adminincidents that led to this massacre. They have ignored how the radio in wrong hands can have disastrous consequences.
Before writing this article I had to re-psyche myself through interviews and visuals of the genocide. The controversy surrounding the alleged donation of radios by some non-governmental organisations coupled with my own feelings and experiences gained from a recent visit to Rwanda pushed me to unravel the effects of the media especially radios in volatile areas.
In the Rwandese scenario the “so-called hate media had a significant part to play in the genocide, during which some 800 000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died.”
The most prominent hate media outlet was the private radio station, Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines.
“It was established in 1993 and opposed peace talks between the government of President Juvenal Habyarimana and the Tutsi-led rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, which now forms the government.
“After President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down, the radio called for a “final war” to “exterminate the cockroaches.””
During the genocide that followed it broadcast lists of people to be killed and instructed killers on where to find them. The BBC’s Ally Mugenzi worked as a journalist in Rwanda during the genocide and says there was no doubting the influence of the RTLM.
There were also announcements urging Hutus to kill their enemies. You can imagine a team of youths sitting at a street corner armed with pangas, stones, knobkerries and all sorts of weapons and also drinking alcohol and hunched over a small radio.
In the background, crackling a call and chant; “These people are a dirty race; We have to exterminate them; We have to get rid of them; This is the only solution; These cockroaches who called me, where did they go? They surely have been exterminated…”
Such a broadcast would be followed by equally heinous and inciting poems and chants that roused the deadly spirits of the armed Interahamwe (those who stand/work/fight/attack together) militias.
Another scholar put it in clear terms.
“In the literature on the Rwandan genocide, one finds varied claims about the effects of hate radio. The majority viewpoint is that radio had direct and large-scale effects on behaviour.
“For example, Roméo Dalla ire, the celebrated former United Nations force commander in Rwanda, claims, “In Rwanda the radio was akin to the voice of God, and if the radio called for violence, many Rwandans would respond…”
Many have also noted the influence of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines becoming popular among the Hutus, “were phrased in code language that everyone understood, ‘Cut the tall trees. Clean your neighbourhood. Do your duty.”
Denigrating Tutsis with phrases like, “A cockroach cannot give birth to a butterfly.” The radios have become an important tool used in many a political struggle hence the emergence of pirate radio stations.
In Cote d’Ivoire president, then opposition leader Mr Alessane Quatarra used the radio to great effect especially claiming victory even when all results were not yet in. It had a great effect because his supporters poured on to the streets celebrating an unconfirmed “victory” while targeting their opponents.
In Zimbabwe, in a bid to fight Government control of such abuse of the media, there are forces that have established radio stations that try to fight against the system.
Western governments have sponsored and hosted pirate radio stations beaming into Zimbabwe.
Pirate radio stations, Studio 7, SW Radio Africa, VOP and several others have continued to unleash inflammatory statements against the establishment.
The people sponsoring these stations understand their influence and have gone a step further to distribute radios, some with the latest technology. That explains efforts by some diplomats to smuggle in such tools. And do not be fooled, dear reader, this has been going on for the past decade, only that the technology is improving.
Far more technically superior from the radio sets distributed before the 2008 elections, the radios smuggled into Zimbabwe are more sophisticated.
These radios have also sorts of operations from simple receivers, to data storage including transmission.
Some of the gadgetry coming up with the “radios” include Eton MicroLink radios and Huawei Ascend Y100 cellphones fitted with Geographical Positioning Systems. Government has every reason to investigate the importation of these gadgets including their importation through the abuse of diplomatic privileges.
These radios are even more sophisticated with an audio storage capacity of 64 gigabytes, which amounts to a year’s worth of broadcasting.
I just wonder if MDC secretary general Mrs Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga missed such details when she reportedly gave President Mugabe one of the radios or was it a “belated birthday present” for Gushungo.
According Tom Hanks of Lifeline Energy, had these radios existed “during the Cold War, it could have brought down the Soviet Union to its knees”.
Well, they missed out on the Soviet Union, so the next target has to be Zimbabwe.
Never under-estimate the power of the radio!
Online Reporter