voluntarily returned to Africa to face war-crimes charges, the Fides news service reports.
The nuncio, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, praised Father Athanase Seromba for presenting himself to the International Court for Rwanda, which is hearing cases in Arusha, Tanzania. Father Seromba has been charged with complicity in the massacre of at least 2,000 people in his Nyange parish during the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed in clashes between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes.
Since 1997, Father Seromba had been living in exile in Italy, as a guest in a Florence parish. When an international prosecutor demanded his extradition to face the war-crimes charges, the Rwandan priest decided to forego a court battle. “Innocence must be proven in front of a political-human institution,” Father Seromba explained. “After I heard the charges against me I decided to go to Arusha to answer the accusations in person.”
“This was an act of responsibility and courage,” Archbishop Pennacchio said. “It will give him an opportunity to respond to the serious charges brought against him.” The nuncio added that he hoped the tribunal would grant Father Seromba’s request for a speedy trial and resolution of his case.
The issue of a speedy trial is a matter of real concern, since the trial of Rwandan prisoners is proceeding very slowly. Another Catholic priest, Father Emmanuel Rukundo, has been imprisoned since last July on war-crimes charges. There are five other Catholic priests, two nuns, and one seminarian all facing charges before the international court.
In 1996, Pope John Paul II denounced the war crimes in Rwanda, and called for a clear accounting of the responsibility for the genocidal killings. In a letter dated March 23, 1996, the Pope wrote: “All the members of the Church who sinned during the genocide must have the courage to bear the consequences of the evil committed against God and against neighbor.”