--- title: The Ghosts of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda's Churches | TIME description: Rwanda has come remarkably far since the genocide of 1994, but reminders still haunt its landscape canonical: https://time.com/video/B9BBJqnq/ og:title: The Ghosts of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda's Churches og:description: Rwanda has come remarkably far since the genocide of 1994, but reminders still haunt its landscape og:url: https://time.com/video/B9BBJqnq/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/B9BBJqnq/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Ghosts of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda's Churches twitter:description: Rwanda has come remarkably far since the genocide of 1994, but reminders still haunt its landscape twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/B9BBJqnq/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The Ghosts of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda's Churches > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Ghosts of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda's Churches [Watch (HLS stream): The Ghosts of the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda's Churches](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/B9BBJqnq.m3u8) (4:54)  _Published 2012-07-09. Rwanda has come remarkably far since the genocide of 1994, but reminders still haunt its landscape_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:26 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Rwanda Somberly Commemorates 25 Years Since Genocide Began](/video/g3GhCRDN/) ### Rwanda Somberly Commemorates 25 Years Since Genocide Began [Rwanda: How the 1994 Genocide Affects the 2010 Vote](/video/B7vfFcCL/) ### Rwanda: How the 1994 Genocide Affects the 2010 Vote [Rwanda's Cinema Under the Stars](/video/lA1uU3ah/) ### Rwanda's Cinema Under the Stars --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] At Sunday Mass in downtown Kigali, Rwanda Hutu and Tutsie families pray together side by side. One of many signs of this countries dramatic rebirth in years since the genocide by Hutu Militia of mostly Tutsis, but after nearly 20 years. The genocide still haunts Rwanda especially in many of it's churches. When the fighting began on April 9th, 1994 thousands of both Hutu and Tutsi families fled to churches for sanctuary like this one sent for me. The Hutu militia came to the door on April 15th. They spent a day carefully separating out the Tutsis, then led them to the side of the church and killed them. Witnesses said the head priest at that time actually helped identify the Tutsis in his congregation. There's no plaque that speaks of it. The church leaders prefer instead to look to their common future. [ MUSIC ] But other sites across Rwanda officially mark such massacres, the government's memorials to genocide. One of the most moving of all lies an hours drive from the capital. Halfway there, the road crosses the Niabarongo River, which feeds the Nile [ NOISE ] The river seems timelessly peaceful today, but it too is a national symbol of genocide. Two years before the killing began, a Hutu extremist made a famous speech calling for all Tutsis to be wiped out, and their bodies thrown into this river. In 1994 those words were made real as this river became choked with tens of thousands of Tutsi bodies. [ FOREIGN ] These young men grew up nearby, but are too young, they say, to remember much of what happened. But they all remember the stories of how the bodies filled the river, as far as the eye could see. From the Nyabarongo river, it's a half hour's drive to the destination of Nyamata. Where just outside the town is the One Time Catholic Church that is now among Rwanda's most unforgettable tributes to what happened, the Nyamata Genocide Memorial. Between April 10th and 15th 1994, entire villages of Tutsi ran to this church hoping the foreign priests might help protect them. 10, 000 camped out here. Instead Hutu militia came and slaughtered them. The remains of those families are now carefully preserved on the pews; in piles of their clothing, in their hats, their rosaries and their bones. The people who are here, they are so many, more than 10, 000 people. Do you imagine 10, 000 people to just move to a smaller place? Yes. Leon Muguruka is a guide here. So but some of them were inside of the church and that [ CROSSTALK ] Leon tells how with 10, 000 to kill, the usual machete was far too slow. So the Hutu militia called in government troops with their machine guns and grenades to quicken the pace. In all, this site holds the remains of more than 40, 000 victims from this area alone. Which is still less than 5 % of the 800, 000 to one million Tutsis killed in those 100 days of 1994. Forgiving is a very difficult, is a very difficult. They are my parents, my brothers and sisters. And all of them were killed. But I see hope because this country is a, a development and everywhere. I think, it was a, we have a good future in this country. [ MUSIC ] In the nearby hills, those hopes live in its schoolchildren. A new generation, aware of the past. ... like moving on. [ MUSIC ] [ FOREIGN ] From Rwanda, this is Ted Robbins, reporting for Time Video, and the international recording project. 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