THE GENOCIDE OF SILENCE

The following is an excerpt for the book As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda by Catherine Claire Larson.

“The gash across the face of Emmanuel Mahuro, a seventeen year-old Rwandan native, is no longer an open wound. Today, like a jagged boundary line on a map, a scar juts down the plateau of his forehead, across the bridge of his nose, and up the slope of his right cheek. It is impossible to look into Emmanuel’s eyes without seeing this deep cut, a mark of division etched across his face — and the face of Rwanda — fifteen years after the genocide.

My first reaction to such scars is to avert my eyes. But to look away from Emmanuel’s scars is to look away from him. Strangely, as my eyes adjust to Emmanuel’s face, there is an impulse, not to recoil, but to follow the line of the scar across his skin. Emmanuel’s scar testifies to two realities. It is a witness to the human capacity for evil. To look at it is to hear it scream the brutality of an April that aches in the memory of an entire people. Yet his scar testifies to another truth: the stunning capacity of humans to heal from the unthinkable. To trace that scar is to discover the hope of a people who, despite losing everything, are finding a way to forge a common future for Rwanda.

On April 28, 1994 Christine Shelley, spokeswoman for the State Department, was asked whether what was happening in Rwanda was a genocide. She responded, “…the use of the term ‘genocide’ has a very precise legal meaning, although it’s not strictly a legal determination. There are other factors in there as well.” Meanwhile, the State Department issued a secret intelligence report identifying the killings as genocide.

March 15, 1998 President Clinton apologized to Rwandan genocide victims, saying, ‘We did not act quickly enough after the killing began . . . We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide.’”

Copied From As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda by Catherine Claire Larson

April 7, 2009 marks the 15th anniversary of the genocide of Rwanda. And to think, it could have been averted had people who held the power to do something about it wouldn’t have turned their backs and walked away. Had they called it ‘genocide’ from the beginning, the very word would have mandated the calling in of peace keeping forces…but they would not speak the truth, therefore because of the unwillingness to say the word ‘genocide’ more than 800,000 Rwandan’s lost their lives.

As I read this story my heart broke from the continued ‘genocide’ that is going on in our world today, not only as millions of innocent people are dragged from their homes and killed, but the genocide of the heart. We have the Peace Maker on board in our hearts if indeed we are followers of Christ, but we have to care enough, to be aware enough, that we will open our eyes to the plight of all those around us who do not know Christ as Lord. Satan’s greatest desire according to John 10:10 is to “…steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” Jesus said however, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

Paul said, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans 10:13 (NKJV)

As we consider the question Paul presents next, let us “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Heb 10:24) for Paul said the way to prevent the genocide of those not yet in Christ, is to care enough to tell them, to invite them, to help them to hear the greatest story ever told this Easter. Don’t keep quiet, while those around you die.

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:14 (NKJV)

He is Risen Indeed! Go now, and tell!