Because they were educated, Tutsi priests and pastors were among the first to be killed. More than a hundred died. MANY of the top Hutu religious leaders remained silent or encouraged the killing, according to African Rights, a human rights organization that has documented the genocide with thousand of interviews. Among those whose silence or vocal support helped the killers, it says, were the archbishops of the Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and Adventist churches. This is a hierarchical society.
Obedience is ingrained.
The leadership was very, very much among all the denominations on the side of the forces of genocide. For example, an Anglican bishop, a Hutu, awaiting trial in Tanzania, Samuel Musabyimana, is accused of turning 500 Tutsis who had sought refuge at his church over to militiamen. According to the United Nations indictment against him, he said he did not oppose the killing of Tutsis as long as it was not on church grounds. Farther down the clerical ladder, people went their own ways. The Rev. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka of the Sainte Famille Church in Kigali allowed Hutu militiamen access to his church to kill Tutsi hiding there, witnesses said.