Ntarama, Rwanda

Ntarama Genocide Memorial Site - Site of one of the many massacres at churches that were so typical of the Rwandan genocide . It's one of the six National Museum sites of this type and has seen a lot of developments over the years. Yet, it is not as dramatic a site as the one in nearby Nyamata – let alone the truly shocking Murambi . Ntarama is more "intermediate" on that scale, though still grim in its own right. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: For information about the overall historical background see Rwandan genocide ; cf. also under Rwanda in general. Ntarama was and still is a very rural location, way off any larger roads or conurbations. Tutsis also formed a much larger proportion of the population here than in other parts of the country. In April 1994 this sleepy quiet parish became the site of the raw brutality that characterized the genocide, when the Hutu militias of the Interahamwe and Rwandan Government Forces arrived on the scene. As in similar locations, terrified Tutsis had come to seek refuge in the parish church … but it did not provide the safe haven they had expected it to be. The killers broke into the church – even literally breaking through the brick wall bit by bit in a couple of places – and proceeded to massacre everyone they found inside. People hiding in adjacent buildings were likewise butchered. Some were apparently dumped into a latrine on the premises, possibly even while still alive (as it was done elsewhere). All in all, some 5000 are believed to have been murdered here. In earlier post-genocide years, this site remained quite raw, with blood-stained clothes and personal effects strewn all over the church's floor and bones piled in crude heaps.