SANTORO: Why do you call this a political trial? MISAGO: In the five years since the genocide, no charges were ever brought against me, and you can see from the file against me that the first charges came two days after I was arrested. Why did they not bring charges against me sooner? I have never tried to flee.
You are accused of ignoring the pleas of schoolgirls who were killed shortly thereafter. I took as many as I could to the Protestant hospital of Kigeme and told our people of [the Roman Catholic relief group] Caritas to make sure they were fed. I later learned that the hospital had been attacked by the militia.
Why did you meet with [Prime Minister and genocide leader Jean] Kambanda? The meetings I attended were all public meetings, during which no one ever discussed killing anybody. They were mostly humanitarian meetings in which we discussed getting aid to the refugees. We couldn’t do this alone. We needed the support of the local authorities.
Weren’t they the ones carrying out the genocide? What else could I do? I didn’t have an army. I didn’t have the means to stop the evil. All I could do was try to work with the system, using all the means at my disposal.
So you don’t accept that there was a moral failure on your part or the church’s? Do you take me for Moses? I can’t perform miracles. We did not know there was a plan to commit genocide. If we had known, we would have denounced it.
What did you do to stop the killing? We appealed for peace, in three different letters. The pope himself launched an appeal. But we did not know that there would be a genocide.
How could you not have known? There were hate broadcasts on [radio and TV]. We condemned the broadcasts, but we were talking to people who did not want to listen. And we were cut off from the world.
Do you think it will be a long trial? Yes, because they’re after the church. I have become a pawn.
