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Journalists relied on Information from soldiers and Militiamen, genocide
convict tells court
By Mary Kimani
- Genocide
convict George Ruggiu, a former journalist at
- Radio
Television Libres des Mille Collines (RTLM), today
- testified
before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
- (ICTR) that
after 6 April 1994 journalists at the radio station
- relied on
information from soldiers and militiamen for their
- broadcasts.
-
- "We
participated in daily briefings at the Ministry of Defenseą
- we were
given an update of the military situation and search
- notices that
included the registration numbers of cars owned by
- people who
were being sought," Ruggiu told the judges presiding
- over the
so‑called "Media Trial."
-
- "We were
also given instructions on how we needed to speak
- about
soldiers and the militaryą we were not to broadcast any
- negative
information about the military, the political situation or
- the militiaą
we knew the militia were involved in killings but we
- never spoke
much about it," he claimed.
-
- Ruggiu, a
Belgian citizen of Italian origin, pleaded guilty to
- persecution
and incitement to genocide before the ICTR in May
- 2000 and, a
month later, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
- Ruggiu is
testifying against RTLM founding members Ferdinand
- Nahimana and
Jean Bosco Barayagwiza as well as Hassan
- Ngeze,
former owner and editor of an alleged Hutu extremist
- newspaper 'Kangura.'
The prosecution has alleged that the
- RTLM and
Kangura were instrumental in fanning ethnic hatred
- that led to
the April‑June 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
-
- The former
RTLM journalist said the radio received information
- from the 'Interahamwe,'
the militia wing of the Movement of the
- Republic for
National Development (MRND) about operations
- they
intended to carry out and 'search' notices for people or
- cars, which
was then broadcast on the radio.
-
- "The search
notices included instructions that the targeted people
- should be
stopped," Ruggiu said, adding that names of those in
- the company
of the targeted persons were also broadcast on the
- radio.
-
- Ruggiu
alleged that between April 6 and 14 June 1994,
- Nahimana
visited the RTLM offices three times to sort out
- problems
with payment of the journalists and to encourage them
- "to continue
their work."
-
- The witness
claimed that Barayagwiza also handled problems
- that arose
in the radio station and visited the station at least 15
- times after
its inception. "He was not very regularą Nahimana
- was more
regular," Ruggiu maintained. The RTLM was
- established
in April 1993.
-
- According to
Ruggiu: "The editorial policy of RTLM was to
- diabolize
the RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front) and pro‑RPF
-
personalitiesą to prove that the Arusha Accords had been
- broken by
the RPF, that UNAMIR [United Nations Assistance
- Mission in
Rwanda] was biased and supported the RPF by
- omission or
commission. It had a mission to remind people in
- Rwanda of
the political stakes of the time, by showing it as the
- power
struggle similar to the one in 1959 between the Hutus and
- the Tutsi."
-
- Ruggiu
continues to testify before Trial Chamber I of the ICTR,
- comprising
Judges Navanethem Pillay of South Africa
- (presiding),
Erik Mose of Norway and Asoka De Zoysa
- Gunawardana
of Sri Lanka.
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