KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) – Rwandans reburied the bodies Thursday of more than 20,000 victims of the 1994 genocide who had been dumped in mass graves as the country marked the 11th anniversary of the massacre.

The reburials were a gesture meant to restore dignity to the victims of the genocide in which more than half a million died in a killing frenzy. Rwandans marked the massacre with a week of mourning.

Many survivors said the memory of the government-orchestrated massacre remains fresh. Catherine Umutoni, 27, said April always brings tears and memories of 13 relatives killed by Hutu extremists during the 100 days of massacres.

The genocide started hours after the president’s plane was mysteriously shot down over Kigali on April 6, 1994. Hutu militiamen, known as interahamwe, set up roadblocks across Kigali and on April 7 began killing Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

President Juvenal Habyarimana had been pressed to implement a power-sharing accord with the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front after three years of civil war. The top military leaders of Habyarimana’s government put into action a plan to kill all the remaining Tutsis in the country of 7 million. Tutsis made up an estimated 14 percent of the population.

The organizers of the genocide used the radio to order Hutu civilians to kill their Tutsi neighbors and direct the slaughter.

Umutoni heard her father’s name read over the radio on April 7 as an enemy of the state.

“To me, the announcement meant the end of my life on earth,” she said.

The 5,000 Tutsis in Rwamagana fled their homes and gathered at a Catholic school. The interahamwe eventually made their way to the building, killing and raping over several days.

“I saw many of my neighbors among the militia, it was incredible, I couldn’t believe it, and what took me by surprise is that many were staunch Christians,” she said.

Only 200 Tutsis escaped – among them Umutoni.

Since then, many of the suspected militia have been convicted of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Umutoni now takes care of three younger sisters and her daughter – the product, she said, of a rape that took place during the massacre.

“Living with this child is a great test for me, but she is my blood, I have to take care of her,” Umutoni said.

But she has not emerged without scars: Umutoni called her attacker the “destroyer of my body and soul.”

Umutoni welcomed the International Fund for Rwanda, established by those who worked on the film “Hotel Rwanda” about the genocide and by the U.N. Foundation.

But she said she wonders why more hasn’t been done to help people like her, left to care for other survivors even though they have no family, education or job.

Gerald Rutazitwa, 43, another survivor who helped exhume bodies, said he lost his father and six brothers but was optimistic that traditional courts known as Gacaca will bring lasting peace to Rwanda.

More than 760,000 people accused of crimes during the genocide are to be tried by the newly established courts, and Rutazitwa said he supported the idea.

“I think they will bring harmony to the country,” he said.