My Conclusions

Although RTLMC is not directly responsible for the Rwandan genocide, it is clear that it helped to incite the horrible actions that resulted in the murder of approximately 800, 000 people.

While RTLMC and the Rwandan genocide is detailed in the commons, the topics are inherently complex, much more so than I anticipated when I started my research. Like anything politically charged, there are numerous perspectives on the topic I chose to examine. I could definitely have chosen to explore more aspects of the genocide including:

Why was there such a lack of intervention? Why were the threats and orchestrated plans not taken seriously? Should the international community have been blamed more because of their inaction? As seen in Hotel Rwanda, the international community played a huge part in the genocide because of its inaction.

There were also issues that because of their complexity made it very difficult to explore. The Arusha Accords and other government documents, in addition to the extensive history of violence and segregation of Rwanda were incredibly complex and honestly, at times difficult to understand. I discovered that many students like myself, as well as organizations have attempted to find answers to the difficult questions surrounding the Rwandan genocide and have utilized the commons to post their own findings. For instance these are only some of the videos available on YouTube that are contributions to the commons about Rwanda.

When does the issue of free speech become irrelevant as a defense for what one has said? The most logical thing I can determine is when it results in the violation of the human rights of others. Free speech is also a contribution to the commons - it's putting ones thoughts/ideologies out for all to hear, yet what are the restrictions? Are there any? With the advent of the Internet especially, it is especially difficult to regulate content and the way in which it is received/perceived by its audience. I think that intellectual property is one of the most contentious issues today, and has been an issue that keeps coming up. From lawsuits that claim murder or suicide was encouraged by listening to music, to the role of the RTLMC in the Rwandan genocide, with whom does liability lie when free speech becomes dangerous? The Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has determined that liability does in fact lie with those individuals who were associated with RTLMC, mainly because the actions of the RTLMC violated prior peace agreements.

The wealth of information on the Rwandan genocide is vast and overwhelming. I think that it is difficult to do such a topic justice because of the incredible complexities involved with it, from the history of the country to legal ramifications. It was incredibly difficult to pick and choose the information I included in this blog because so much of it was relevant. That issue in itself proves how important it is for all of us to have access to the commons so that we can each contribute to the spread of knowledge in ways that affect the way we perceive our own society and our world.

RTLMC Continued

Propaganda spread like wildfire through Rwanda after radios were distributed by the government. As noted in the previous post, there were many different tactics used in order for Hutu extremists to gain support in their quest to eliminate the Tutsi population. One of these ways was a religious appeal, as approximately 90% of Rwandans are Christian, while 62% of those were Catholic (Human Rights Watch). Many other claims were made about the alleged threat Tutsis posed to the Hutu population, including the claim that Tutsis had 70% of the wealth in Rwanda and that this allowed them more advantages than the Hutus. Although this was proven to be untrue, the very thought alarmed the Hutu population and perpetuated a didain for Tutsis (Human Rights Watch). Also, according to some of the RTLMC broadcasts, Tutsis were manipulative, making their way into various organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, and often did so by having their women use sexuality as a tool to gain such access (Human Rights Watch).

On April 6, 1994 President Habyarimana's plane was shot down as it descended into Rwanda. Although it was not formally determined who committed this act, Hutu extremists took the incident as a cue to formally start terrorizing and killing Tutsis in Rwanda, and continued to use RTLMC to orchestrate acts of violence (Temple-Raston). RTLMC broadcast everything, including names and addresses of Tutsis so that they could be tracked down and killed by the Hutu Interahamwe militia who were armed with machetes and ready to savagely murder members of the Tutsi population, and the moderate Hutus who supported them (Temple-Raston).

Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines

In the summer of 1993, after a great deal of planning on the part of Hutu extremist supporters, Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines was finally established. The idea behind the station was to circumvent a stipulation in the Arusha Accord, which established power sharing within Rwanda between the major ethnic groups, that said government radio could not be used to for propaganda purposes (Radio Netherlands). RTLMC competed with the government-owned radio station, Radio Rwanda which had been the only station in the country until RTLMC came around.

Nahimana and Ngeze

Many of the individuals who established RTLMC were associated with President Habyarimana, and included members of his government, his family, and even local musicians who were willing to fund and spew hate over the airwaves (Human Rights Watch). What is also disturbing is how many academics became involved with the hard-line Hutu messages of hate. Ferdinand Nahimana, a Rwandan professor of history who studied in Paris, and Leon Mugesera, a second Rwandan professor and journalist who studied in Canada are two such academics. They collaborated with Hassan Ngeze, editor of the newspaper Kangura, and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza "a founding member of the Coalition pour la defense de la Republique (CDR), Coalition for the Defence of the Republic - a Hutu political party which held and expressed extremist views", who was also a founding member of RTLMC, to promote genocide in Rwanda (Amnesty International)

Human Rights Watch estimates that only three years before the genocide began, approximately 29% of Rwandans owned a radio. This number rose dramatically in late 1993 when the government began the distribution of free radios in the country.

Immediately, hate was being broadcast over the airwaves calling for the "extermination of inkotanyi (cockroaches)", the popular derogatory phrase used to describe Tutsis. Additionally, songs with lyric-specific messages that were anti-Tutsi were broadcast, and the station worked alongside the local paper, Kangura, to ensure that as many people as possible were aware of the Hutu ideologies (Temple-Raston).

*Continued on next post*

Rwanda After the Genocide | Indymedia Presents "Reconciling Rwanda"

Even though this video chronicles what happened after the Rwandan genocide, rather than during, I thought it was important to include the perspectives of survivors as well as outsiders.

Media and Conflict

Perhaps media have generally been overlooked in analyses of conflict because, on their own, they are rarely a direct cause of conflict. Nonetheless, as part of a larger matrix of factors, media can be extremely powerful tools used to promote violence, as witnessed in Rwanda, the former Republic of Yugoslavia, the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and elsewhere (Frohardt and Temin).

Media has the potential to influence actions of its audience or user, regardless of its form. The problem with media is that it sometimes works to promote negative values, both on purpose, and inadvertently. The latter can often be an issue relating to the poor training of journalists or "when there is no history of independent media" (Frohardt and Temin). In societies facing conflict, there are often groups of vulnerable people who are dealing with violence and poverty, and this results in them being open to suggestions about how to change their situation, no matter how extreme. This was the case in Rwanda. Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines was purchased privately by Hutu extremists who wished to promote their hatred for Tutsis and their desire to exterminate them, along with any of their moderate Hutu supporters.

One of the most disturbing facts about the use of radio in Rwandan to promote a genocide is the fact that free radios were given to as many people as possible following the establishment of RTLMC. This was done by the government to ensure that everyone had access to the medium and would be able to hear the extremist propaganda the Hutus were preaching (Frohardt and Temin). Because this was done by the government, there certainly was no legislation that suggested the need for other sources of media, nor was there legislation that restricted what could be said on air. Radio was simply used to promote hate.

The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) outlines the following as tactics used to promote hate and fear through the media, tactics that were evident in Rwanda in 1993 and 1994:

A focus on past conflicts and on a history of ethnic animosity;

The manipulation of myths, stereotypes, and identities. The example given by the USIP is how Tutsis were deemed "cockroaches" by the RTLMC broadcasters as a way in which to dehumanize them, and;

A shift towards consistently negative reporting (Frohardt and Temin).

A Brief Overview of Politics in Rwanda Prior to 1994

Rwanda was a fragile country prior to the 1994 genocide. Before 1994, there was a definite separation between the two main ethnic groups in Rwanda: the Hutu and the Tutsi. Since the late 1800s, the Tutsi minority ruled over the country, creating animosity between themselves and the much larger Hutu majority (Melvern 8). The Tutsis gained a reputation of being a superior class, thanks to European explorers who encountered them in the 19th century. Because of their physical features, generally lighter skin, their tall, thin stature, and “angular noses”, they were believed to resemble the white explorers, which resulted in the explorers believing the Tutsis were more civilized than their Hutu counterparts (Melvern 8).

Europeans continued to be involved with Rwanda through the 19th century, and many European countries meddled in Rwandan affairs attempting to better the society by telling them how to govern the country and create certain policies. Belgium was particularly interested in Rwandan affairs, and was the primary reason that the division between Hutu and Tutsi was so important. In 1933, a census was organized by the Belgians in Rwanda to determine which citizens belonged to which ethnic group. Citizens were forced to claim status as either a Hutu or Tutsi, and this determination was made mainly on the “basis of physical appearance” (Melvern 11). Rwandan citizens were forced to carry identification cards from that point, a decision that would greatly affect who was killed during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 (Melvern 11).

In 1975, Juvenal Habyarimana came to power in Rwanda with a totalitarian regime. His party was deemed Mouvement Revolutionnaire National pour le Developpement (MRND or the National Revolutionary Movement for Development). At first, Habyarimana brought peace and stability to Rwanda but the price was a lack of freedom for the people” (Melvern 24).
It was no secret that Habyarimana, his associates, and militia had plans to begin the extermination of Tutsis in Rwanda, yet there was little done on the part of the international community to stop it. A three year civil war between the Rwandan government and the mainly-Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was another ongoing problem inthe country, and finally outside powers, including the United States and France, determined that
intervention was necessary. In 1993 the Arusha Accord, named for the Tanzanian city in which it was held, was signed by the government and the RPF and included numerous stipulations that called for a peaceful Rwanda (Chalk).

President Habyarimana's wife played an integral role in orchestrating the genocide. An influential woman in Rwanda, Agathe Habyarimana had a close group of friends who were known as the Akazu (little house). This group terrorized Tutsis and were known to be extreme and violent. The Akazu believed that some of the outcomes of the Arusha Accord were detrimental to their perceived power share in Rwanda. The Akazu decided that the only way they could hold onto power was by convincing the Hutu population that the Tutsis were a threat, and that the only way for the Hutus to survive this alleged threat was for the extermination of the Tutsi population (Chalk).

Proposal

Radio as a medium continues to be an influential source of information all over the world. It continually captures large audiences despite tough competition from television, the Internet, Podcasts, and other new media.

As the title suggests, I propose to examine the use of radio in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 that resulted in the brutal deaths of nearly one million Rwandan Tutsis and Tutsi supporters. In particular, I will look at Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLMC) as the main body that encouraged violence. I also hope to determine the popularity of radio in Rwanda prior to the genocide, including how many homes actually had radios prior to and at the time of the genocide.

Another focus of my research will be the politics in Rwanda prior to the genocide, and I will examine the racial tensions prior to the murders, and the way in which the government dealt with the increasingly tense situation in the country. I will examine regulations, or lack thereof, related to the RTLMC in order to determine how strict or lax they were in Rwanda in the mid-1990s. Additionally, I hope to find other Rwandan radio stations to compare and contrast with RTLMC and determine how each station was run (eg. ideologies, policies, etc.). I may also compare/contrast the use of radio to incite hate in Rwanda with historical examples where radio played a key role in spreading propaganda.

That being said, I will use the above ideas as guidelines for my research. Depending on my findings, my focus may shift slightly, but I hope to be able to include as much information as possible on this topic.