Piles of clothes covered with dust lying on benches and at the floor. Dust also on the air, mixed with a rotten smell. Light beams trough the many small holes from grenades pieces to the dark walls full of bullet holes. A team of American specialists working with masks, some with full covered dresses, to clean and preserve the clothes from victims of genocide in the church of Nyamata. Skulls and bones buried in the mass graves nearby, some are displayed for the visitors to show the cruelty of killing innocent people, women and children with primitive weapons, tools or simple sticks. The team of conservators tells me, occasionally they still find human bones in bunches of clothes.
A few kilometer away, a similar tragedy of humanity was happen in the church of Ntamara . The area around the church is preserved like a archeological site. New roof over the building protects from rain, paths leads between buildings and trough green garden, boards content explanations. But the horror of the history is written in the wall. Bullet holes, missing corners where grenades exploded and blood stains on the wall of sunday school where children smashed to death. A big pile of dirty clothes still remains in the kitchen, waiting for further treatment and preserving, while the life in the village goes on…
rene bauer photography 