First Paragraph
At the Roman Catholic Church compound in Shangi, Rwanda, bloody handprints remain on the walls as a gruesome reminder of the Hutu massacre of Tutsis that occurred on April 18, 1994. In one room, handprints stretch from floor to ceiling, showing how Tutsis stood on one another's shoulders in desperate efforts to reach ceiling crawl spaces and the roof in order to hide from Hutu militiamen. Other rooms are bulletpocked or partially blown apart by hand grenades. Although no one knows for sure, it is estimated that as many as 4,000 Tutsis-adults and children alike-were hacked, shot, or beaten to death at the Shangi church that day. As horrifying as the events at Shangi are, they mark just a fraction of the Tutsis massacred throughout Rwanda in the span of just four months in the summer of 1994.
Recommended Citation
Rebecca Faulkner, Taking Judicial Notice of the Genocide in Rwanda: The Right Choice, 27 Penn St. Int'l L. Rev. 895 (2009).