Скачать или смотреть RWANDA: SIX THOUSAND RWANDANS KILLED LAST YEAR, LAID TO REST

(7 Apr 1995) Natural Sound

Thousands of Rwandans killed in last year's tribal violence have been laid to rest on a hillside in Kigali, on the first anniversary of the start of a three month genocide which killed some five-thousand people.

In a day of mourning, prayer and song, at least ten thousand gathered to bury the remains of six thousand victims.

At Rebero, a suburb of Kigali, more than 200 plain wooden boxes, draped with purple cloth and flowers, held the remains of an estimated six thousand victims dumped in mass graves and only recently exhumed for proper burial.

At least half a million Tutsis were killed in last year's tribal violence. Tutsi rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front took power and ended the slaughter in early July.

Today thousands came to remember the dead. Many of the remains have never been identified, but for the people of Rwanda, the coffins represent all who were killed.

SOUNDBITE:

I think we have learnt a lot concerning bad things happening, this kind of genocide and the future is with the group that will learn better things.
So from those bad things the lesson is to avoid bad things, so we can have good things to build for a good future.

SUPER CAPTION: Bishop Onesphore Rwaje

SOUNDBITE:

Well if you consider that the ceasefire was on the eighteenth of July, and that Kigali had no life, no soul in August. Look at it today, it's a thriving city.
I think we've made tremendous progress, as a matter of fact we may be victims of our own success.
I think it's on the path to recovery, and I see the future as one with great potential.

SUPER CAPTION: Major General Guy Tousignant, UN Forces Commander

Many mourners stood in silence for much of today's burial.
Others carried signs as a needless reminder of the horrors of last year.

The coffins will all be laid in concrete graves in lasting memory to the dead.

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