Remains of some 120 genocide victims found in mass grave in Kigali's neighborhood

KIGALI, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Local authorities and residents have found remains of about 120 victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of the capital Kigali, survivors' association said.

The site in Rusororo sector at Gasabo district is located in a residential neighborhood, where several Rwandans after the genocide lived but sold the land off and relocated after suspecting that there is a mass grave, Theogene Kabagambire, head of the association of genocide survivors in Gasabo district told local media on Sunday night.

The victims could have been led to the particular killing field in the guise of taking them for protection, said Kabagambire.

Residents had dug up to more than 20 meters deep by Sunday evening to exhume the remains, he said, adding that survivors would identify their dead loved ones by examining their clothes.

He faulted genocide perpetrators for concealing information about the mass grave for over two decades.

"We are continuing the process of exhumation of the remains to give them a decent burial but there could be other mass graves nearby," said Kabagambire.

On April 6, 1994, then Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana died in an air crash, swiftly triggering a three-month-long genocide. The genocide starting from April 7 claimed an estimated one million Tutsi and moderate Hutus. Enditem