Broadcasting Genocide: Censorship, propaganda & state-sponsored violence in Rwanda 1990- 1994 1 Contents Chapter 1 POLITICAL BACKGROUND Chapter 2 FROM EXTERNAL AGGRESSION TO THE ENEMY WITHIN; Incitement and State- Sponsored Violence (1990-1993) Chapter 3 SUPPRESSION OF INFORMATION Chapter 4 THE RISE OF “HATE MEDIA” AND ITS GOVERNMENT SPONSORSHIP Chapter 5 RTLM BEFORE THE GENOCIDE (8 July 1993 – April 1994) Chapter 6 RTLM AND THE GENOCIDE Chapter 7 INTERNATIONAL LAW, THE MEDIA AND GENOCIDE Chapter 8 CONCLUSION Summary of conclusions and recommendations 2 Chapter 1 POLITICAL BACKGROUND 1 History and Social Structure Rwanda and Burundi have a similar history and social structure. In both countries the Hutu make up a substantial majority of the population – about 85 per cent – with the Tutsi comprising 14 per cent. The Twa constitute the remaining 1 per cent. Conventional colonial historiography described the Hutu and Tutsi as different races, claiming that the Tutsi were a Nilo-Hamitic people, from the area now known as the Horn of Africa, and therefore were somehow more closely related to Europeans than other Africans. German, and later Belgian, officials maintained that the Tutsi were superior to the Hutu and, therefore, naturally better suited to serve as leaders. Although these colonial theories have been disproved, there is still surprisingly little agreement about the origins and character of the different ethnic groups¹. It is commonly accepted that the Twa of “pygmies” were the original inhabitants of the area, arriving between 2000 BC and 1000 AD, with a hunter-gatherer economy. Between the fourth and seventh centuries AD, another group of clans settled in Rwanda and began farming the land. The nature of this second group remains the subject of ongoing debate by historians. One school of thought maintains that these settlers were baHutu (Hutu) and argues that the baTutsi (Tutsi) migrated to Rwanda much later, between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Another group of historians refutes the notion that the Hutu and Tutsi ever had different geographical origins. 2 Instead, the latter school asserts that the second wave of settlers was banyaRwanda and that the distinctions between Hutu and Tutsi emerged from within the same society. It is believed that these categories may have been based on occupational differences, with the Hutu cultivating large areas of land and the Tutsi breeding livestock. Regardless of the historical or geographic origins of the two groups, the categories of Hutu and Tutsi were already evident in Rwandan society by the early eighteenth century, when the territory known today as Rwanda comprised several small independent states. According to Catherine Newbury, these distinctions evolved with the emergence of a more centralised pre-colonial state in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. She argues: … with the arrival of central authorities … the categories of Hutu and Tutsi assumed new hierarchical overtones … Later, when the political arena widened and the intensity of political activity increased, these classifications became increasingly stratified and rigidified. More than simply conveying the connotation of cultural difference from Tutsi, Hutu identity came to be associated with and eventually defined by inferior status. 3 3 These small states, which had existed since the fifteenth century, were united by the Mwami (traditional chief or king), Kigeri Rwabugiri, who ruled from 1860- 1895. During this period, the mwami, as head of this highly centralised state, also became the symbol of political authority. As such he owned all the land and cattle and also acted as the supreme arbiter of justice in Rwanda. By the end of his rule, the Rwandan kingdom had become tightly organised into a series of the administrative divisions which were mainly headed by Tutsi. 4 This unusually high level of administrative organisation is still reflected in Rwanda today. 5 The German colonisation of the kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi, which began in 1899, accentuated the divisions between Hutu and Tutsi. Although Rwanda and Burundi had formed separate pre-colonial states, Germany united them as one colony, Ruanda-Urundi. Unlike most areas in Africa then, the boundaries imposed by the colonial authorities largely corresponded to distinct pre-colonial political entities. Ruanda-Urundi was administered by only a small number of colonial authorities and they relied on the Tutsi traditional leaders already in place to enforce their rule. However, the colonial authorities formalised the previously fluid social distinctions between Hutu and Tutsi by introducing identity cards which classified the holder by ethnic origin. Each individual was assigned to the ethnicity of his or her father. 6 As the colonial authorities sought to consolidate their power, they exacerbated tensions between Hutu and Tutsi by interfering with their traditional leadership structures. The German colonial authorities used the Tutsi mwami and other traditional Tutsi leaders to subject the entire territory to colonial rule. In northern Rwanda, where Hutu leaders had remained independent of the Tutsi-dominated pre-colonial state of Mwami Kigeri Rwabugiri, this policy caused wide-spread social strife, including a short-lived popular uprising in 1911, near Ruhengeri, which was suppressed by the German military. When Belgium took over the colony of Ruanda-Urundi from Germany at the end of World War I, it continued to depend on Tutsi leaders to enforce its rule. In the late 1920s, the Belgian colonial authorities reorganised the system of traditional leaders and instituted a formal policy of replacing Hutu chiefs with Tutsi leaders throughout the country. By the 1930s, Tutsi leaders enjoyed a complete and unprecedented monopoly of “traditional” leadership positions in Rwanda. 7 2. Revolution, Separation and Independence Towards the mid-1950s, the policy of promoting Tutsi over Hutu as traditional leaders was challenged, as internal and external pressure mounted for the authorities to allow Hutu to participate in government. In 1945, Ruanda-Urundi had become a UN Trust Territory, with the effect that the UN required Belgium to steer the colony towards independence. In 1957 the UN sent a mission to Rwanda to evaluate the steps taken by the colonial authorities to promote democracy. Increasing national pressure to move towards more equal political representation before independence was articulated that same year in The Manifesto of the Bahutu, written by religious teacher and future President, Grégoire Kayibanda. The social Revolution of 1959-1961 was supported by both the colonial authorities and the Catholic missionaries, who were very influential in Rwandan society. 4 Although its causes were more complex, the Revolution itself was sparked in November 1959 by an assault on a party official belonging to the Mouvement démocratique républicain-Parti du muovement de l’émancipation des Hutu (Republican Democratic Movement-Party of the Movement for the Emancipation of Hutu –MDR-Parmehutu) by a Tutsi. This incident led to an uprising in which the majority of the Tutsi chiefs (21 out of 43 chiefs and 314 out of 549 sub-chiefs) were killed or forced into exile. Hundreds of other Tutsi were massacred. 8 The colonial authorities replaced these leaders with Hutu chiefs, thereby abolishing the Tutsi monarchy. During this period, several political parties emerged which were grouped along ethnic lines. The Union nationale rwandaise (National Rwandan Union – UNAR) and the Rassemblement démocratique rwandais (Rwandan Democratic Assembly – RADER) mainly enjoyed support from Tutsi communities, whereas the Association pour la promotion sociale des masses (Association for the Social Promotion of the Masses – APROSOMA) and the MDR-Parmehutu represented mostly Hutu constituents. This ethnic polarisation of Rwandan politics became even more apparent with the legislative elections of September 1961, which were marred by widespread elections of September 1961, which were marred by widespread violence against Tutsi. Hutu-dominated parties won 83 per cent of the votes nationwide, a figure which corresponded to the percentage of Hutu in the general population. 9 Rwanda and Burundi gained formal independence as separate states on 1 July 1962. Under the First Republic of President Grégoire Kayibanda, which came to power in Rwanda after independence, the political system was monopolised by his Hutu- based MDR-Parmehutu, the only party to field candidates during the next legislative election in 1965. Meanwhile, President Kayibanda’s government targeted both political opponents and Tutsi for intimidation and state-sponsored violence. This violence became more widespread when groups of Tutsi exiles based in Burundi and Uganda, who had fled the country during the Social Revolution, launched a series of attacks on Rwanda during the early 1960s. In Rwanda, the rebels were commonly referred to as “Inyenzi”, or “cockroaches” and the authorities responded to the attacks by retaliating against Tutsi living within the country. For example, in late 1963, following a major attack on the Bugesera region, government authorities organised massacres of Tutsi in many parts of the country. In the préfecture (province) of Gikongoro, some 5,000 to 8,000 Tutsi were killed – 10-20 per cent of the Tutsi population. 10 3 From the First to the Second Republic By the early 1970s, the Tutsi were so effectively excluded from political influence that politics began to divide along regional instead of ethnic lines.