ABSTRACT
The anthropologist Nayanika Mookherjee, in her study of the Bangladesh Liberation War Museum (BLWM), provides a detailed illustration of such “cross-referencing”. Peace studies scholar Johanna Mannergren Selimovic illustrates the dangers of such decontextualisation in relation to the Kigali Memorial Centre, the main national memorial museum in Rwanda at which the remains of more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi are interred. The Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide Crimes illustrates how, in the aftermath of violent conflict, attempts are made to “mould memories in order to give legitimacy to the post-war administration”. In February 2003 the Aegis Trust, a United Kingdom (UK)-based genocide prevention charity, was invited by the Rwandan government to take over responsibility for the creation of the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the Murambi Memorial Centre and preservation work at an additional five major sites around the country. The decision to display the bodies also coincided with emerging criticism of the post-genocide government.
