Antonia Locatelli

The obelisk commemorating Antonie Locatelli in the Garden of the Righteous in Warsaw

Antonia Locatelli (16 November 1937–10 March 1992) was an Italian Roman Catholic missionary educator who had lived in Rwanda since the early 1970s.

In March 1992, she witnessed massacres of the Tutsis taking place in the Bugesera region, south of Kigali. In an attempt to save 300 to 400 Tutsis, she phoned up the Belgian embassy, French RFI Radio and the BBC.

"I know that the people who came to commit these murders came from outside. They were brought by government vehicles. Contrary to what is said, it is not a popular anger against the Tutsi, it is a deliberate movement of the government to commit political killings."

Antonia Locatelli in a telephone call to French station RFI, March 9, 1992

On the night between 9 and 10 March 1992, she was gunned down by a group of presidential guards who had arrived from Kigali specifically for the purpose.

Antonia Locatelli is buried in Nyamata, near a church in which, during the Rwandan genocide two years later, a thousand Tutsis were massacred.

Books

• P. Costa–L. Scalettari, La lista del console, published by Paoline, Milan, 2004, page 43.
• André Sibomana, J’accuse per il Rwanda, published by Gruppo Abele, Turin, 1998, pages 65 and 117.

External links

• Antonia Locatelli: Biography - Comune di Padova (Italian) (Google translation)
• Antonia Locatelli on Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide - Gariwo
• Ruanda, suora italiana uccisa mentre difendeva i suoi alunni (Italian nun killed while defending her pupils) - La Repubblica (1992) (Italian) (Google translation)