people but also to spread hatred and guide genocidaires. Furthermore, after the
assassination of President Habyarimana the RTLM immediately put the blame
on the Tutsis, stating that they were the enemy of Rwanda and the country
would be better off without them (Thompson, 2007, p. ix-3). Jones highlights
how in an attempt to promote fear, RTLM coined the Tutsis as ‘inyenzi’
(cockroaches), that could only be cured by total extermination (2017, p.477). The
dehumanising propaganda was common even prior to the genocide, with the
most notorious being Kangura’s ‘Hutu Ten Commandments’. Marcel Kabanda
highlights the significance of this as they called for Hutus to break all ties with
the Tutsis, as they were first and foremost an enemy (2007, p.62-63). The
analysis section of this report will explore the use of dehumanisation and
toxification in primary sources, and the significance of this.
Furthermore, this section will look at what other scholars have found
about the impact dehumanising propaganda had on encouraging people to
participate in the genocide. This is of particular importance as unlike other
genocides, Rwanda entailed mass citizen mobilisation, with many Hutus killing
their Tutsi neighbours. Firstly, Darryl Li explores the direct impact RTLM had on
the genocide. After they announced on air that “The graves are only half full!
Who will help us to fill them?” hundreds of thousands of people responded to
these calls (2003, p.118-119). Similarly, RTLM created an atmosphere that
encouraged the elimination of Tutsis. With Chalk highlighting how low-level
perpetrators had their thinking affected by the radio broadcasts (2007, p.375-
376). However, there is academic debate over the true impact the media had.
Firstly, on the circulation of Kangura, Jean Hatzfeld’s (2008) findings imply that
the magazine was widespread throughout Rwanda. However, during their
interviews with perpetrators, Scott Straus found that only 2.8% of people he
asked had ever heard of the Hutu Ten Commandments (2013, p.130-131).
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