Rwanda counts its dead

The number massacred in the 1994 genocide is disputed

Rwanda has embarked on a census to establish just how many people died during the genocide of 1994.

A government appointed team of 1,600 investigators are scouring the country to draw up a definitive list of genocide victims.

Government officials and genocide survivors have talked in the past of over 1m deaths.

That figure has not won general acceptance outside Rwanda.

Several lower estimates have been advanced by researchers and historians, but they have acknowledged problems in getting comprehensive information about a campaign of mass murder which went on for three months.

Remains

Most of the victims were from the minority Tutsi population but many moderate Hutus also lost their lives.

Bodies are still being exhumed and reburied

The remains of the dead are still being exhumed and excavatated in different parts of the country.

The government is looking for names as well as figures.

The main genocide survivors group, Ibuka, has already begun publishing its own series of volumes looking at the genocide in each province of Rwanda and providing details of every victim.

The census will cover the period beginning October 1990 when Rwanda Patrotic Front rebels, led by the current President, Paul Kagame, launched attacks against the then President Juvenal Habyarimana's government.

Compensation

Survivors have often been critical of the current government, arguing that it uses the genocide as a political tool while neglecting the needs and problems of the bereaved.

The census was an attempt to address some of that criticism.

There are also reports that the government needs to establish the correct number of victims whose families might be considered for compensation.

The demand for compensation is part of an OAU inquiry into the genocide, which blames Western powers for failing to intervene to stop the mass slaughter.

The inquiry blames in particular France, the United States, Belgium and the United Nations Security Council for failing to prevent the genocide.