Kibeho

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subdivision_name1 = South Province
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Kibeho is a small town in south Rwanda, famous for various reports of sightings of the Virgin Mary and Jesus between 1981 and 1989.

The Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ reportedly appeared to some teenagers in Kibeho in the 1980, as Our Lady of Kibeho. These visions were accompanied by intense reactions: crying, tremors, and comas. The local Roman Catholic Bishop in Rwanda (who however, has been accused of complicity in genocide) has approved these apparitions, but they have not been given final approval by the Holy Office. [ Our Lady of Kibeho [http://www.michaeljournal.org/kibeho.htm] ] [EWTN on Our Lady of Kibeho [http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/OLKIBEHO.HTM] ] On August 19, 1982, those who saw the visions reported gruesome sights (rivers of blood, sliced heads, etc.) which some today regard as an ominous foreshadowing of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, and particularly in that specific location in 1995.

After the 1994 genocide, Kibeho was the site of an internally displaced person (IDP) refugee camp, with many of the hutu refugees suspected of having participated in the genocide. The camp was the largest in Rwanda, spreading 9 square kilometers and containing between 80,000 and 100,000 people. cite web | url = http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/39/bravery.asp | title = Connor, John: Bravery Under Fire | work = Wartime, Issue 39 | publisher = Australian War Memorial. | accessdate = 2008-09-25] In mid - April 1995, elements of the Tutsi - led Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA), announced they would close the camp, with the aim of forcibly separating known Génocidaires from those who would be sent home. As the camp was closed, tensions mounted and RPA troops opened fire on some of the remaining refugees. Australian and Zambian troops of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) and staff from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) witnessed the massacre.

Many of these were killed in the same school in which the apparitions had occurred; one of the children who reported the vision was even one of the victims. The local bishop, accused by many of complicity in the genocide himself, recognized officially on June 29, 2001 three cases as authentic. The church "Notre-Dame des Douleurs" (Our Lady of Sorrows) was built in Kibeho, supported by Pallottines.

ee also

Kibeho Massacre

Notes

External links

* [http://www.apparitions.org/kibeho.html Article about Kibeho]
* http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/article_1869.asp?s=1
* [http://www.zenit.org/english/ 25th anniversary of apparitions to be celebrated]
* [http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/peacekeeping/anecdotes/kibeho.html Witness to Genocide -- A Personal Account of the 1995 Kibeho Massacre]
* [http://www.michaeljournal.org/kibeho.htm Apparitions approved by the Catholic Church]
* [http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/OLKIBEHO.HTM EWTN report of the Official Judgement of the Catholic Church on the Kibeho Apparitions]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2qDlOb72yM Video of the Kibeho apparitions]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfTtIl_MXaU Video 2 of the Kibeho apparitions]
* [http://www.maryshop.com/kibeho.html Documentary on Kibeho apparitions]