communication in Burundi and the weaponization of mass media

“Today the police shoot in the legs… But when the day comes that we tell them to go to work, do not come crying to us.”

Work was a loaded euphemism used widely by media and government figures alike during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It was the instruction to begin the mass killings that would eventually leave more than 800,000 people dead.

The problem is, that quote isn’t drawn from hate-filled radio transcripts that dominated the airwaves of 1994 Rwanda — that quote is taken from a speech given by the Senate leader of Burundi, Mr Reverien Ndikuriyo. Last week.

As it finally dawned upon us all what exactly had happened in Rwanda in 1994, all around the world people were saying “never again.” Bodies clogging rivers could never happen again. Churches filled with children being burned alive could never happen again. Dead bodies collecting on the streets could never happen again.

Except that it is happening again. Reports are coming through of bodies in Burundi dumped on the streets on an almost nightly basis.

Even more telling though, in not necessarily the death toll (of which is conservatively estimated at 240), but the way in which mass media in Burundi has been decimated and then re-built by the government as a powerful weapon inciting hatred and violence.

In brief: Pierre Nkurunziza has been President of Burundi since the end of the Burundian Civil War that ravaged the country from 1993–2005. In April of this year, he announced his intention to seek a third term as president. This announcement sparked protests, and in May 2015 there was an attempted coup d’état against him, which proved unsuccessful. Federal elections were held in July, of which the opposition boycotted, and Pierre Nkurunziza comfortably retained his position as President of Burundi. In the months since, the Burundian military has been targeting neighborhoods perceived to have opposed the President’s re-election. The government claims they are searching for “opposition weapons” and “crushing terrorism,” but witnesses tell stories of indiscriminate killings, including a bar owner, his son, and a UN employee.

But whilst all of this has been happening, and whilst international media has been largely reporting the unfolding refugee crisis (a mistake also made in 1994 Rwanda), the Burundian government has been undergoing a process that has seen the weaponization of their national media.

After the failed coup attempt against President Nkurunziza in May, three radio stations and one TV station known to be critical of the President were allegedly burned to the ground by Burundi police and security forces. The President promised to allow the station to re-open, however this was later corrected by his Senior Adviser in Charge of Information and Communication in the Office of the Presidency, who stated that the President did not in fact promise to re-open the stations, but that an investigation will take place to find out who was responsible. He then went on to accuse the stations of being complicit in the attempted coup against the President. Subtle.

Even after the election in July, reports from international media came through that the closed radio and newspaper outlets have still not been allowed to re-open. The people responsible for the arson have also — quite conveniently — not been found.

Currently, only Burundi National Radio Television (RTNB) is still broadcasting in the country. It is a state-run radio station.

The RTLM radio station in Rwanda is now widely acknowledged as a key tool used to incite the mass genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and one of its strengths was its ability to reach out to, and connect with, its large listener base of youth gangs. In a speech that was given — and recorded — this past Sunday, Senate leader Reverien Ndikuriyo specifically called on the youth militia known as IMBONERAKURE to “get to work.”

There it is, again. Work.

Ndikuriyo also called on listeners to “pulverize” and “exterminate” opponents, who are “good only for dying.” He tells supporters to “spray” people on the other side.

Spraying. Like cockroaches.

Like Tutsi cockroaches.

In 1994, the U.S. had the opportunity to jam Rwandan radio broadcasts, and didn’t. Primarily out of disinterest (the U.S. was suffering heavily from Somalia Fatigue and Rwanda was of little strategic importance to them), but also because they worried about setting up a dangerous precedent (which was stupid, because they’d already used radio jamming in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War but ANYWAY). It was largely accepted within International Law that jamming radio broadcasts is illegal if conducted outside of your own state borders, and 1994 was a precarious time for technology in which television had become a staple of daily life, and the internet was fast developing into a product that would become a mainstay of almost every household in the world.

But what happens when mass media is being used as an tool to instigate war crimes and crimes against humanity? What happens when mass media is being used to break the very international laws designed to protect human lives? What happens when mass media actually becomes a weapon that leaves thousands of people dead?

It’s not 1994 anymore. And we said “never again.” We said “never again” and we let genocide unfold in Darfur. We said “never again” and we largely ignored the Central African Republic as mass executions and sexual slavery tore the countries to pieces from 2013 onward. We said “never again” and now we are watching the Burundian government create a weapon far more dangerous than a group of men with guns. What good are men with guns if they can’t hear you?

But the Burundian military, youth militias and government supporters can hear them, and the rising death tolls indicates that they’re listening.

It’s not 1994 anymore. Living in a technological era such as this, it’s time to have some very frank conversations regarding international law in relation to mass media, and international law in relation to sound. Rwandan militias sang the song repeatedly broadcast by the RTLM as they hacked into the bodies of Tutsi civilians, and that power of recorded speech, transmitted music — the mass electronic broadcast of words — needs to be addressed. That power, with its capacity to do so much damage, needs to have boundaries.

I’m not advocating for international laws that will condone a state to jam electronic broadcasts of any other nation at its whim. But maybe we need to stop and think for a minute just how different things may have been if an international body like the UN had jammed Rwandan radio transmission back in 1994.

Freedom of media is paramount. People love media freedom, and people get uncomfortable when discussions crop up about potentially taking media freedom away. But the Burundian government has already done that, and its media has instead become their latest weapon in war. Discussions around impeaching national sovereignty are just as unpopular, but as more civilians face indiscriminate killings by people spurred on by electronically transmitted empty rhetoric, just how long are we going to wait until we’re ready to have a conversation that makes us a little uncomfortable?

We need to address the weaponization of mass media. We need re-write international law to address the weaponization of modern media. And we need to jam Burundi’s radio broadcasts before more people die.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Please sign this petition to President Obama asking that he make preventing genocide in Burundi an urgent diplomatic priority.