The National Museum

Stopped at the National Museum of Rwanda, shows the history of Rwanda except an officially acknowledged academically accepted history does not exist yet. There are a variety of opinions and explanations on the origins of the people and who came from where and when. I was told that the Museum has hired a team of experts to write it.

The Museum was built by the Belgians and the roof leaks due to poor design. The exhibits inside give a good idea of traditions and tools and living quarters. No mention of any genocide or political developments - except for one wall with the pictures of the presidents since independence.


[a hut of a king]


[the government of 1959]


Above is the government in the 1970s. Freddy's chemistry professor in the white jacket. Most of those in the photo of the 1970s are dead. And yes, that is Francois Mitterrand with President Habyarimana whose plane was shot down on April 6th, 1994 and crashed on his property, right in his garden. The next day, the genocide of 1994 began.

What do you do after visiting Murambi?

Well, you drive to Butare - the first town built in Rwanda and as Yves said, the intellectual center of Rwanda because it's the home of the National University. We went to the Hotel Ibis and had lunch. The drive gave us some distance and we were able to talk about other topics than massacres. I saw a stationery store called "Google". Found out that Kassim, the driver lost his parents during the genocide. Kassim grew up in Burundi but was moved back to Rwanda because "it is my country". And this Sunday is the Kigali Marathon, which he is running in. Maybe I will be on the sideline and cheer everyone on - they expect about 4,000 participants.
Photo credit

The French UN soldiers

After the massacre, French UN soldiers arrived and stayed at Murambi for a few days to keep the peace. People who were hiding in the hills and had survived the attacks went to them for protection and stayed at the school. The French did a number of things: they paid the local population that returned, all Hutus, to clean up the buildings and bury the dead.


[Some of the blood could not be washed away - its etched into the concrete.]

Then, they put up a volleyball net over the mass grave and yes, played volleyball. But the ground started to give away after a while and they had to stop playing. The French soldiers left the area a few days later. Those who had come out of hiding and sought protection were killed after the French had left.


[French soldiers training Hutu militias pre-April 1994 - something the French government apparently denied.]

Murambi, 14 yrs. later

A survivor of the massacre was my tour guide at Murambi. Its peaceful and calm around the memorial site/school. You have an incredible 360 degree view from the hill of the countryside. Tutsis from the area were told to go to the school; it became a "collection site" for those intended to be killed. I was told that the surrounding Hutu population was evacuated at the time and only returned once the massacre was over. About 50,000 people were gathered and murdered here on April 21st 1994.



The guide told me her story while she showed me around. She survived the massacre at Murambi because she is a Hutu. At the time, she was at the school with her family: two sons(5 and 7 yrs. old), a two week old baby girl and a husband who was Tutsi. When confronted by the killers on April 21, her husband yelled that she should be saved and that she has a Hutu ID. The ID ultimately saved her and her baby girl but not the life of her husband and two sons who were murdered in front of her. One of the killers protected her baby from other killers who wanted to murder it because it was half Tutsi. She later returned to the town again to live in her house with her child, now a 14 year old girl. The girl is named after the prayer the guide said while the killing was going on around her and it was not yet clear whether she was able to get out alive. During the tour her cell phone went off a few times - the ring tone is a little child laughing.


I know I am not doing justice to how she spoke or what she said. She spoke matter of factly but her eyes said it all. She has been working at Murambi for six months. I asked about what her daughter knows and how she found out. When the daughter entered school, she began to ask her mother about her father. The guide debated with friends on what to do and then was convinced that she needed to tell her daughter all of it - knowing that it would be very hard for both of them. It was and it took quite some time. The mother describes her relationship with her daughter as a very good and close relationship and that she is very proud of her daughter. She wants her to go to university and is trying to save enough money to make it happen; which is why she took the job as a guide at Murambi. It also helps her in a way deal with what happened because she feels she is close to the family she lost. Now, when the guide does not have time to come home for lunch, the daughter brings her food to the Memorial site; but during memorial events when the guide speaks, the daughter cannot usually stay because it is too hard for her to hear her mother talk about what happened here.





When the killing was done, the dead were put in mass graves [see next post]. IBUKA organized the exhumation. Some were reburied in a designated area in the front of the school with a ceremony and in coffins and others are laid out as a memorial and to show the world what happened. Survivors are conflicted on whether its better to bury the bodies properly or display them to rebuff any denial about the genocide that happened there.


Two experts from Mexico recently visited to analyze the bodies to understand how to preserve them long term. They used the two bodies that were in the middle of a table in the room.

PS: New Times article of May 22, 2008 speaks about massacres at Murambi and perpetrators:
KIGALI - Colonel Faustin Sebuhura, a man on Rwanda’s most wanted list was Wednesday brought back to the country. Sebuhura was the deputy head of the Gendarmerie in the former Prefecture of Gikongoro in Southern Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide. He held the rank of Captain at that time.

Reliable sources told The New Times that he was brought to Rwanda from Masisi in eastern DRC aboard an ambulance of the United Nations Mission in the Congo (MONUC. He is said to be currently admitted in critical condition at Gisenyi main hospital close to the Congo border.

The New Times could not immediately establish what the Genocide suspect is suffering from. He had for a long time been on the most wanted list of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). His file is among those handed over to Rwandan authorities because the tribunal is close to winding up.

Sebuhura was cited many times at the Arusha-based tribunal during the trial of Colonel Aloys Simba, the head of the civil defence in both Gitarama and neighbouring Butare. Simba was found guilty by the ICTR and sentenced to 25 years.

Also named as being among the main instigators of the massacres was the former Prefet (Governor) of Gikongoro, Laurent Bucyibaruta. He was also indicted by the ICTR but the tribunal chose to hand the case to French authorities where the accused is awaiting trial.

Bucyibaruta was arrested in France last year at the request of the ICTR. A mystery has always surrounded reasons why he was not arrested before yet his whereabouts were never kept secret and is even said to have testified at the tribunal via video conference.

It was only in 2005 that the Prosecutor finally signed the indictment. The three are particularly wanted for the murder of over 50,000 Tutsis who had taken refuge at Murambi Technical College. The Site is now one of the country’s major genocide memorials.

“At about 07.00 hours on 21 April 1994, Laurent Bucyibaruta, accompanied by Aloys Simba and Faustin Sebuhura examined the massacre site at Murambi Technical School.

Aloys Simba expressed his satisfaction about the results of the killing campaign.

The ICTR indictment also mentions that on April 22, Sebuhura went to Gikongoro Prison and urged all Hutus to kill all prisoners of the Tutsi ethnic group.

A recent report by African Rights; The Nairobi Communique and the ex-FAR Interahamwe named Sebuhura alias Minani Marius, as being the overall co-coordinator of military training, for the FOCA/FDLR rebels in eastern DRC.

They are an offshoot of the former government army and Interahamwe militia who spearheaded the 1994 Genocide." ENDS

Touring the southern province of Rwanda

Went to Murambi memorial center [was meant to become a Technical College] early in the morning along with Freddy, Yves and Gaspard and a driver. The Murambi memorial is in the southern province close to Butare and the Burundian border. Got a GPS to work and began to track my route. We stopped at a gas station in Kigali and I took the opportunity to mingle with locals and to buy some snacks and water for everyone. The drive took a couple of hours and it was a real adventure.

There are many people walking along the roads as we zipped by up and down and all around hills and valleys. Thank God for Dramamine. We passed cities like Ruhango on the way.