Ntarama Genocide Memorial Centre

Genocide museum in Ntarama, Rwanda

Ntarama Genocide Memorial

Location within Rwanda

Established| 1 June 2004 (2004-06-01)
Location| Ntarama
Coordinates| 2°06′35″S 30°22′26″E﻿ / ﻿2.1097°S 30.374°E﻿ / -2.1097; 30.374
Type| Genocide museum

Ntarama Genocide Memorial Centre (Kinyarwanda: Urwibutso rwa jenoside rwa Ntarama, French: Mémorial du génocide à Ntarama) is one of six genocide museums in Rwanda. Five thousand people were killed here in the Catholic church.

## Location

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Ntarama is located in Bugesera District. It is an hour's drive south of Kigali, the national capital and the largest city in the country.[1]

Zaza and Sake are just to the south and Kibungo and Nyamata. Nemba Airport is close.[2]

## Overview

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Shelves of skulls

Ntarama's former Catholic church is now a memorial site. Five thousand people were massacred there on 15 April 1994 during the Rwandan genocide.[1]

This memorial centre is one of six major centres in Rwanda that commemorate the Rwandan genocide. The others are the Murambi Memorial Centre, the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre and others at Nyamata, Bisesero, and Nyarubuye.[3]

During the genocide, people were killed at this church by the police, soldiers, interahamwe and local volunteers. They used grenades, spears, clubs and machetes. The government in charge would send 'clean up squads' to the sites of massacres to hide the evidence. The bodies of the dead would be hastily buried in mass graves. The people inside, who had tried to escape, were killed in nearby fields while the majority were killed inside the building of the church. When the government changed, they decided not to bury the bodies. The bones of those who had died outside were stacked on tables, but the bodies of those inside were left where they were murdered. For many years after the massacre, visitors could smell the rotting flesh from inside the church. But, by 1997, all that was left was the sad remains of the bodies left after a massacre.[4]

## See also

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* List of massacres in Rwanda

## References

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1. ^ a b Remembering Rwanda's genocide, Catherine Wambua, 1 July 2012, Al Jazeera, Retrieved 2 March 2016
2. ^ Ntarama, LatLongWiki, Retrieved 2 March 2016
3. ^ Sites mémoriaux du génocide : Nyamata, Murambi, Bisesero et Gisozi, UNESCO, Retrieved 2 March 2015
4. ^ Burnet, Jennie E. (2012-11-19). Genocide Lives in Us: Women, Memory, and Silence in Rwanda. University of Wisconsin Pres. p. 103-105. ISBN 978-0-299-28643-9.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ntarama Memorial Site.

* Genocide Archive of Rwanda

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Rwandan genocide

Background|

* History of Rwanda
* Origins of Hutu, Tutsi and Twa
* Kingdom of Rwanda
* Belgian colonial empire
* Rwandan Revolution
* Hutu Power
* Rwandan Civil War
* Arusha Accords
* Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira

Events|

* Initial events
* Chronology
* Massacres
* Gikondo
* Musha Church
* Nyarubuye
* Rape

Perpetrators|

* People indicted by the ICTR
* Genocidaires
* Akazu
* Impuzamugambi
* Interahamwe
* Kangura
* Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines

Response|

* Rwandan Patriotic Front
* International response
* France
* Opération Turquoise
* United States
* Operation Support Hope
* UNAMIR
* UNSC Resolution 935

Aftermath|

* Great Lakes refugee crisis
* Kibeho massacre
* First Congo War
* Massacres of Hutus
* Second Congo War
* Rwandan genocide denial
* Gacaca court
* International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
* National Unity and Reconciliation Commission

Commemoration|

* Genocide memorials
* Bisesero
* Kigali
* Murambi
* Ntarama
* Nyamata
* Kwibuka T20 Tournament
* Survivors Fund

Historigraphy|

* Double genocide theory

* Bibliography
* Filmography

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