Mass Graves and the Unburied in Rwanda: Post-Rwanda Genocide, Topology and Ataraxia

Abstract

This paper (number 6) in the research project “Burying the Dead” follows the introductory comments and typology of previous papers ( Aguilar, 2024a , 2024b, 2025a, 2025b, 2025c) but moves the material context of mass graves related to victims and killings during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. state sanctioned mass graves throughout the country. As in previous topologies, this paper outlines the characteristics of special continuity and change on locations where mass graves act as local tombs to understand their significance within a socio-historical location. Mass graves were dug in Rwanda beside places of extermination to bury for the most part the 800,000 victims of the genocide. Over the years, some mass graves were rediscovered, and human remains re-buried and preserved with the use of lime. However, the need for individual truth and the identification of individual remains was denied by the state, allowing only the identification of some remains and removing others away from their place of death to local memorials and the national memorial in Kigali. Scholars have challenged such practices by a Rwandan totalitarian state, and some international experts have aided the identification of some human remains challenging the ownership of human remains by the state in what has become a vernacular law rather than a compliance with humanitarian and international law. Thus, discussions on topological places , homeomorphisms and homotopies become important agendas for a comparative cultural preservation considering the traditional applications of natura non facit saltus , and the need for justice, identification and individual burials for victims of the 1994 genocide.