News and press interest – 16th July 2002

Professor Margaret Cox and Dr Lynne Bell took their archaeological / anthropological expertise to Rwanda in November 2002 to support the Aegis Trust in the creation and maintenance of memorials of the Rwandan genocide.

Working with the Aegis Trust (a non-sectarian, non governmental genocide prevention initiative) and the Kigali City Council, they made a preliminary assessment of the condition of the human remains that the Rwandese wish to incorporate into their memorials (as have been done in Cambodia).

The Aegis memorialisation project will focus on a number of key sites. One such site is the Gisozi Centre for Genocide Memorial and Education, a project with many aims. As a memorial, Gisozi symbolises the extreme and horrific consequences of exclusionary ideology that culminated in the massacre of 1.2 million Tutsi and moderate Hutu by Hutu militia and extremists between April and July 1994. Mass graves in the grounds of the centre hold the remains of 250,000 people slaughtered in the Kigali region and the skeletons of many others are to be displayed in glass fronted cabinets within the building itself.

This project aims to combat endemic racism, xenophobia and discrimination through public education and is one of several centres with similar intent being established across Rwanda. This visit included visiting six such sites, each with particular conservation challenges that have to be addressed in a cost effective and sustainable manner.

More will follow as this project progresses.

The memorial building recently constructed at Murambi (above) which will include human skeletal remains as well as bodies initially conserved by covering them with lime.