THE GARDEN OF THE RIGHTEOUS IN PADOVA/4

by David Monticelli

President Peace Culture!


English translation by Michela Moroni


After the opening, we moved to the upper part of the park, near to the bank, and the honour ceremonies began. The ceremony is divides into four phases:

1. a student of Padua schools reads on the microphone the reasons of the prize;
2. after reading the reasons, the Righteous (or one of his/her relatives) makes a speech to the presents;
3. afterwards, he/she unveils the stele in his/her honour;
4. and, at the end, the student and the Righteous plant the tree dedicated to him/her.

The first one who received the prize has been our Zura Karuhimbi who, during Rwanda genocide, heedless of the risks and the threats she was personally facing, hosted in her house many Ruandese people of the Tutsi ethnic group, feeding them and rescuing them from a certain death by the Interhamwe extremist troops. In front of a wide public, of photographers and cameramen and a touched Jacqueline Mukansonera, Zura has unveiled the stele in her honour, has planted her tree (an olive tree) and has talked to people, touching the heart of all presents.

(to be continued in the next episode)

THE GARDEN OF THE RIGHTEOUS IN PADOVA/3

by David Monticelli

President Peace Culture!
English translation by Michela Moroni

The iron wall divides the Garden into two parts: on the left, a plane portion, with metal sculptures and, on one end, some steps that bring to the Bacchiglione bank; on the right, a portion that gradually goes up to the same bank, along which the Righteous trees are planted.

2009 ceremony in honour of the Righteous has been opened on the steps, in the presence of the town gonfalon, by the town mayor, Mr. Flavio Zanonato and by Prof. Giuliano Pisani, in the presence of the Righteous and their relatives. Melodies echoed in the air, diffused by loudspeakers put in every corner of the park, by the Chorus of Treble Voices Cesare Pollini and by the Iris Ensemble Chorus, directed by Marina Malavasi, with the musical accompaniment of Alessandro Kirschner. Several medias were present: besides Beppe Grillo’s blog, there were RAI and the Turkish channel DHA.

THE GARDEN OF THE RIGHTEOUS IN PADOVA/1

by David Monticelli
President Peace Culture!

(English translation by Michela Moroni)

Dear friends,

last Sunday, October the 18th, myself, on behalf of the Association Peace Culture!, and Françoise Kankindi and Eric Wibabara (with their little son Alain) for the association Bene-Rwanda, we had the chance to participate to a very important and touching event, organized by the Garden of the Righteous Worldwide in Padua, a park created in 2008 in Padua, to honor people - the "Righteous" - who opposed themselves to genocides. (http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giardino_dei_Giusti_del_Mondo)
Among the Righteous who received the prize this year, there was Zura Karuhimbi (our candidate to the Peace Nobel Prize 2010, together with Yolande Mukagasana and Pierantonio Costa) and Jacqueline Mukansonera, the woman who saved Yolande during the genocide in 1994. It was this year the second edition.
Since Saturday afternoon, we've been hosted by Prof. Giuliano Pisani, responsible of the municipality of Padua for the Garden of the Righteous, who started thinking, in November 1999, that the Garden of the Righteous in Padua could become a reality and who saw his dream come true, 9 years later. Prof. Pisani put everyone at ease, with his warm welcome.
On Saturday evening, we had dinner at Pontecorvo Restaurant: along the big table were sitting many personalities (or their relatives) you can find in books of history, such as Misha Wagner, son of Armin Wagner, the German Righteous who denounced, by his photos, the genocide of Armenians at the beginning of the century; Gunter Burger, councellor for Foreign Affairs in Fribourg, Germany, who was there to receive the prize on behalf of the Righteous Gertrud Luckner, who helped many Jews to leave Germany during Nazism...
(to be continued in the next episode)

ZURA'S JOURNEY TO ITALY

Zura Karuhimbi is in Rome where she met Francoise Kankindi, president of Bene Rwanda (together in the picture).


Zura will spend the next few days in Padova where she will be awarded in the Garden of Righteous of Padova.
She will meet there Yolande Mukagasana.

2010 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE TO RWANDA'S RIGHTEOUS

Dear all,

This is an invitation to join and support the 2010 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE TO RWANDA'S RIGHTEOUS.In 1994, genocide took place against the Tutsis in Rwanda. While so many "obeyed to orders" and took part in the killings, some disobeyed and saved lives. Amongst them, we remember Captain Mbaye Diagne of Senegal, who saved hundreds of lives and was killed at a roadblock; Marc Vaiter of France, who refused to be evacuated and protected orphans, then died in 1995; an Italian volunteer Antonia Locatelli, who was killed in 1992 as she spoke out to denounce the organization of the genocide. But some are still alive: Zura Karuhimbi, an old Hutu lady who is today 84 and saved over 100 people in 1994; the Italian consul Pierantonio Costa, who evacuated the foreigners then came back to Rwanda to save over 2.000 lives; and Yolande Mukagasana, whose family was slaughtered, and who was saved by, and then saved, the Hutu lady Jacqueline Mukansonera, and then dedicated her life to upholding the memory of the genocide. We are setting up a group of volunteers to support the candidacy of Zura Karuhimbi, Pierantonio Costa and Yolande Mukagasana to the 2010 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE TO RWANDA'S RIGHTEOUS. The meaning of this initiative is to "give peace a chance" by showing that all of us have a choice, as even in the event of a genocide, every human being can choose to save and not to kill. We wish to oppose the "banality of good" to the "banality of evil". This must be proclaimed at the global level. Also, we wish that universal recognition be given once and for all to the genocide that took place in Rwanda, against genocide denial, revisionism and justification.