While the vast majority of tourists visit the Kigali Memorial Centre, very few travel to see the Murambi Memorial Centre in Murambi, Southern ProvinceWhen closing in on this site, you are welcomed by the sight of an old incomplete building and a well decorated path that leads to the well designed memorial building. At the entrance, which is a long walk from the gate, Gaspard Mukwiye, the main guide at the site, welcomes people. From the introduction he seemed to know a lot about the memorial. As he spoke, I learned that the memorial centre was actually the Murambi Technical School though it was still in the process of completion.“When the killings started, Tutsis in the region tried to hide at local churches, hospitals and even nearby bushes. However, the bishop and mayor lured them into a trap by sending them to the technical school, claiming that it was secure for them and that the French troops would protect them there,” Mukwiye said. Having no other option, about 65,000 Tutsis ran to the school thinking they would be safe. Water and electricity were cut off. Attacks on them started on the 18th of April though a large number of Tutsis managed to defend themselves. Later, the Genocide leaders visited Butare to empower the Hutu and spread to Gikongoro and that is when a team of Interahamwe attacked the school at 3.00am and killed between 40,000 to 50,000 Tutsi. Almost all of those who managed to escape were killed the next day when they tried to hide in nearby places. After this chilling introduction, we continued to where the centre and the history of Rwanda years before the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi is pinned up on the walls in a dark room. Everything is there, from King Musinga’s reign to Rudahigwa and Habyarimana’s government. There are also pictures of Tutsi being sent to places where they were killed in 1959 in Nyamata. “One of the main reasons why the Genocide was carried out with ease is the fact that everyone had an identity card that specified their supposed ethnicity,” Mukwiye said. Among the pictures on the wall was an identity card of one of the Tutsi in 1994. The planning of the Genocide is in pictures as well as trained Hutu in their uniforms and finally, the gruesome acts of the Genocide.We then got to the media room. Kangura, a newspaper that helped spread the Genocide ideology is one of the pictures on the wall. Simon Bikindi, an artiste and song writer who sang songs that enhanced the massacre is also one of the people in this Genocide media pictorial. Just next to these pictures is an old green radio that when pressed voices out Leon Mugesera’s speech to the Hutu to eliminate the Tutsi. Pictures of the dead as well as wounded survivors were also part of the gallery. When I saw this, a feeling of sadness struck through my body as I imagined the pain these people felt during this time. The Liberation room follows with pictures of now President Paul Kagame and the RPF army coming to Rwanda’s rescue. In the next room is a picture of French troops training genocidal forces which they claimed was meant to protect themselves but, from the picture, it showed them teaching civilians how to use arrows, knives and other dangerous weapons.The other side of the room has pictures of people who passed away and is followed by pictures of children who were brutally killed in Gikongoro. We then headed to the many small incomplete buildings where the bodies are laid. Mukwiye then explained to me that they were dumped in mass graves and were covered with soil and other bodies. There is also the place where the French hung their flag and a spot where they played volley ball but in actual sense, it was a hole where they dumped bodies. At this point, depression was all that filled my heart as we finally get to the room where these victim’s clothes are, with their shoes as well. Sadly many of them are children’s outfits. Entering this memorial is free and getting to the place is just RWF 3000. It’s open from 8.00am to 6.00pm through the week.
