Message to Rwanda. 1994
Hey! today I’m writing about something that may be a little depressing but interesting to know and can make you reflect a lot about what’s going on in our society. I try not to put pictures that are very brutal because I don’t want you to feel bad. But still… Be prepared to lose a little faith in humanity.
The horrible genocide in Rwanda in 1994 is one of the most brutal, terrifying and disturbing event in history of humanity. 800,000 people are killed within 3 months. This tragedy didn’t even have solid or reasonable reasons. The main reason is fear, which, ya know, is not a solid reason because it’s not an actual thing that’s happening. Fear is not real but is created. Or in this case, more like designed. Because in this case, the most evil triggering factor responsible for the massacre, is media. Media had played a huge role along the way.
Before going deeper to the impact of media, I need to tell you about the situation first. In Rwanda, there are 2 main tribes; Hutu and Tutsi. The latter is the minority of the population. Decades before the genocide, Rwanda was under the ruling of Belgium. Belgium, for some reason, preferred Tutsi over Hutu and place Tutsi as the ruling class of Rwanda. So Hutu had always been the underprivileged, poorer, and oppressed group. This is the beginning of the discrimination. After the country became independent, a Hutu leader overthrew Tutsi monarch so they have to flee from the country and become refugee. In 1990 while the Hutu is ruling Rwanda, Tutsi refugees formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and invade Rwanda and so the civil war began.
During the civil war, there was a fake attack staged in Kigali by Rwandan government and the responsibility was thrown to RPF. The attack was followed by anti-Tutsi rhetoric to build rage towards Tutsi. There, you can see that media started to play roles in this. Though the media might report what really happened, which was an attack, the source of the event was fake and it was also not telling the truth because of the influencer behind it. The rhetoric was controlled and spread for a purpose. This event is not good for the tension between Hutu and Tutsi but it’s just a start.
The situation had gone far worse in 1994, when the plane carrying the Hutu president Habyarimana was shot down not long after he signed the agreement to share power with the RPF. It is still a mystery today which group shot down the plane. But the sure thing is that it boiled the political tension in Rwanda to its peak. Rwandan government blamed the RPF for shooting the plane. Within an hour of the plane crash, the presidential guards together with the Hutu militias started the order to kill the Tutsis. The kill didn’t stop within the region but spread all over the country.
The genocide lasted around 3 months with 1 in 10 of Rwandan brutally killed. How could this happen? What makes good ordinary people become monsters? Let’s take a look at some of the propaganda used through media.
The media is trying to create the sense of discrimination and exclusion. They created the mindset of us vs. them making people feel the “them” is not one of “us” and there’s no need to treat them like we treat ourselves. Not only they tried to exclude the Tutsis as the out-group, but also dehumanize them. One thing I find very shocking is that Rwandan media broadcasted and called the Tutsi “ Inyenzi ” which means cockroaches. For me, this is like laying a base mindset preparing the Hutus to be ready to do wilder things by gradually changing how people perceive Tutsis from human to some disgusting creature. It all came along with the media trying to emphasize on the colonial period when the Tutsi ruled and create fear of how Hutus will be oppressed if ever Tutsis take control again and also drawing attention to the staged acts to support the assertion.
Since the death of President Habyarimana, they started propaganda encouraging Hutus to kill the neighbors. Moderate Hutus who hesitate to follow will be killed as well. The Rwandan radio even stated “ the cruelty of the Inyenzi can only be cured by their total extermination ”. This is simply, forcing people to kill each other by law. They justify or legitimize the slaughter by calling it a self-defense against Tutsi attack. You see? Just changing words you use in media can make killing human fellows sounds ok.
Another tactic Rwandan media used is creating the sense of urgency of this so-called Tutsi threat urging Hutus to respond quickly. Samantha Power, a US diplomat told story that “ killers often carried a machete in one hand and a transistor radio in the other ”. You can imagine how fast they are willing to respond to the media. This, I think is another important point why so many people were killed. It’s because the vibe is urgent, people are under pressure to act quickly, and they did not spend enough time to think or ponder the idea and their action. It’s like people become blind and ignorant for a while, however, long enough while to commit almost a million murders.
You see media is a powerfully dangerous tools if used for the wrong purpose. The genocide in Rwanda is a devastating example that we never want happened again. Thus, I want to say that it’s the responsibility of media controllers to take care of the messages sent out not to create hatred among people. Because who knows? just a simple message of peace could have saved 800,000 lives.
