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).