home page  

On April 19, 1994, at the height of the civil war in Rwanda, thousands of Tutsis and moderate Hutus chased by the army and Hutus extremists take refuge on the construction site of a school in Murambi. Two days later, at 3 a.m., their executioners catch up with them. Those who try to escape are killed by the Hutus of the neighboring villages. Fifty thousands people are killed. Only four survive. In July 1994, the Hutus who lost the war, flee to the refugee camps of former Zaïre. Tutsis living in exile since the massacres of 1959 start coming back to Rwanda and take charge of the country. Learning the existence of three mass graves in Murambi, this community decides to built a memorial to the genocide on the site of the slaughter. The first bodies are exhumed in May 1997. In the mass graves filled with bones and skulls, 26,000 corpses are found. They are washed and covered with lime to keep them in the exact position of their death, three years ago. Then, one by one, they are brought to the classrooms of the Murambi school.