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Hate Radio: Rwanda from Radio Netherlands 
This page last updated: Friday, September 05, 2003 Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) is the most recent and widely reported symbol of "hate radio" throughout the world. Its broadcasts, disseminating hate propaganda and inciting to murder Tutsis and opponents to the regime, began on 8 July 1993, and greatly contributed to the 1994 genocide of hundreds of thousands. RTLM, aided by the staff and facilities of Radio Rwanda, the government-owned station, called on the Hutu majority to destroy the Tutsi minority. The programmes were relayed to all parts of the country via a network of transmitters owned and operated by Radio Rwanda. After Rwandan Patriotic Front troops drove the government forces out of Kigali in July 1994, RTLM used mobile FM transmitters to broadcast disinformation from inside the French-controlled zone on the border between Rwanda and Zaire, causing millions of Hutus to flee toward refugee camps where they could be regrouped and recruited as future fighters. It is widely believed that RTLM was set up to circumvent the ban imposed on "harmful radio propaganda" to which the Rwandan government had formally committed itself to in the March 1993 Dar-Es-Salaam joint communiqué. The West Fails to Act Initially, RTLM was not taken seriously by western governments and diplomats. Although RTLM clearly qualified as harmful and attacked even members of the diplomatic corps in Kigali, there was no decision to take forceful measures to silence it. The western donors limited themselves to making representations to President Habyarimana who responded by promising to look into it, but not taking any action. Both the French and the American ambassadors opposed any action against RTLM. The US Ambassador at the time claimed that it was the best radio for information and that its euphemisms were subject to many interpretations. As the then Canadian ambassador, Lucie Edwards, later said: "The question of Radio Mille Collines propaganda is a difficult one. There were so many genuinely silly things being said on the station, so many obvious lies, that it was hard to take it seriously... Nevertheless, everyone listened to it - I was told by Tutsis (sic) - in a spirit of morbid fascination and because it had the best music selection." Bringing the Guilty to Justice The process of bringing to justice those responsible for the broadcasts of RTLM is now well under way, though some are still at large. On 22 July, 1996 journalist Ferdinand Nahimana, described as the director of RTLM, was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He was charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity. The initial court appearance was made on 19 February 1997 and he pleaded not guilty. The trial of Nahimana and two others began on 21 Oct 2001. The indictment alleges that: In or around 1993, Ferdinand Nahimana and others planned and created RTLM S.A. RTLM was an integral part of RTLM S.A. RTLM operated within the territory of Rwanda during the time of the events alleged in the indictment. In addition to being involved in the creation of RTLM S.A, Ferdinand Nahimana was instrumental in the establishment of RTLM. Between 1 January 1994 and approximately 31 July 1994, RTLM was used to broadcast messages designed to achieve interethnic hatred and encourage the population to kill, commits acts of violence and persecutions against Tutsi population and others on political grounds. During this period, Tutsis and others were killed and suffered serious bodily or mental harm as the result of the RTLM broadcasts. From a date unknown to the prosecutor through the period alleged in the indictment, Ferdinand Nahimana, by himself and with others planned, directed and defended the broadcasts made by RTLM. He knew or had reason to know of the broadcasts and the effects of the broadcasts on the population. He could have taken reasonable measures to change or prevent the broadcasts, but failed to do so. He failed to take the necessary measures to punish the subordinates. Nahimana's Defence The prosecution completed its evidence on 12 July 2002. Nahimana began testifying in his own defence in September 2002. He said that RTLM was set up to counter the propaganda of Radio Muhabura, operated by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF). "We felt that there was need for more voices in the discussion of the Arusha accords, to counteract the RPF radio and to explain to the people the effects of the war." "There is a sense in which when one says we were criticising the RPF, it is understood to mean that the person was against Tutsi. I think this is terrible and I must ask you not to approach matters this way. We felt it was important to have a discussion on the issues that were obtaining at the time and this is what we did," said Nahimana. According to Nahimana, the Movement for the Democratic Republic (MDR) controlled the Ministry of Information, and had signed a memorandum of agreement with the RPF that resulted in unbalanced coverage of the 'war' in the national media. "If the RPF had not set up its own station and proceeded to broadcast propaganda on which basis the government was to blame for the war, RTLM would probably not have been set up. A lot of people were unhappy with the coverage of Radio Rwanda," Nahimana said. Nahimana said that while he was involved in the radio's initial formation, he was not involved in its day-to-day running. He added that a manager named Phocas Hahimana was in charge of RTLM's daily activities. Nahimana maintained that, contrary to prosecution allegations, he did not have editorial control over RTLM broadcasts, and claimed that only Gaspard Gahigi, the editor in chief, held such powers. Haimana went on to claim that a radical section of the founding members of RTLM hijacked the radio station and used it for a killing campaign. "What happened in Rwanda is revolting, thousand, hundreds of thousands of Tutsi were killed for no other reason than they were Tutsi and this happened largely in areas controlled by the transitional government. In areas controlled by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) in eastern Rwanda, thousands of Hutu were killed because they were Hutu, it is truly revolting," Nahimana told the court. "I couldn't recognise the RTLM of those days from the one that existed before 6 April. It had been appropriated by radicals, what are now called extremists, whose way of seeing and doing things I did not share," said Nahimana. He said he lost contact with RTLM on 8 April 1994, a few days before he was evacuated to Burundi. Nahimana denied the prosecution's claims that he subsequently crossed back into Rwanda via the Cyangugu border post when the savagery was at its height, and sought to renew his ties with RTLM. "I was very apprehensive," he said. "I was worried about what was going to happen to me, my wife and my children." According to Nahimana, he worked "sporadically" with the interim Rwandan authorities, and left Rwanda on July 14, after rebels of the mainly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front seized Kigali. It was during this period in the country that Nahimana said he became aware of what he termed the "dysfunctions" at RTLM. Prosecuting attorney Simone Monasebian produced excerpts of various documents, including portions of the Kangura Newspaper published between 1990-1994. She noted that Kangura had published a photograph of Nahimana, together with RTLM editor Gaspard Gahigi with the caption "RTLM, no chance for the Tutsi" and challenged Nahimana to show if he had ever contested this portrayal of the station. Nahimana admitted that he had not protested, but said that Kangura had published a lot of other things that he did not agree with, and which he found unacceptable. Monasebian noted that RTLM officials attended meetings in which they were criticised by the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Justice in Rwanda and accused of inciting ethnic hatred. She played a videotape of former Minister of KInformation Faustin Rucogoza, who stated that RTLM had turned into a political party and a mouthpiece of the extremist Council for the Defense of Democracy (CDR) party. She noted that during this time Nahimana "acted as the director of the RTLM or at least held himself up as such." Nahimana said that he had never at any time been the director of RTLM, and that this was a post held by Phocas Habimana. Nahimana added that some prosecution witnesses designated him as an RTLM founder rather than its director. "Trauma and Drugs Were to Blame" On 18th October, Nahimana turned to another line of defence, and started claiming that trauma and drug use explained the extremist conduct of the RTLM journalists. "Some journalists started drugging themselves and this only started happening after 6 April," said Nahimana. He lamented the fact that the editor-in-chief and director of the station did not spot this and put a stop to it. Nahimana also named individual journalists whom he said had suffered personal trauma, which "explained" some of the things they said on the air. In April 1998, Giorgio Ruggiu, an Italian-Belgian accused of incitement to genocide and of crimes against humanity, in connection with the massacre that occurred in Rwanda between April and June 1994, went on trial in Arusha. According to the charges, he broadcast on RTLM an appeal to the Hutus to destroy as many Tutsis as possible. "What are you waiting for? The tombs are empty. Take up your machetes and hack your enemies to pieces", he was reported as having said at the time. In May 2000, Mr Ruggiu was given two concurrent sentences of 12 years each, after admitting to direct and public incitement to commit genocide and persecution as a crime against humanity. He admitted that he "incited murders and caused serious attacks on the physical and/or mental well-being of members of the Tutsi population with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, an ethnic or racial group". "These are events which I regret, but they are the reality and I decided to admit them," Mr Ruggiu told the court. "I admit that it was indeed a genocide and that unfortunately I took part in it," he said. The Rwandan government has protested at the sentence, saying that it "did not measure up to the crimes for which Ruggiu had confessed". In October 2000, Philippe Dahinden, who worked as a lawyer and journalist for the International Commission of Jurists and the French NGO Reporters sans Frontiers, appeared as a witness at the trial of three suspects. Dahinden told the court that in 1993 he investigated the role RTLM played in generating violence. He made video recordings and produced a report that has been tendered as a prosecution exhibit in the case. Dahinden said that during these investigations he met several times with Ferdinand Nahimana, who was at the time head of Rwandan Information Services, (ORINFOR). Dahinden noted that, as head of ORINFOR and consequently of Radio Rwanda, Nahimana was responsible for what was broadcast by the station. He detailed how some of these broadcasts created violent reactions, including massacres in the Bugesera region. Dahinden said that he raised his concerns about the role the radio played in these massacres with the accused. However, Nahimana evidently felt that Radio Rwanda was performing its duty by informing Hutu civilians of Rwanda Patriotic Front accomplices in their midst. Nahimana told Dahinden that it was the role of public utilities to inform citizens "of the danger facing them," and that by doing so the radio station had helped save lives. Dahinden told the court how he followed the development of RTLM, and how Nahimana took up its directorship after being dropped from the administration of ORINFOR. According to Dahinden, Nahimana was "the brains behind" RTLM. During the genocide in May, Dahinden went back into Rwanda twice. He said that at road blocks he met militia carrying radios and listening to RTLM. Dahinden said that one of the things that struck him was the extent to which the militia relied on the radio for information and directions. He also told the court how he and his colleagues counted between 3,000 to 5,000 bodies per day at River Ruvumo, near the border with Burundi, as a result of the massacres. In June 2002, the US State Department announced the Campaign to Capture Fugitives Indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The campaign started by offering a reward of up to US$5 million for the capture of former RTLM President Félicien Kabuga. Mr Kabuga is a wealthy businessman who is accused of using his vast assets to propel the Rwandan massacres, firstly, by affording a platform to disseminate the message of ethnic hatred through the radio station, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), and secondly, by providing logistic support such as weapons, uniforms, and transportation to the Interahamwe militia group of the Mouvement Républicain National pour le Démocratie et le Développement (MRND) and the militia of Coalition pour la Défense de la République (CDR). After three years of testimony, the trial reached its climax in August 2003 when the tribunal retired to consider its verdict. The prosecutor has demanded the maximum sentence, life imprisonment for all the accused. Their lawyers, on the other hand insist, that the prosecutor has not proved his case beyond all reasonable doubt and have demanded for an acquittal. The defence has rejected prosecution testimonies in whole, deeming them of extreme fragile nature if not dangerous- not for the defence, but for justice as a whole |