Rwanda Genocide and Memorial sites
After the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 , memorial sites have been built to commemorate those who lost their lives.Since many of them couldn’t be identified and were even devoured by wild animals,many were buried in mass graves with claims of many mass graves being dug by the victims before they were hacked to death.Memorial sites have been established where relatives and fellow country men go to honour their lost loved ones who died in the violence.
These memorial sites strecth from Kigali to the southern parts of Rwanda and have become a major tourist attraction.They are:
1.Gikondo Massaccre memorial site
Gikondo was a parish church for the Polish Pallottine misssion where a couple of UNAMIR officials had camped.On realising this,the Interahamwe militia aided by the Hutu presidential guard raided the Polish mission church and started checking the identity cards of those in the church,discerning the Hutu from the Tutsi.Armed with rifles,the Interahamwe wanted to shoot the discerned Tutsi but were advised not to waste their bullets because more militia were on their way.Shortly after,100 militia arrived and immediately started hacking their victims to death and these included women and children,present were a couple of UNAMIR officials in: Major Jerzy Mączka and Major Ryszard Chudy who tried make calls for help from the UNAMIR headquarters in vain.After the victims were hacked to death,their identity cards were collected and burnt,however,some identity cards were salvaged and used to identify some of the victims.In total,110 Tutsi were killed;this occurred on the 9th April 1994 and was the first clear evidence of genocide.Two people survived the carnage only to be burnt in a nearby private Pallottine chapel a couple of days later.
2. Gisozi genocide memorial site
Situated in Kigali in Gasabo district, the memorial is approximately 35kilometres away from the city centre of Kigali.Opened in April 2004 to mark the genocide’s 10th anniversary,here the remains of over 250.000 victims have been reinterred in a cemetry. It also contains a cemetery, a house of exhibition in the Genocide section; a library and plans are underway to teach the history of genocide. During the genocide week which is commemorated every first week of April annually,the centre runs an open event where survivors of the genocide tell their stories and thereafter documentaries and films are shown.
3. Rebero genocide memorial site
Located in the Kicukiro District of Kigali on the summits of mount Rebero. It is here that victims of genocide from various parts of the city were thrown. About 14, 400 people are buried here.
4. Nyanza- Kicukiro genocide memorial site
Found in the Kicukiro District of Kigali,Nyanza-Kicukiro memorial has got a landmark to commemorate the more than 5.000 people killed during the genocide.This occurred after the Belgian soldiers who were UN peace keepers based there left, immediately after the people were attacked by militia who transffered them to Nyanza and killed them there.It housed the Ecole Technique Officielle School(ETO).
5. Murambi genocide memorial site
Is in the Nyamagabe District, Southern Province. Located in an old secondary school and only a 30 minutes drive from the Institute of National Museums Of Rwanda in Butare.It is in the classrooms that house the old secondary school that over 800 bodies lie untouched after the genocide and it is believed that 400 people were killed here in only 3 days.Murambi doubles as a historic site because it is situated in the former zone Turquoise area where French soldiers had their headquarters. Games such as volleyball were played on top of the mass graves containing those victims before they were exhumed and decently buried.
It is the only site with about 850 untouched bodies of the victims laying there for exhibition in the classrooms buried in dignity and one of the most visited memorial sites.
6. Bisesero genocide memorial site
Located about 31 kilometres from the lake side town of Kibuye in the Karongi District which harbours lake Kivu in the western Province. Here more than 27,000 brave victims of genocide are buried;these were killed after a courageous and hard resistance in self defence until they were betrayed by French soldiers.This town was majorly habited by Tutsi who were pastoralists and this earned them the nickname abasesera from which the area derived it’s name.
7. Nyarubuye genocide memorial site
Lying 35 kilometres from the southern town of Kibungo in the Eastern province of Kirehe district is Nyarubuye genocide memorial.Nyarubuye memorial was originally a catholic church which had housing for priests and nuns(Benebikira sisters) and a school. Over 20.000 victims of Tutsi origin were killed here in 2 days i.e 14th and 15th April of 1994.
They were killed in the houses of catholic sisters and priests where they had sought refuge. It is these houses that now make up the memorial site.
8. Ntarama genocide memorial site
The Ntarama Genocide Memorial is located about 30 kilometers south of the capital city of Kigali in the rural town of Bugasera.This church was viewed as a safe haven by some 5.000 people many women and children with their belongings e.g clothes and suit cases.But now the safety of Ntarama is doubted as some of the most brutal murders took place there as many tried to flee the killings in vain.To-date souvenirs of attempted flights are visible in a child’s white sock laying on the floor and its contents are a reminder of the gory violence that took place at this site during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
9. Nyamata genocide memorial site
The Nyamata Genocide Memorial is located about 35 kilometers south of the capital city of Kigali in the Bugasera region, this former catholic parish church just like the manifold of other churches was viewed as a safe haven by the fleeing victims only to be murdered in cold blood.Between the 10th to 12th April1994 alone,24.000 people lost their lives.
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