Exhuming bodies of loved ones killed during the Genocide almost 27 years ago can be relief, especially to survivors, who, like any bereaved, would wish for their relatives to have a decent burial.

It is, however, a situation of mixed feelings for Jean Baptiste Rugigana, who, for the past two weeks, has been coming to a site where an excavation of a 30-metre mass grave has been ongoing in Kiziguro Sector, Gastibo District.

The mass grave is said to contain as many as 5,000 victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, many of whom were killed from Kiziguro Catholic Parish.

"I regularly came to this mass grave to pay tribute to my family members dumped here. It was not a perfect place to honour one’s loved ones. Inside there is my father, two elder brothers and my sister,” says Rugigana.

He has not been able to identify any of them from the limbs exhumed so far.

However, opening up the mass grave opens a lid on a wave of horrendous memories for Rugigana, who also happens to be one of the 11 people to come out of the mass grave alive.

When the killings started from inside the church, the Interahamwe selected youthful Tutsis to carry the bodies and dump them in the pit that was about 300 metres from the church.

"When I got an opportunity, I jumped into the pit alive. And so did a few others who were being used to carry the bodies.”

The Interahamwe militia knew some people inside the pit were alive, and so they started throwing different objects at them.

"We came to the point of wishing that the Interahamwe could shoot at us so we could die fast, but it did not happen, they only threw spears, stones and bricks, I even live with a painful scar of a brick on my arm from that ordeal,” he narrated.

On the third day, the dead bodies started to decompose and on the sixth day, the stench was unbearable and this is when Inkotanyi captured the area and rescued them.

"To get us out, they used electric cables and because we had been badly weakened, it was a daunting task to get us up,” he recounted.

They were 11 when they were pulled out of the mass grave, but five have since passed away.

Jeanne Mujawingoma is another survivor from the area, whose family members are among those in the mass grave. 

She was 25 during the Genocide and together with her family, she arrived at the church on the morning of April 11 and on the same day, the militia attacked the church and killed almost everyone.

The mass grave contains remains of her mother and the rest of the close family members who were killed at the church.

She said: "We never thought our loved ones dumped in the mass grave would ever be exhumed; we are really grateful for this, we thank the government, it gives us strength to move on with life.”

The mass grave

According to residents, the deep hole was dug in 1972 by priests at the church seeking to supply water to the community. However, the project stalled and the hole was left open.

To date, nobody knows why it was left that way.

Jean Népo Sibomana, the Chairperson of Ibuka in Gatsibo District, said it has been two weeks now since the district started the exercise.

He explained that to get inside the mass grave, they had to dig another hole next to the grave to avoid having the grave caving in.

According to Sibomana, they intend to preserve it as a monument after exhuming the all the remains.

He thanked to Rwanda National Police which gave them the excavator that carried out the work.

Sibomana says that the work will take another two weeks, which is longer than the earlier anticipated time.

Many of the bodies have decomposed, and only some body parts can be seen.

Where were the victims from?

Those killed at the church mostly came from Kiziguro, but others had come from Kiramuruzi, Murambi, Rugarama, Ndatemwa, Muhura and Giti, while there are those who came from beyond Lake Muhazi.

"Much as we always came to honour them here on this mass grave, it was always painful to for us that they were dumped there. It was important that they one day get a decent burial,” he noted.

Gatsibo District mayor Richard Gasana, explained that the idea to exhume the victims had been in place for a long time, but taking action was derailed by the fact that they had to upgrade Kiziguro Genocide Memorial to be able to accommodate them.

Already, there are more than 14,000 victims laid to rest in the memorial site whose work to upgrade it has already kicked off.

"This is the only thing we can do for them, a befitting burial,” he continued.

The genocide memorial will be constructed in two phases, the first one consists of a two-storey building and will be completed in January, costing around Rwf620 million.

The second phase consists of equipping the memorial, installing a gallery and other related interior design, which will cost around Rwf300 million.

Total cost of the new memorial site in two phases is expected to be around a billion francs.