What is all about the Nyamata Genocide Memorial
On April 11, 1997, the Roman Catholic Church desacralized the Nyamata Genocide Memorial, one of Rwanda's six National Genocide Memorial Sites, and turned it into a memorial to the genocide victims. The church, which also contains the victims' clothing and possessions, is where one individual is buried. Behind the cathedral are mass graves that hold 45,308 victims of the slaughter. The victims who were killed at this location are remembered on April 11th of each year. The number of dead includes both those who were slaughtered within the church and those who were excavated from the surrounding villages, according to Leon Muberuka, a guide at Nyamata. The memorial can be found in the former Nyamata Parish.
Location:
Nyamata II Village, Nyamata Ville Cell, Nyamata Sector, Bugesera District, Eastern Province
The past/ History of Nyamata Genocide Memorial
In the past, Bugesera was a part of Rwanda that was deserted, covered in thick forests, and plagued by tsetse bugs. However, a large number of Tutsis were forcibly transferred to the Bugesera region following the 1959 revolution.
Early Acts of Violence, 1959–1962
Removal of Tutsis from Ruhengeri, Gisenyi, Gitarama, and Gikongoro regions of Rwanda was decided upon on November 22, 1959. They were to be moved to Bugesera's Nyamata Refugee Camp, which had a lot of vacant land.
However, the Tutsi refugees protested and asked to go back to their own houses because Nyamata was deemed unfit for human habitation. In December 1960, the Union Nationale Rwandaise (UNAR) political party formally requested that the Nyamata and Kibungo Refugee Camps be closed before the UN General Assembly. In a similar letter, the UNHCR asked the camp supervisor to permit the refugees to return home so they could harvest their crops. The government forbade the refugees from returning, thus they were compelled to stay in Bugesera in spite of their attempts.
First Republic, July 1, 1962–July 4, 1973
These Tutsis were compelled to stay in Bugesera during the First Republic, which was led by President Grégoire Kayibanda. Following the 1960s Inyenzi attacks, Tutsis were arrested and killed all around the nation, but particularly in Bugesera. More than 200 Tutsis were murdered in Bugesera after the Inyenzirebels were routed, allegedly as rebel collaborators. Later, more were killed. Tutsis were detained and imprisoned in Ruhengeri Prison concurrently.
As in other parts of Rwanda, Tutsis were persecuted in Bugesera throughout the First Republic era. As an ethnic group, they were dehumanized by being referred to as wolves, snakes, adversaries, colonists, and other derogatory terms. They were forced to live in the Nyamata woodlands after their land was seized, depriving them of their property rights. Adults were not allowed to work in public administration, and children were not allowed to attend public secondary schools.
Persecution and prejudice grew as the Kayibanda dictatorship came to an end in February and March 1973. Both schools and any residual jobs in public sector organizations were closed to Tutsis.
Fifth Republic: July 5, 1973–April 6, 1994
The ethnic equilibrium policy, which President Juvénal Habyarimana instituted after assuming office in 1973, strengthened prejudice against and persecution of Tutsis, particularly in the fields of employment and education. These policies, which had been mentioned in political speeches by Rwanda's first (provisional) president Dominique Mbonyumutwa and in directives given by Kayibanda to the Minister of Education in 1971, codified what had been happening for a while.
The persecution of Tutsis in Rwanda escalated after the RPF Inkotanyi entered the country on October 1, 1990. The government's accusations that Tutsis were Inkotanyi collaborators stoked anti-Tutsi sentiment. Hate speech became common, even in some sermons at churches. Propaganda against Tutsis was created, portraying them as dishonest and unreliable and as the ones who persecuted the Hutu during the colonial era.
Many of the characteristics later linked to the 1994 genocide were present in the 1992 persecution of the Tutsi in Bugesera. Numerous Tutsis were killed in the attack on Bugesera by Interahamwe militias, which are affiliated with the MRND political party, and Impuzamugambi militias, which are affiliated with the CDR political party. Other Tutsis were forced to seek refuge in Nyamata Church. The headmistress of the Section Familiale at the time, an Italian nun called Antoinette Locatelli, attempted to alert the world about the killing of the Tutsis of Bugesera. Vincent Nsengiyumva, the previous bishop of the Kigali Catholic Archdiocese, attempted to silence her by threatening to have her killed if she persisted. However, Locatelli persisted in condemning the murders at Bugesera in spite of these threats, and a military officer later shot her dead.
Every time there was an RPF Inkotanyi attack, Habyarimana would evoke the regime's looming threat of periodic Tutsi killings. President Habyarimana was charged by an international investigation in 1993 with using the civil war as an excuse to slaughter Tutsis in Kibilira, Bigogwe, Mutara, Bugesera, and other areas.
Genocide, April 6, 1994–July 19, 1994
Almost soon after President Habyarimana was assassinated on April 6, 1994, the massacre in Bugesera began. Since there were numerous Tutsis in Nyamata, they attempted to protect themselves when extremists began setting their homes on fire on April 7. Many Tutsis had assembled on the grounds of Nyamata Primary School by April 11th, having fled their homes. Some were at the Centre d'Enseignement Rural et Artisanal Integré (CERAI), while women and children had sought safety in the church.
On the morning of April 11, killings at CERAI started, employing strategies that were comparable to those used in other regions of Rwanda. Before firing at the Tutsis with the guns at their disposal, they ringed the location where they had assembled and hurled grenades into crowds. To see whether anyone was still alive, they sprayed capsicum over the corpses and used machetes to murder those who were still there.
According to Claire Nkima, a survivor of the CERAI killings, she slept among the corpses until that evening, when she was saved by Tutsi refugees who had been hiding in nearby classrooms. Because the murderers had set up obstacles to complete their work, the majority of the survivors who planned to flee to Gitarama or Burundi were unable to do so.
About 5,000 Tutsis were slaughtered inside Nyamata Church between April 14 and April 16. Before the RPF Inkotanyi eventually freed Bugesera, the handful who managed to flee the church sought safety in neighboring bushes and papyrus fields, but several were later discovered and slain by militia search expeditions.
The Genocide Memorial at Nyamata
Following discussions with Rwandan Catholic Church leaders, the government turned the Nyamata Church into a memorial place after the genocide. The memorial consists of a chapel where the clothing of the victims and the weapons that were used to murder them are on display. The bodies of those slain in the church are on display in a room beneath the chapel. Behind the church are mass graves, where victims' skulls and other human remains are kept in a vault. The memorial site also features Antoinette Locatelli's grave, where a sign details her life and work in Rwanda as well as her tragic death on March 9, 1992. During the celebrations of the 15th anniversary of Liberation Day on July 4, 2010, Locatelli received a medal of honor posthumously from President Paul Kagame.