What happened
In April 1994 an estimated 40,000 Tutsi gathered at the unfinished technical school at Murambi, encouraged by local authorities on the understanding that presenting themselves voluntarily would demonstrate they were not with the RPF. They were allowed to stay for two weeks — long enough for the water to be cut off and the people inside to weaken. Then the killers arrived in buses and attacked the school in an organised operation. There are only two known survivors of the massacre; both have worked as guides at the memorial.
What is preserved
This is the most graphic memorial in Rwanda and the description is not a figure of speech. Visitors are led through the school's classrooms, where the bodies of victims — preserved with powdered lime — are laid out on tables. In many cases facial expressions remain visible. In the largest room the victims' clothing hangs from the rafters.
Outside, the original mass grave pit dug by the perpetrators, later exhumed, is visible on one side of the buildings. On the other is the new mass grave where most of the victims were reburied according to Rwandan practice.
Deciding whether to go
Murambi exists because survivors insisted that denial required physical evidence. That is the argument for preserving the remains and it is a serious one. It is also genuinely distressing, and nobody should be talked into it. Do not bring children. If you are unsure, go to the Kigali Genocide Memorial instead, which conveys the history without the bodies.
Getting there
Murambi is near Nyamagabe in the Southern Province, off the main road between Huye and Nyungwe — which is the only reason most itineraries can reach it at all.