The media played a critical role in the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 1994. There is still debate about the nature of that role; while it is unlikely that the media played a direct role in influencing Hutus to kill, it certainly played a secondary role in inciting and prolonging the genocide.
Almost four years before the genocide began, the pro-Hutu, anti-Tutsi newspaper Kangura published the Hutu Ten Commandments which explicitly called for an end to inter-ethnic relationships and business partnerships between Tutsis and Hutus; an exclusion of Tutsis from public office, the military and education sector; and an end to so-called Hutu ‘mercy’ on Tutsis.
The Rwandan radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM, translates as “Thousand Hills Free Radio and Television”) specifically targeted the younger Hutu generation, playing popular music from neighbouring countries and referring to Tutsis as ‘cockroaches’ during anti-Tutsi, pro-Hutu broadcasts. During the genocide, government forces used RTLM to promote violence, going so far as to broadcast specific instructions for carrying out the killings (including the names and whereabouts of Tutsis).
Link: ICTR ‘Media Case’: sentencing of Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, Ferdinand Nahimana and Hassan Ngeze
The Hutu Ten Commandments were attributed to the editor of Kangura, Hassan Ngeze. In 2003, in a judgement pertaining to the ICTR ‘Media Case’, Ngeze was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity along with RTLM co-founder Ferdinand Nahimana and RTLM executive Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza.
Genocide Survivors' Recollections of RTLM
Link: 'Music to kill to': Rwandan genocide survivors remember RTLM (Al Jazeera, June 2020)
The office from which RTLM was broadcast during the genocide against the Tutsi [Source: Kigali Wire/Flickr]
84-year-old Félicien Kabuga was a former businessman in Rwanda and was arrested in Paris, France on 16 May in relation to his role as founder and financier of both RTLM and Kangura magazine.
"[In 2011] Kabuga was charged before the ICTR with genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, attempt to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and crimes against humanity, committed in Rwanda between 6 April and 17 July 1994"
- Case File: Félicien Kabuga [IRMCT.org]
Following the arrest of Kabuga, Al Jazeera have published an excellent in-depth report on the recollections of three genocide survivors about RTLM. Read the full report by Mia Swart on Al Jazeera.
Claver Irakoze
"I remember RTLM broadcasting songs conveying hatred and demonising the Tutsi. The songs would openly call for our extermination. Political slogans were translated into song and young people were mobilised into youth movements. These youth movements were key to executing the genocide"
- 'Music to kill to': Rwandan genocide survivors remember RTLM [Al Jazeera, June 2020]
Honore Gatera
"Before April 1994, RTLM sent messages about how the Hutus must protect themselves against the "snakes" and the "cockroaches", meaning the Tutsis. There were already some killings taking place. People my family knew in another region of Rwanda were killed. "
- 'Music to kill to': Rwandan genocide survivors remember RTLM [Al Jazeera, June 2020]
Beatrice Uwera
"More than 200 people in my own family had been killed. In my mother's family, there were eight siblings. Only one survived. We had to begin again from zero. . "
- 'Music to kill to': Rwandan genocide survivors remember RTLM [Al Jazeera, June 2020]
No comments
Post a Comment