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*