Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines

from http://huzapress.com/

In my post on radio station bombings [LINK] the Rwandan civil war got a single entry: "1994 - (4/18) RPA shelled the RTLM station in Rwanda". Host Noheli Hitimana lost a leg in that bombing. But there is so much more to be said about that one bullet point. To quote Judge Navanethem Pillay:

“You were fully aware of the power of words, and you used the radio – the medium of communication with the widest public reach – to disseminate hatred and violence….Without a firearm, machete or any physical weapon, you caused the death of thousands of innocent civilians.”

The BBC once described the genocide in Rwanda as "100 days of slaughter." But it is true that 800,000 people were killed over a period of just 100 days in 1994. It you are trying to imagine the scope of the tragedy, that's almost 15% of the entire population.  The population curve tells the story: Over a million Rwandans fled to the neighboring countries of Tanzania, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo, at the time called Zaire. About 600,000 returned by 1995. Another 1.7 million remained in refugee camps until at least 1996. Many died of cholera. More here.

In any country it takes a lot to pit one population violently against another. There were many factors and many different agitators and the obvious legacy colonial reasons. But in every account I've read, the name of one radio station appears repeatedly: Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). It broadcast from July 8, 1993 to July 31, 1994 or 358 days, just over 1 year. But understanding how it was so effective at inciting so much violence requires a bit of context.

I'll step out of media studies here to point out a key historical cause. Belgian forces took control of Rwanda and Burundi from Germany in 1916. They were much more hands-on colonialist than Germany had been. Though both the Germans and the Belgians were big on Tutsi supremacy, and emphasized that the Hutu and Tutsi different races. In 1935, Belgium introduced identity cards labeling residents as either Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or Naturalized. Prior to that it had been possible for individuals to become honorary Tutsi.  Identity cards effectively ended social mobility for the non-Tutsi.

It's also important to grasp how little radio was in Rwanda even in the 1990s. Starting 1963 (possibly 1965) Germany funded the construction of Radio-diffusion de la Republique Rwandaise a.k.a. Radio Kigali and leased the land. They also gave Rwanda major assistance in setting up it's own 50 kW short-wave service which opened with three studios in 1968 as Radio Rwanda. (This was a trade for the right to build their own Deutche Welle station at Kigali.) 

Note: Some sources also cite a 1961 founding date. I suspect that's actually the founding of the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA).  In his book Broadcasting in Africa, Sydney W. Head wrote that in 1974 that Kigali was still the only domestic service in Rwanda. Even then the station only broadcast 94 hours a week in a mix of French, Kinyarwanda, and Swahili. Regardless, The Kigali lease expired in 2016 and the German government returned even the Deutche Welle station to the Rwandan government in a small ceremony [LINK].

Radio Muhabura was created in 1991 and broadcast from Uganda, but it covered all but the southern end of Rwanda. It promoted armed resistance against the "extremist" Rwandan government and promoted resistance against "Hutu power" and opposed the Habyarimana government. It's reach was significantly undermined by broadcasting solely in English. 93% of Rwandans speak Kinyarwanda and about 6% speak French, and less than 10% spoke English. (This changed much after 2008) More here.

Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines began broadcasting in July of 1993. The DJs spoke in Kinyarwanda and played pop music 24/7. It was designed for mass appeal and it found a large and young demographic.  It developed an audience of young Rwandans, who later made up the bulk of the Interahamwe militia. But when planning for RTLM began in 1992 by Hutu hard-liners, it was to be only the third domestic service in Rwanda. So with Radio Muhabura unintelligible, and Radio Rwanda spouting unappealing MOR programming they didn't have to try too hard  to win listeners. At the time, their claim was that Radio Rwanda was too non-partisan despite the growing popularity of Rwandan Patriotic Front's (RPF) and Radio Muhabura. But even then, Radio Rwanda was still the only national domestic station. More here.

The station was allegedly funded by Felicien Kabuga. [Kabuga is still at large] The ruling party, the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND) coordinated fundraisers with RTLM. But the RTLM wasn't just right-wing, it was completely radicalized. RTLM even railed against the peace talks between the RPF and President Juvenal Habyarimana.  RTLM existed to incite hatred between ethnic groups. Radio hosts referred to the Tutsi people as inyenzi (cockroaches) or as inzoka, (snakes.) Ironically the Rwandan government had committed themselves to a ban against "harmful radio propaganda" in the UN's March 1993 joint communique in Dar es Salaam.

But the programming on RTLM wasn't just rabid racist ranting. The RTLM maintained a thin facade of civility, and substance even airing vile propaganda; a strategy employed by many far right news sources like Afd, FPO-TV, Zur Zeit and Fox News. You can read some transcripts here. Though it was bombed in April of 1994, engineer Joseph Serugendo salvaged equipment and relocated the station to the top of Mount Muhe close to Gisenyi.  There it continued to broadcast through the end of July. More here. Below I list off some prominent staff (management, engineers and hosts) and their current status:

• Ferdinand Nahimana - 30 years in prison
• Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza - Died in 2010
• Gaspard Gahigi - 12 years in prison
• Phocas Habimana - Assumed dead
• Ferdinand Nahimana - Life in prison
• Joseph Serugendo - Died 2006
• Ananie Nkurunziza - Still At large
• Georges Ruggiu - 12 years in prison (early release 2009) 
• Felicien Kabuga - Still At large
• Valerie Bemeriki - Life in prison
• Noheli Hitimana - Died 2002
• Hassan Ngeze - 35 years in prison

There are numerous books about this event. Allan Thompson wrote two actually, titled The Media and the Rwanda Genocide, and Media and Mass Atrocity it's well worth the effort to read more if you made it this far. Thompson gets into the area of media accountability in that vast gray area we live in between censorship and propaganda. Ulrich B. Neumann wrote one on a similar topic but more focused on the aftermath, with a bit more lengthy title Media and Reconciliation: Rwanda's Reconciliation Process and the Potential of Post-Conflict Journalism. The book Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwandan Genocide by Linda Melvern is particularly detailed about the funding of RTLM. There is a lesson here about the power of media. Rather then be ineloquent, I'll quote Judge Navanethem Pillay again:

"We are now are now experiencing the whispers of hate speech in South Africa, it is very important to know that at the highest level, it was declared a crime if it mounts to [incitement]. So, I am recounting these experiences... because I want to inspire you to be resilient and to work hard and to serve the greater good because nothing can be more gratifying than that."