ARCHBISHOP SPEAKS OUT AGAINST GENOCIDE
By: Matthew Cresswell
Religious Intelligence Ltd, UK
Oct 3 2007
THE Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Dr Rowan Williams, has
said that violence targeted against whole communities is ‘one of the
greatest disgraces of the twentieth century’.
Speaking during a ceremony this week at the Genocide Memorial at
Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan, during his visit to Armenia, he described
such atrocities as having scarred the international community.
He said: "This ceremony reminds us of one of the greatest disgraces of
the 20th century … the history of brutal massacres of whole peoples
on ethnic and religious grounds; the turning away of the rest of the
world and the denial of the suffering of the victims throughout the
20th century – this has been one of the most regular and terrible
features of international conflict."
During the ceremony, which included commemoration of the victims of
Darfur, Dr Williams said that the world needed to understand the past
and to face up to unpleasant realities of the present.
Pictured with the Archbishop is Catholicos Karekin II and Rabbi
Gersh Meir Burshtein, taken after the Archbishop planted a tree in
the Genocide Memorial garden.