EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Survivor of the genocide in Rwanda and the bombings of the Goma refugee camps in ’94 – ’96, Christine Coleman speaks.
The dynamic of religious diplomacy initiated by the Congolese President, Félix Tshisekedi, and masterfully led by his Ambassador-at-Large Antoine Ghonda Mangalibi, is increasingly mobilizing American opinion around the cause of not only peace but also truth, justice, and reparations in the Great Lakes region. It also reveals the actors, and significant ones at that, in this struggle within the heart of the world’s greatest power. Among these actors, and thanks to this dynamic, Congo Guardian, until now the only Congolese newspaper introduced to and following these interactions, has discovered Christine Coleman, a significant personality in the apparatus of this struggle in the United States of America. A survivor of an exile marked by the tragic loss of two of her brothers during the massacres of Rwandan refugees in 1996, Reverend Christine Coleman has lived in the United States since 1997, where she continues her fight for truth and human dignity. President of the Rwandan Movement for Democracy (MRD), this pastor and human rights defender holds vivid memories of the dark hours endured by her community, but also of the unreserved hospitality of the Congolese people who, despite their own suffering, shared their homes, their land, and their bread with the refugees. In a testimony filled with resilience throughout this first part of the interview she granted us, she accuses the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) of being the engine of the violence that has bloodied the Great Lakes region for three decades. And her warning is blunt: as long as this militarized and expansionist system persists, no lasting peace is conceivable. The path to reconciliation, she states, requires justice, unity of the people, and the dismantling of the hegemonic ideology that fuels wars.
« AS LONG AS THE RPF SYSTEM REMAINS IN PLACE, THERE WILL NEVER BE LASTING PEACE IN THE GREAT LAKE »
Reverend Christine Coleman, would you introduce yourself to our readers and briefly tell your story? Click to read more
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