Firm Foundations for Freedom
Most important, Holocaust in Rwanda looks at some of the lessons which need to be learned in order to ensure that such atrocities do not occur again. We need to lay solid foundations for the future that will prevent such oppression from ever occurring again. These are Biblical principles which are not only important for Rwanda, but for every society that values life and liberty. Holocaust in Rwanda concludes with the Biblical Principles, which had they been adhered to, there would have been no holocaust in Rwanda.
 
Learning from Rwanda
There is much for us to learn from the tragic events of 1994 that are most relevant in the light of those talking about a second phase of the revolution in South Africa and threatening to exterminate the white minority. "Blessed be the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle. My lovingkindness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield and the One in whom I take refuge…" Psalm 144:1-2
 
Dr. Peter Hammond
Frontline Fellowship
Email: mission@frontline.org.za

Holocaust in Rwanda is also available as an E-Book.

See also:
The Holocaust in Rwanda – 25 Years Later
Hotel Rwanda – Genocide in a Gun Free Land

To see a video presentation related to this article, Click Here​

Hotel Rwanda is an important and carefully crafted film well worth seeing. Set in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, during the genocide of April and May 1994 Hotel Rwanda is a sensitively made film. Unlike many Hollywood films it is neither gory nor distasteful. This film focuses on the incredible true story of Paul Rusesabagina, the assistant manager of Milles Collines Hotel. By ingenuity, good connections, bribes and bluff, Paul managed to save the lives of 1238 Tutsis from the genocide.
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This is an engrossing, gripping and ultimately uplifting film showing how one person can make a difference even amidst the worst conditions. Over 800,000 Tutsi Christians were systematically slaughtered in the Rwandan Genocide. More people were killed with machetes in Rwanda in 6 weeks than have died of atomic weapons in all of history!

​MEDIA MANIPULATION
Hotel Rwanda sets the scene with the ominous radio broadcasts of RTLM. Incredibly all these outrageous and incendiary hate-filled statements in the film are what was actually broadcast, daily, on the national radio: “Why do we hate the Tutsis? They are cockroaches…Rwanda is Hutuland. We are the majority. Tutsis are the minority. Hutus must kill all the Tutsis…Stay alert – watch your neighbours.”
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WHEN THEY CRY “PEACE! PEACE!”
A United Nations colonel confidently announces: “Negotiations have replaced conflict in Africa” and officials drink toasts to “Peace!” in front of a huge banner declaring: “PEACE, LOVE and BROTHERHOOD – UNIMAR 1994” Meanwhile, radio RTLM hisses “a message to our president – Beware! Do not trust the Tutsi rebels...”

Paul Rusesabagina is well connected moving easily from a corrupt Hutu businessman who keeps the hotel well supplied with anything – for a price – to the UN colonel and a general of the Rwandan Army. In his office the businessman urges Paul to show some interest in politics because “Politics are power! Hutu power.” Paul sees a container full of machetes in the warehouse.

When a mob of Hutu MRND government supporters dance past the hotel combi they threaten the driver who they recognise as a Tutsi. Paul gives the clenched fist salute and utters their “Hutu power!” slogan to escape from the volatile mob.

When his neighbour is arrested and beaten by the army in the middle of the night, his wife urges him to intervene, to “do something” to help him. Paul insists that there’s nothing he can do: “Someone who didn’t like him, denounced him as a rebel spy – it happens all the time…He is not family. Family is all that matters.”

As fear begins to rise people are reassured: “The United Nations are here. The world press are watching. Don’t worry.”

STRATEGIC TIMING
Actually there were only two foreign journalists in Rwanda at that time and the Hutu government had planned the genocide to co-incide with the much awaited first “one man, one vote”, all race elections in South Africa. With virtually every foreign African journalist, war correspondent and photo journalist in South Africa to focus on Nelson Mandela’s anticipated accession to power, the MRND government of Rwanda knew that they had a window of opportunity when they could kill as many Tutsi Christians as possible without the world media being able to report it, nor any Western government being willing to respond to it. (For some reason the film does not mention this strategic timing of the genocide. The statement in the film: “lots of foreign press are arriving for the peace signing…” is not accurate. There were only 2 journalists in the whole country).

A TIME OF MADNESS
As 6 April dawns the state orchestrated systematic slaughter of the Tutsi is unleashed. As part of the planned strategic deception the Hutu government created chaos, cut the phone lines, cut electricity and released disinformation: “Tutsi rebels have killed the President!” Actually, the Rwandan government had shot down the presidential jet with a French missile. This was the pretext for the long planned extermination of the Tutsi minority in Rwanda.

Tutsi neighbours flee to Paul’s home. Hutu soldiers arrive to kill them. Paul pleads for their lives and offers bribes to the Hutu officers for sparing his Tutsi wife and neighbours. On the way to the hotel they drive past burning tyres in the streets, scenes of massacres in front of suburban homes, Hutu roadblocks, people being herded out at gunpoint, scenes of looting, jubilant Hutus dancing in the streets and crawling condemned prisoners awaiting the final blow.

At the Hotel Milles Collines, one of the Hutu employees has checked himself into the Presidential Suite and threatened to use his political connections if Paul tries to interfere with his hedonistic indulgence: “There is the smell of cockroaches here…why can’t you smell them…I can cleanse it!”

PARALYSED PEACE KEEPERS
A British Red Cross worker arrives at the hotel with Tutsi children from the St. Francis orphanage. Paul takes them in. The Canadian Colonel with the UN is being interviewed by a journalist: 
”We are here as peacekeepers – not peacemakers. We are ordered not to intervene.”

After the Belgian manager was evacuated, Paul faces the frustrations of trying to motivate the hotel staff to work. When he finds them standing idly in the kitchen engrossed in listening to the hateful propaganda of Radio RTLM, Paul demands: “Turn the radio off and get back to work!” The response of one cook is: “There’s no more work! The boss has left!”

One of the journalists rushes in with the video footage of massacres by machete. Paul encourages them to have the film evidence broadcast: “How can they not intervene when they see such footage?”

A mob of frenzied Hutu Interahambwe militia drive up to the hotel gates and taunt the UN soldiers on duty by throwing a bloodstained blue UN helmet at the their feet. Several in the mob are wearing bloodstained UN uniforms and helmets and they lift up pieces of flesh on sticks. This scene referred to the massacre of 10 Belgian UN soldiers who had been trying to escort the Prime Minister, a Tutsi woman, to safety.

Amidst such scenes and sounds of savagery, Paul attempts to protect the growing number of Tutsi refugees seeking sanctuary at the Hotel. He strives to maintain the dignity and 4 star standards of the hotel, creating an oasis of safety in a wilderness of mass murder. He hopes for a speedy international intervention to stop the slaughter and provide safety for his “hotel guests”.

FALSE HOPE
As jeeps laden with UN troops drive up to the hotel the refugees are ecstatic: “We’re saved!” Then the exasperated UN Colonel has to break the news to Paul: “They’re not going to stay. They’re not going to stop the slaughter.” UN troops declare: “No Rwandans – only foreign nationals” as they check passports before hotel guests can board the buses. The Rwandans are devastated: “We’re being abandoned!”

It is at this point that the film digresses from the truth and very offensively depicts the UN failure to intervene and stop the genocide as racially motivated. The clearly angry and overwhelmed Canadian colonel is portrayed as saying that it’s because “You’re black…You’re an African” that the West would not intervene. But that is plainly not true. Just the year before, in 1993, US troops and later UN troops had intervened to save Black Muslims in Somalia.

CHRISTIANS CONDEMNED
The head of the UN peace keeping operations, at that time, was Kofi Annan – a Black man from Ghana. It is quite irresponsible and untrue to suggest that the Western superpowers do not care about black Africans. What would have been more honest and accurate would be if the film had pointed out that the UN was not going to stop the slaughter because the Tutsis were Christians.
As I heard all over the country when I was doing research for my “Holocaust in Rwanda” book – the West is quick to intervene to help Muslims – but not Christians. They’ll help Muslims in Bosnia, Muslims in Kuwait, Muslims in Somalia – but not Christians in Rwanda or Sudan. “It’s not that the UN is against Africans, they’re just against Christians!”

WITHOUT A PRAYER
This is a glaring weakness of what should otherwise have been a good film. Hotel Rwanda completely lacks a spiritual dimension. They accurately depict some of what happened but the film fails to inform its viewers as to who was being targeted and why. It is an insult to our intelligence to suggest that 1200 Tutsi refugees could have sought sanctuary in the middle of a genocide without any prayer, worship services, hymn singing or any other expressions of faith or turning to God! One also wonders why the Marxist and Animist motivations of the Hutu perpetrators of the genocide are not identified. Most Tutsis were killed in the churches, schools and hospitals where they had fled to for sanctuary.

CENSORING HISTORY
Why do Hollywood directors and scriptwriters feel they have to censor history and distort reality by cutting God and vibrant Christian faith even from the most desperate situations? Do they really think everyone in Africa is as secular and godless as their pagans in Sunset Boulevard? Or are they trying to conform the world to their atheistic ideals?

DISARMING THE VICTIMS
The United Nations also comes off quite lightly in this film without reference to the Tutsi refugees in their custody whom UN troops handed over or abandoned to the mass murderers. Nor was the role of the UN in helping to disarm the population in the months preceding the genocide referred to. The role of gun control in enabling the genocide doesn’t get a mention in this film but the fact is thatRwanda was a gun free zone.Genocidal governments, like criminals, prefer unarmed victims (For the full story of the roles of gun control, media manipulation, liberal church leaders and the United Nations obtain the book: “Holocaust in Rwanda”).

THE FRENCH CONNECTION
However, the film is well worth watching. Based as it is on the remarkable true story of one man’s courage and ingenuity to save lives in the middle of a holocaust, it offers many invaluable insights. Such as the scene where the Hutu Army arrives to drag all the Tutsis out of the hotel. Paul phones the owner of the hotel chain in Belgium. “Who can I call to stop this?” he asked. Paul answers: “The French, they’re the ones arming and supplying the army.” Within minutes the Hutu general receives a radio call to leave the hotel alone.

“Who did you call?” asks the incredulous Hutu general as he orders his men to stop and withdraw. The hotel owner phoned Paul later and tells him that he personally spoke to the French President.
The film does not expand on this extraordinary influence of the French government with the architects of the genocide but as “Holocaust in Rwanda” documents the French sent in an expeditionary force of paratroopers when the Tutsi resistance movement turned the tide and began to defeat the Hutu government. Unable to forestall defeat the French military secured a “safe zone”to which the Hutu could flee to escape justice at the hands of their victims. To this day Hutu architects of the genocide are residing under government protection in France.

CALCULATED CARNAGE
Paul is told by his businessman contact: “Soon all the Tutsis will be dead!” Paul is astounded and challenges him: “You don’t honestly believe you can kill all the Tutsis?” The man responds confidently:“And why not? We are half way there already.”

Paul sees burning homes, and an overturned Red Cross ambulance, he hears gun shots at night and sees tracer in the distance over the city. He hears that 500,000 have died already. He urges his hotel guests “There will be no rescue, no intervention. You must phone anyone you know overseas…you must shame them to action.”

VERBAL GYMNASTICS
He hears US President, Bill Clinton’s press secretary doing verbal gymnastics over the radio: “Acts of genocide have taken place…but it is not genocide…it does not meet our criteria for a genocide…”

Meanwhile the RTLM radio keeps whipping up hate against the Tutsi Christians: “Those Hutus who shelter Tutsi cockroaches are the same as cockroaches…the graves are not yet full…gather up your weapons…”

A RACE AGAINST TIME
As all water supplies are cut the hotel staff and guests are forced to start using the water from the swimming pool for drinking, cooking and washing needs.

The crisis races ahead at a fever pitch as supplies run low, Paul runs out of cash and items to bribe off the Hutu army and fighting in the streets with the Tutsi resistance from neighbouring Uganda comes closer.

You need to see this film. It offers a rare glimpse behind the scene of one of the most courageous and effective rescue operations in the midst of one of the worst genocides in recent history. Despite the desperate backdrop the film is ultimately uplifting, inspiring and heart-warming. If you view this film in conjunction with reading “Holocaust in Rwanda” which gives the essential background and the rest of the story – then you will receive a tremendous education and insight into the dynamics behind the worst slaughter in Africa in recent years – and how one person can make a great difference.

“If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength! Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.” Proverbs 24:10-11

Since this film, others have been made, including: Shake Hands With the Devil and Beyond the Gates. Both of these films are based on true stories and were filmed in Rwanda at the sites where the genocide took place. Both are recommended to understand some of what happened in Rwanda in 1994 under the protection of the United Nations.

I trust that one day we will also have similar films made on the incredible Christian courage against all odds in the Killing Fields of Mozambique and Angola, The Nuba Mountains of Sudan, Resisting Sharia in Nigeria and Christian Courage amidst Communist Carnage in Zimbabwe. We know there is a market for true films on Africa, but are there film producers and directors with the courage to tell these stories accurately on the big screen? Let us pray and work for that day.

Dr. Peter Hammond

P O Box 74 
Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
E-Mail:  admin@frontline.org.za

​Africa is the poorest continent on earth, and the only continent that has actually grown poorer over the last thirty years. Most Africans do not even own the land they cultivate. In many countries in Africa the state owns all the land. Even where private leases of the land are allowed, there is often a time limit where after that the land reverts back to the state. Some economists have pointed out that the value of the "dead capital" in Africa, that is the property which cannot be capitalised because of lack of a title deed, is roughly forty times the foreign aid received worldwide since 1945. Corrupt predatory regimes and socialist economics have impoverished Africa and crippled its progress. Life expectancy in Africa has plummeted over the last decades. The holocaust in Rwanda, which occurred ten years ago, is a graphic illustration of some of the consequences of inadequate discipleship.
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Frontline Fellowship continues to receive enthusiastic responses, to ourBiblical Principles for Africa book. Even the Presidents of Malawi and Zambia have written to us expressing their appreciation for Biblical Principles for Africa. Both the Zambian and Malawian Parliaments have requested quantities of Biblical Principles for Africa to be distributed to their members.

Others encouraged us to go even deeper by giving the Biblical principles for individuals - a Discipleship Handbook.

In so many different ways, and from some very unexpected sources, the Lord confirmed that this was a project that we should put heart and soul into. As discipleship training has been a priority through most of Frontline Fellowship's 22 years, there was no shortage of material. Some chapters have been refined and developed many times over the years, others were crafted from scratch. The problem was knowing what to leave out! We wanted to limit the book to 150 pages and pack it full of great insights, practical instruction and Biblical inspiration - to enable us to love God more wholeheartedly, to serve Him more effectively, to obey Him more consistently, to worship Him more acceptably.

The Discipleship Handbook is my third discipleship book in the series which began with Faith In Action in 1989 and Putting Feet To Your Faithin 1998. The Discipleship Handbook deals with the most important issues possible. There is no one more important than God and nothing more important than our relationship to God. This is what really, ultimately matters - that we know God, and that we make Him known.

"Only one life, it will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last." 
C. T. Studd

We need to work out our priorities in the light of eternity. When Jesus was asked what the greatest Commandment was, He replied: "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength…you shall love your neighbour as yourself." Mark 12:30-31

Our greatest priority is to love God above all else and more than anyone else. We need to get to know the Word of God and the God of the Word.

"Teach us, good Lord, to serve You as You deserve: 
to give and not to count the cost, 
to fight and not to heed the wounds, 
to toil and not to ask for rest, 
to labour and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do Your will." 

True love is measured by sacrifice. 

This is what really matters. To know God and to make Him known. To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbour as ourself. To go and make disciples of all nations, teaching obedience to all things the Lord has commanded.

Revivals are not churches filled with people, but people filled with God. 

A Christian is a free man, set free to serve Christ. A Christian is an athlete, in training for a godly life. Rid yourself from all unnecessary weight, free yourself of all known sin, throw aside every encumbrance and run with determination and endurance. Obey the rules, run to win, run straight, harden your body, control your movements. Run your best, run the full distance. 

A Christian is a soldier. We have a spiritual enemy to fight, we have a spiritual war to win. We have spiritual weapons that are powerful to the destroying of strongholds. Therefore be disciplined, be prepared, be alert, use the sword of the Spirit, fight evil, resist the devil, attack the strongholds, set the prisoners free. Win the victory in Jesus' Name. "We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:37

A Christian is a worker. As workers for the Lord we ought to do our best, wholeheartedly. A Christian is a farmer, sowing the seed of the Gospel. "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." Matt 9:37

As these Biblical illustrations show, any definition of a Christian must include: action, devotion, dedication, persistence, sacrifice and service.

"Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?" Ps. 85:6

No one is more important than God, and nothing is more important than our relationship with Him. We should schedule time with God in our diary. We should switch our cellphones off in church, during devotions and in prayer meetings. We need to build the Bible into our daily routine: The Bible before breakfast. Read a Psalm before lunch or Scripture before supper. Plan to read through the whole Bible in one year (By reading just 4 chapters a day you can complete the whole Bible in just one year).

Attend the Bible study and prayer meetings of your church. Make Sundays special. Receive evangelistic training. Volunteer some of your time to help your local church or mission.

For those who say that they do not have time for these Steps to Personal Revival, here is another suggestion: Disconnect your TV and stop reading the daily newspapers. That will provide most people with a couple of extra hours every day! What is your priority?

The centre of the Christian Gospel is the cross, and the salvation that God wrought on the cross is the greatest act in all the history of mankind. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself."

He became like us 
- that we might become like Him.
He was rejected 
- that we might be accepted.
He was condemned 
- that we might be forgiven.
He was punished 
- that we might be pardoned.
He suffered 
- that we might be strengthened.
He was whipped 
- that we might be healed.
He was hated 
- that we might be loved.
He was crucified 
- that we might be justified.
He was tortured 
- that we might be comforted.
He died 
- that we might live.
He went to hell 
- that we might go to heaven.
He endured what we deserve 
- that we might enjoy what only He deserves.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." There are 278 references to fearing God in the Bible. The fear of God is mentioned more times than any other aspect of devotion. We should fear God because of who He is: our Creator, Sovereign Lord and Eternal Judge. 

"To fear the Lord is to hate evil". Prov 8:13

We need to know God and to make Him known. 

"All Scripture is God breathed." Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus is God in human form.

The disciple of Christ must learn and experience what it means to be filled with the Spirit; be led by the Holy Spirit; walk in the Spirit; pray in the Spirit.

The Word of God warns us to not grieve the Holy Spirit; to not quench the Holy Spirit. "The Spirit has given us life; He must also control our lives." Gal 5:25

"If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching…" The Ten Commandments teach us respect for God, respect for people and respect for property. The Ten Commandments cover our responsibility to God, to our parents and to other people. The Ten Commandments are foundational to all of life. 

The Bible teaches that "sin is lawlessness." 1 John 3:4

"The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Psalm 19:7

"If you love Me, you will obey what I command." John 14:15

What is wrong with our world? Sin. Mankind is in rebellion to God. Instead of offering a weak, diluted, man-centred message of "believe and receive", we need to faithfully proclaim a Christ centred, Bible based and Holy Spirit message of "repentance and obedience." Rather than only making converts we need to "make disciples…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

Discipleship is not complete until the disciple is discipling.

"Jesus said 'If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.' " Matt. 16:24

Give up your small ambitions - and follow Jesus. 

The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you.

Forgiveness of sin is not a substitute for restitution. Forgiveness does not transfer property rights to the thief. Repentance from sin and restitution are inseparable. Do a thorough job of repentance and restitution. 

"The discerning heart seeks knowledge." Successful people read. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. A person's character is to a large extent developed by the books he reads. Readers make leaders. Invest in renewing your mind. Buy Christian books.

"The Bible is worth more than all the other books which have ever been printed." The truly wise man is he who always believes the Bible against the opinion of any man.

The Bible is the number one best selling book in all of history. The Bible has inspired the greatest literature, the greatest art, the greatest examples of architecture, charity and self sacrifice in history.

"Whatever there is in civilisation that is worthwhile rests on the Bible's precepts."

Prayer is to the soul what breathing is to the body. If you are too busy to pray then you are busier than God wants you to be. Nothing is beyond the reach of prayer - except that which is beyond the will of God. So the Discipleship Handbook goes to the Puritans to learn how to balance head and heart, doctrine and devotion, for a dynamic prayer life.

"If you remain in Me, and My Word remains in you, ask whatever you will and it will be given you." John 15:7

If God can change you, then God can use you to change some part of this world. Until we know the Word of God, we can be easily misled. Truth is not determined by majority opinion, but by the Word of God.

History has a goal. Time has meaning. Our calendars should reflect that. If something is important then we need to work it into our calendar. 

All animals belong to God. Jesus is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Jesus is "the Lion of the tribe of Judah." We are answerable to God for our treatment, care and protection of animals. "A good man is kind to his animals, but the wicked are cruel to theirs." Proverbs 12:10

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless." Proverbs 31:8

"I will set before my eyes no vile thing…" The average child watches over 2000 hours of TV every year. Violence in the media fuels violence in society. 

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for a good man to do nothing."

We need to redeem the media by supporting good films and refusing to support the bad. Redeem the time. Clean the screen. Know before you go.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is His good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1,2

The Discipleship Handbook includes incisive guidelines on how to select and evaluate films and videos.

Adversity builds character. Everything is a test of character. Extreme situations expose and bring out the best, or the worst, in people. A person's character is accurately measured by his reaction to unfairness or bad treatment. Guidelines on responding to criticism and conflict resolution are also part of the book.

"You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3
Missions require suffering and sacrifice. "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." 2 Timothy 3:12

We seldom consider our personal suffering or world events in the light of eternity. Wherever there is danger - there are unique opportunities for serving God. God's army often advances on its knees in prayer and on its back in pain.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. If you aim at nothing any road will get you there. In the light of eternity - what are my priorities? The Discipleship Handbook includes worksheets and questionnaires to help organise your priorities and your time.

Where God guides, He provides. Time is life - squander time, and you squander life. Don't settle for less than God's best.

Let us lay solid foundations and let our spiritual roots go deep into God's Word for a fruitful life of discipleship.

This article includes excerpts from the new Discipleship Handbook by Peter Hammond.

Frontline Fellowship 
P O Box 74 
Newlands 7725 
Cape Town 
South Africa 
admin@frontline.org.za

2005 Volume 1

The new Firearm Control Act (FCA) has been described as taking away the right to self-defence, infringing on property rights, rights of privacy, and other infringements of constitutional rights.  Under the Firearm Control Act a firearm owner can be presumed guilty until he proves himself innocent.  The FCA provides for search and seizure without a warrant, and extraordinary penalties for otherwise law-abiding citizens who may have infringed on the excessive demands of the FCA. 

Is self-defense a right or a privilege?  The present South African government seems to think that self-defense is a privilege for the few, not a right of all. ​

​MURDER SPREE
The Firearm Control Act concentrates on disarming the potential victims of crime, rather than on dealing with the criminals.  There are an average of 2.5 million crimes reported in South Africa every year.  Over the last ten years a quarter of a million South Africans have been murdered.  This  includes 1600 farmers who have been murdered in over 8000 farm attacks.  There has been an average of 77 farm attacks per month, and a farmer has been murdered, on average, once every second day for ten years.  The murder rate in South Africa is eight times higher than the international average. 
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However, instead of restoring the death penalty deterrent, the ANC government has concentrated rather on seeking to dismantle the Commandos.  The 180 Commando units with their over 50 000 part-time soldiers, carry out thousands of operations every year, many in support of border control, and protection of farms.  The Commando system goes back to 1715.  With the removal of the Commando units farmers will be even more vulnerable than ever before. 

FAILURE OF JUSTICE
It is evident that the justice system in South Africa is failing.  With only 430 arrests for every 1000 crimes reported, and only 77 convictions for every 1000 crimes committed, and with less than 8 of these being sentenced to two or more years of imprisonment, it is clear that most criminals in South Africa are getting away with murder.  With reports that South African convicts have a 94% recidivism rate (that is, 94% of all persons released after serving a sentence immediately become involved in crime again) it is apparent that our justice system is failing to rehabilitate convicts, or to provide a deterrent to repeat offenders.  Soft judges make hardened criminals. 

DISARMING THE VICTIMS
Yet, in the light of this endemic crime, the ANC government is pressing ahead with an unworkable Firearm Control Act, which is designed to massively reduce the amount of firearms in private hands.  Effectively this means reducing the number of licensed firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens.  Disarming the potential victims of crime is easier than going after the crime syndicates.

ILLOGICAL AND UNETHICAL
Considering the fact that there are an estimated 9 million illegal firearms in South Africa, more than double the amount of registered, legal firearms, it would appear both illogical and unethical to focus on disarming the registered firearm owners, who by definition are law abiding.  Even the Minister of Safety and Security himself has testified in Parliament that the percentage of crimes committed by legal firearm owners is “statistically insignificant.”  So, considering that legal firearm owners are not the problem, why should the government be focusing so much attention and expense on disarming the potential victims through more rigid firearm control laws, rather than re-instating the death penalty as a deterrent for violent crime? (Just as the Forestry Department spends so much time in deforestation - chopping down “alien” trees - instead of planting forests!)

It is an undeniable fact that criminals prefer unarmed victims.  Armed citizens save lives, but unarmed citizens too often just become helpless victims. 

CAUSES OF CRIME
Alcohol abuse has been found to go hand in hand with South Africa’s new culture of violence.  Most homicide victims have been found to have high concentrations of alcohol in their blood.  Most murders have tended to be committed in summer, on Friday and Saturday nights and in and around taverns, bars and shebeens.  Most suspects arrested for murder and rape have been found to have used drugs or alcohol immediately prior to the crime. Yet, rather than clamping down on alcohol and drug abuse, the government would prefer to blame a cold metal inanimate object for the crime rate.

MANUALS FOR RAPE
A South African Police Service report noted that“in 1996 the Films and Publication Act was passed legalising pornography for the first time in the history of the country.  This made it possible for child abusers, rapists and paedophiles to obtain all the material they needed.  Statistics tell the story as South African Police Service records show that child rape increased…over 400%.” The police report further stated that:  “Research with child sexual offenders reveals that all have used child pornography.”  Pornography is the theory, rape is the practice.  

The National Institute for Crime Prevention (NICRO) has estimated that there are approximately 380,000 rape cases in South Africa every year.  Yet, as the rape rate just soared, the conviction rate of rapists has plummeted.  Less than 7% of reported rapists are ever convicted! 

Yet, instead of clamping down on pornography, the government would prefer to wage war on legal firearm owners.

FUELING CRIME
The legalisation of gambling in South Africa has also fueled the crime rate.  Numerous investigations and commissions have documented that:  “With legalised gambling comes an increase in bribery, fraud, extortion and bankruptcy of both businesses and individuals.  The twin principle goals of legislation, namely revenue raising and crime control are incompatible…There is also an increase in bankruptcy, alcoholism, child and wife abuse and other crimes which accompany gambling.  This requires more police, more jails, more social workers, lawyers, judges, court cases, public prosecutors, public defence attorneys, etc…gambling is destructive to society!” (Make A Difference) Crippling debts, family break-ups, divorce, theft from companies in order to fund gambling habits and suicides proliferate with casinos, lotteries and other gambling.

Yet instead of evaluating the role of gambling in fueling the crime rate, the government would prefer to pretend that firearms in the hands of responsible citizens are the main problem.

VIOLENT VIDEOS
Over 3000 psychiatric, psychological, medical, paediatric and sociological studies have researched the effects of mass media on behaviour.  The influence of violent films and TV programmes on violent behaviour is now so thoroughly documented as to be irrefutable (Media-Wise Family). 

Yet instead of clamping down on violent films and ultra violent computer games, the government would prefer to pretend that it’s not the steady diet of violent “how to be a criminal” films that fuels the crime epidemic in South Africa, but these cold, inanimate, metal tools we call firearms.  It is a bad workman who blames his tools, and it is foolish to blame the evil that men choose to do upon any tool. 

​Central to the MRND strategy was to sow confusion so that no one would know what was happening. They isolated their victims by imposing a news blackout, cutting telephone links, establishing a dense network of roadblocks and imposing a nation wide curfew. These measures kept people in their homes and prevented most people from fleeing. By cutting communications and restricting travel, they isolated their victims and sought to stifle the flow of news.
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Following the assassination of the president, by surface to air missile, the MRND government launched a campaign of disinformation. It portrayed the killings as a spontaneous outbreak of tribal violence. It sought to confuse the mass killing of defenceless people with "the war", and it played the humanitarian card by pleading for emergency aid. All this was a smoke screen to conceal the state sponsored genocide. Amidst this calculated confusion, many foreign aid workers assisted in the disinformation campaign by contributing ill informed comments such as: "Everyone is killing everyone!"; "It's uncontrollable violence"; "The Hutus and Tutsis are killing one another again!"

Having killed opposition politicians, Rwandese journalists, human rights activists and others who might present an accurate report on the cold-blooded campaign of mass murder, the MRND campaign continued their strategy of disinformation by portraying the violence as spontaneous rage in response to the assassination of the president.

Initially, international attention generally focused on the plight of foreigners. Camera crews were, understandably, only prepared to travel with international troops - whose mission was to evacuate foreigners. This naturally led to a slanted and incomplete picture being portrayed to the world. The murder of ten Belgian soldiers on 7 April only heightened this pre-occupation with the evacuation of foreigners. It is very probable that the killers were instructed to murder the Belgians precisely in order to make the evacuation of foreigners the international priority. It also further encouraged the withdraw of UMAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission to Rwanda).

This strategy of disinformation and terror was spectacularly successful. To this day, most people worldwide do not understand what happened in Rwanda or why it happened. That is why after my mission to Rwanda I was compelled to produce a compact book that would not only expose what had happened in the horrific massacres in homes, hospitals, churches and on the streets, but the reasons why this systematic slaughter was unleashed. Holocaust In Rwanda reveals the events leading up to the intense and widespread violence, and more importantly the lessons we need to learn from the genocide in Rwanda.

President Paul Kagame at the formal commemoration of the Rwandan genocide ten years ago condemned "the international community's failure…a convenient failure to take responsibility." President Kagame lead conference participants on a tour of massacre sites including the churches in Nyamata and Ntarama where 15000 people were slaughtered in the sanctuaries where they had sought refuge.

The cemetery at Nynaza was another place visited. The cemetery contains the graves of 3500 people who were massacred after being abandoned in a schoolyard by UN peacekeepers.

The Holocaust In Rwanda book is unique in that it examines the disgraceful involvement of liberal church leaders, gun control and media manipulation. Rwanda was a gun free zone. The mass murderers successfully manipulated and abused the media to vilify the targeted Tutsis, and to mobilise masses of Hutus to kill their neighbours. The scandalous role of the French government in providing assistance, training and weapons to the mass murderers, and even the French military expedition to create a safe zone for the fleeing Hutu mass murderers, providing sanctuary even for many of the architects of the genocide is also revealed in this book.

In addition Holocaust In Rwanda looks at the challenge the Rwandan holocaust presents to the Christian church. The killers did not merely kill people in churches, they killed church workers - pastors, ministers, priests and nuns. However, the most shocking aspect of the anti-Christian mass murders was how many people responsible for the slaughter were trusted members of the congregations. On many occasions even priests, nuns and ministers were directly involved in the genocide! Several heads of denominations co-operated with the Interahamwe by betraying their Tutsi congregations and co-workers into the hands of mass murderers.

The role of these Christian traitors, bloodstained bishops and murderous ministers of Rwanda are an indictment upon our theological seminaries and church councils. Those who do not wholeheartedly love the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word are not qualified to be spiritual leaders. The Rwandan Holocaust exposes the emptiness of the superficial and self centred easy believism, which all too often masquerades as the Gospel. Compromise and cowardice helped cause the catastrophe. Most importantly, Holocaust In Rwanda looks at some of the lessons, which need to be learned in order to ensure that such atrocities do not reoccur. Far more important than the concerns for retribution is the urgent need to lay foundations for the future that will prevent such nationwide oppression from ever occurring again. These are Biblical principles which are not only important for Rwanda but for every society which values life and liberty. Holocaust In Rwanda concludes with the Biblical principles which, had they been adhered to, there would have been no holocaust in Rwanda.

Holocaust In Rwanda is available in both English and French (70 pages with 20 photographs, maps or charts)

Dr Peter Hammond

Frontline Fellowship
P O Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town, South Africa
E-mail: admin@frontline.org.za

​On the weekend of April 22-24, Hutu soldiers attacked the hospital in Butare. Dr Ronny Zacharias of Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF) reported that about 300 Tutsi patients were wrenched out of their beds and systematically executed in a nearby field. "A state of complete anarchy prevails. This is genocide," he said. MSF has since withdrawn their staff from Southern Rwanda: "All the patients at the hospital were butchered and all our local staff."

In Kigali, 11 nuns and 8 priests were hacked to death in their mission station. A Red Cross ambulance was stopped at a military checkpoint in Kigali and six wounded Tutsi patients were dragged out and bayoneted or shot to death. The International Red Cross announced that 30 of their Rwandan Red Cross workers had been murdered and they were now suspending operations in Rwanda.
Up to 500,000 people - mostly Tutsi tribesmen - have been massacred in the two months since the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda were blown up in a rocket attack on their aircraft on 6th April. It was the first incident in recent history when the presidents of two nations were assassinated together.

Diplomats reported that heavy firing was heard just before the presidential aircraft crashed and burned near Kigali airport. At least one rocket hit the aircraft. There were no survivors. Presidents Cyrien Ntaryamira of Burundi and Javénal Habyarimana of Rwanda were both members of the majority Hutu tribe. Yet, while the military blamed the minority Tutsi tribe for the assassinations, the Belgium military team in Kigali has concluded that it was the Hutu dominated Rwandan Army which rocketed the aircraft.

The Hutu Presidential Guard were angered at the plans to include Tutsis in the government. President Habyarimana had seized power in Rwanda through a military coup in 1973. In 1990 refugee members of the long suffering Tutsi minority launched an invasion of Rwanda from Uganda. The military gains of the (Tutsi) Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) forced President Habyarimana to incorporate Tutsis in the government and to promise elections for a new government and parliament to end the 4 year civil war.

President Ntaryamira had been installed as head of state of Burundi after the first Hutu president Melchior Ndadaye was assassinated by troops from the Tutsi dominated Army of Burundi. Between 50,000 and 100,000 Tutsi's were massacred in revenge after that failed coup attempt in Burundi. Burundi has now had 6 violent changes of government since independence in 1962.

For hundreds of years the tall, better educated Tutsi cattle farmers ruled Burundi and Rwanda. Although the Hutu peasants were far more numerous they lived in harmony with their Tutsi rulers until 1959. Waves of revolutionary teachings then whipped up the Hutu's into resentment and rebellion. Tens of thousands of Tutsi's were massacred in a frenzy of tribal hatred. The Tutsi constitutional monarchies in Burundi and Rwanda were replaced by a series of military dictatorships after Belgian colonial rule was withdrawn in 1962.

In Burundi the Tutsi made up 15% and the Hutu 80% of the total population of 6 million. The small number of Pygmies are despised and mistreated by both Hutus and Tutsis. 75% of the inhabitants of Burundi are Roman Catholic and 16% are Protestant. Muslims make up 1% in both Burundi and Rwanda. With lavish financial support from Libya the Muslim community is growing.

In Rwanda the Tutsi made up 10% and the Hutu 87% of the total population of 8 million. 50% of the inhabitants are Roman Catholic and 30% Protestant.

From the 1930's through the 1950's Rwanda and Burundi were swept by a remarkable spiritual revival. Tragically that spiritual fervour was lost by the subsequent generations of compromise. In Burundi, persecution by the Libyan backed regime during the 1980's led to a renewal of spiritual devotion in some churches. The recent carnage, however, confirms the catastrophic results of spiritual complacency and compromise with witchcraft and marxism.

The Akanyaru river which divides the countries of Rwanda and Burundi has traditionally marked the sanctuary line for refugees fleeing the opposite tribe's rule. This year the river is running red with blood and it is choked with thousands of human corpses.

One relief worker described the mind numbing sight: "First came the corpses of the men and elder boys, killed trying to defend their sisters and mothers. Then came the women and girls, flushed out from their hiding places and slaughtered. Last came the babies."

Within a month, more Tutsis had been slaughtered in Rwanda than the total combined death toll from ex-Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia and Somalia over the last 4 years. Even before the conflict began Rwanda and Burundi were among the world's poorest countries. Now these Central African republics are spiralling into the pattern of Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. In a single 24 hour period a quarter of a million Rwandans had fled across the border into Tanzania. A total of 2 million have fled their homes since April 6.

Western missionaries and relief workers who have been evacuated from the chaos have testified of the stunning savagery. Marauding bands of Hutu men armed with whistles, machetes and machine guns prowl the streets hunting for Tutsis. When they spot some suspect, the whistles are blown and the murderous mobs converge on the victim. These death squads are known as the "interahamwe" (those who attack as one).

Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, has become a ghetto for genocide. Thousands of severed heads and limbs litter the streets. No matter how many bodies the relief workers removed, many more decaying corpses filled the streets. Endless rows of mutilated bodies lay in pools of blood.

One American school teacher, Theresa Scimeni, recalled the tribal terror before she and her family were rescued. "We heard each of the houses near us attacked in turn. There would be firing, screams then silence. Then a few minutes later the men would move to the next house, and it would start all over again - and again."

Belgium, France, Italy and the USA flew in military rescue teams to evacuate the foreign nationals. In the process 10 Belgian soldiers were murdered. The Belgians were attempting to escort the Tutsi Prime Minister. When they were stopped by a Rwandan army patrol on April 6 they were requested to hand over their weapons. Unbelievably, the Belgians complied. They were then tortured and mutilated. The Hutu soldiers used machetes to chop up the Belgians starting with their feet and hands.

Belgian UN peacekeepers later said that they were disgusted with their mission in Rwanda. Many of them had witnessed massacres of civilians without being able to intervene because the UN rules of engagement allowed them to only fire in self defence.

Hutu soldiers and militiamen regularly arrived at the Kigali sports stadium where thousands of Tutsis were being kept under UN protection. Then they would haul away dozens of Tutsi professionals and intellectuals named on their lists. These Tutsis were then executed.

At another place 13 Red Cross workers and 21 Tutsi orphans were murdered. Several Hutu ministers have been buried alive for giving refuge to Tutsi refugees.

Remarkably, however, there has been no similar massacre of Hutus in Tutsi controlled areas. One UN peacekeeping official acknowledged that: "The Tutsi have shown remarkable restraint - there's been no ethnic cleansing in the Tutsi areas. They are not doing the kind of killing that the government is doing."

Understandably, however, the Tutsi forces of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched a desperate offensive to seize Kigali and protect Tutsis who have managed to survive. RPF rebels maintained a fierce mortar bombardment to weaken the Hutu dominated Rwandan army resolve to resist.

Despite strenuous Western diplomatic attempts to bring about a cease-fire and negotiations, the RPF has consistently refused to dialogue with "a clique of murderers". Some observers say that the best hope for Rwanda now seems to be the successful takeover of the country by the (Tutsi) rebels, who have vowed to stop the bloodshed. They have also pledged not to retaliate against the Hutus.

Meanwhile, nearly 2 million homeless Rwandans are living in overcrowded and unsanitary refugee camps. Malarial mosquitoes are swarming amongst those in the low lying areas. While those in the mountains have been drenched in the rainy season. The dry coughs of pneumonia and tuberculosis echo through those camps. Typhoid, dysentery and cholera threaten all the refugees.

Yet even in those camps, communities are showing surprising cohesion and a positive attitude. Church services are very well attended and an overwhelming sense of gratitude for being alive - for having escaped from the killing fields of Rwanda and survived - is evident.

Frontline Fellowship is wanting to send a mission team to serve the desperately needy Christians in Rwanda and Burundi. We already have several contacts and invitations to minister in Uganda and Sudan. Please pray with us. If you have relief aid or medicines which we could deliver to these people - please post them to us.

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18

Dr. Peter Hammond