... Postcard showing the most horrific period in history of Rwanda... an intense and powerful genocide memorial... a mass grave in the former Catholic church at Nyamata... piles of clothes cover the small pews... the alter cloth still covers the alter, stained in blood... you can see marks in the walls from stray bullets... these stand as a reminder of the death of thousands of ordinary, everyday people whose only crime was that they had been labelled as Tutsie... the church basement, accessible down steep steps in the back, has been converted into a permanent catacomb... on either side of its very narrow hallways stand racks of skulls, bones, and coffins... it is a heartbreaking memorial but also an important reminder that we must never forget...Thanks once more Karolyn! (✿◠‿◠)
Above the church’s main entrance is a banner in Kinyarwanda, meaning:"If you had known me, and you had really known yourself, you would not have killed me."This site is where around 2,500 people were killed and it has become emblematic of the barbaric treatment of women during the genocide. In the church at Nyamata, there will be graphic and audio-visual displays that will focus particularly on the mass rape, brutalisation of women and the use of HIV as a deliberate weapon of genocide.
During this 100 day period between April and July 1994, nearly one million ethnic Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed as the international community and UN peacekeepers stood by.
Memorial sites of the Genocide: Nyamata, Murambi, Gisozi and Bisesero became a UNESCO WHS site in 2023.
Stamp:
Folklore
(Issued 15-11-2010)
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