'No way to recognise your family': Rwandan genocide victims recovered from mass grave
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00:00 Over the last month, these Rwandan villages have been exhuming the bones of victims of the 1994 genocide,
00:06 when Hutu militias massacred Tutsis and those who defended them.
00:10 Here's the evidence.
00:13 These are ropes that were used to tie the arms and legs of victims before killing them.
00:18 The remains of more than 1,100 people have been found in this field in Mbelezi, a village in southern Rwanda.
00:27 29 years ago, at least 14,000 Tutsis were slaughtered around the church where they had taken refuge.
00:33 For this survivor, who lost his entire family, finding the bodies has been a relief.
00:38 I'm happy to recover these remains.
00:40 We will place them in a memorial where they will be respected properly.
00:45 Since 1994, thousands of victims have been found in the country.
00:49 The Mbelezi site is the most largest find since 2020.
00:53 Authorities are looking into how such a huge mass grave could go undiscovered for almost three decades.
00:59 Marie-Clarisse separates the dirt from the bones.
01:01 She was just a child when she managed to escape this massacre.
01:05 We arrived here at the Mbelezi church on April 9th 1994, seeking refuge.
01:11 Three days later, the killers attacked us, but we resisted.
01:14 But on April 13th, they came back, they threw grenades and started killing people.
01:19 Despite well-preserved remains, it is nearly impossible to identify the dead.
01:24 You can't recognize these people because they were buried without clothes.
01:29 They were stolen.
01:30 They were buried naked, so there's no way to recognize your family among these people.
01:34 Many of the bodies recovered after the genocide were put to rest at 250 memorials across the country.
01:45 The one in Mbelezi already holds 13,000 bodies and is almost full.
01:50 We need another memorial because this one is already full of coffins.
01:56 There's only room for six.
01:58 They can't be buried outside, so we need another site to bury them properly.
02:03 The search in Mbelezi will continue at least until mid-May,
02:11 and more than 2,000 bodies are expected to be exhumed.