Tito Rutaremara, Chairperson of Rwanda’s Advisory Council of Elders, has urged religious leaders to refrain from invoking God in discussions about the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, saying it was a human-planned crime committed and ultimately stopped by human action.
He made the remarks in a video shared on DAMK TV’s YouTube channel, during a discussion with religious leaders focused on genocide commemoration and the role of faith institutions.
Rutaremara argued that religious teachings prior to the genocide failed to adequately promote messages of love and unity, saying that stronger adherence to Christian values would have prevented believers from participating in the killings of their fellow citizens.
He also challenged narratives that attribute individual survival during the genocide to divine intervention, questioning what he described as selective protection narratives.
“I am tired of people bringing God into genocide,” Rutaremara said. “If one family is killed and another survives in the same area, what kind of God is being described?”
He further rejected interpretations that frame the end of the genocide as a divine act, stating instead that it was stopped by the Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) Inkotanyi.
“If God is all-powerful, why did He not stop the killings from the beginning?” he said, arguing that armed intervention, not divine intervention, brought the genocide to an end.
Rutaremara insisted that genocide must be understood strictly as a human-made crime. “It was planned by humans, executed by humans, and stopped by humans,” he said, calling for a separation between theological interpretation and historical accountability.
He urged religious institutions to focus on promoting peace, reconciliation, and unity, saying that genuine religious teachings should have prevented the ideology of hatred that led to the 1994 genocide.
His remarks echo similar positions previously expressed by officials in the Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement, including Dr. Jean Damascène Bizimana, who has also emphasized that the genocide was halted through military intervention rather than divine action.
