Murambi Genocide Memorial

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Exposed skulls of genocide victims in the Murambi Genocide Memorial, 2001

The Murambi Genocide Memorial is a memorial near the town of Murambi in southern Rwanda that commemorates the 1994 genocide in Rwanda . It is one of six major memorial sites of the approximately 200 such institutions in the country.

location

Murambi in the southern province of Rwanda is a satellite city of Nyamagabe (formerly Gikongoro) about 160 km south of the capital Kigali . The Murambi Genocide Memorial is located on an area about three football fields on a hill outside the village. It is housed in a former school complex that was once a technical secondary school . The construction of the school was funded by the World Bank and started in 1990. At the time of the 1994 genocide , construction was still ongoing.

history

Mummified and limed bodies of genocide victims in the Murambi Genocide Memorial, 2001

On April 16, 1994, thousands of Tutsis fled to the school in Murambi. After the Tutsi had defended themselves with stones against the Interahamwe as the Hutu militia for a few days , they were overrun on April 21, 1994. The militia members systematically killed the refugees with machetes, knives, spears, sickles, hoes and clubs. It is estimated that around 43,000 Tutsi were murdered at school, including many children and toddlers. Almost everyone who escaped was killed the next day while trying to hide in a nearby church. There is different information about the number of surviving people. Between 4 and 36 people are said to have survived the massacre. Shortly afterwards, French soldiers instructed the Hutu militia to dig pits with heavy equipment and to lay mass graves in them. A volleyball field was later built over it to hide what had happened.

memorial

The memorial was established on April 21, 1995, the first anniversary of the mass murder in the technical secondary school. It is located in the school complex as a crime scene. The mass graves were opened and the victims were exhumed on the school premises in 1995 and 1996. In the school's classrooms, the human remains of around 850 victims are displayed on wooden scaffolding, known as human remains . They are treated with lime twice a year to preserve corpses in order to keep them from decaying. Furthermore, arm and leg bones as well as skulls of victims and their clothes belong to the exhibition. The bodies of the victims are mummified as a result of the conservational liming and the time spent lying in bed . Adult victims only weigh between 10 and 15 kg.

Since 2012, the Murambi Genocide Memorial has been on the tentative list of genocide memorials in Rwanda for inclusion in UNESCO World Heritage . Along with the Kigali Genocide Memorial , the Ntarama Genocide Memorial and facilities in Nyamata, Bisesero and Nyarubuye (Nyarubuye massacre ), it is one of the larger memorials commemorating the genocide in Rwanda.

On April 21, 2019, as the 25th anniversary of the Murambi massacre, a commemorative event was held with residents, government officials and visitors from abroad.

International cooperation

The Rwandan Ambassador Igor César in the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation as part of international cooperation, 2018

The Institute for Forensic Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) has been working for the Rwandan authority Commission for the Fight against Genocide (CNLG) to come to terms with the genocide in 1994 and identifies previous perpetrators and victims. The forensic medicine of the UKE under Klaus Püschel asked the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation (NLD) for administrative assistance for the conservation of the human remains in the Murambi Genocide Memorial due to its restoration expertise . Since 2017, NLD employees who specialize in restoration have been traveling to Rwanda to set up a workshop station at the memorial, train Rwandan colleagues, carry out climate measurements and draw up a conservation concept. For an exhibition on the 25th anniversary of the genocide in 2019, employees of the NLD preserved 20 bodies permanently by removing the covering lime. As part of the preservation, a forensic examination and documentation of the bodies for injuries and cause of death was carried out by German forensic doctors .

literature

Web links

Commons : Murambi Genocide Memorial Center  - Murambi Genocide Memorial

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Murambi Genocide Memorial
  2. ↑ In Yesterday's Prison in Der Spiegel from March 31, 2014
  3. ↑ Murambi - Site of Extreme French Brutality in Genocide # Kwibuka23 at KT Press (Kigali Today Press) of April 12, 2017 (English)
  4. ↑ Murambi
  5. ↑ Photo of mass graves ( Memento of the original from February 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.crazymalc.co.nz
  6. ↑ Photo of the arm and leg bones
  7. ^ Photo of skulls
  8. ^ Photo of clothing items
  9. ↑ Description on the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage with the locations Nyamata, Bisesero and Gisozi (French)
  10. ^ Murambi Genocide victims remembered in The New York Times, April 22, 2019
  11. ↑ The conservation of human remains from the time of the genocide in Rwanda at the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation
  12. ↑ Experts from Hanover preserve corpses in Rwanda in Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of February 6, 2018

Coordinates: 2 ° 27 '19.76 "  S , 29 ° 34" 4.58 "  E.