Secondly, Yanagizawa-Drott argues that the radio increased killings, highlighting
that more people were killed in areas of better RTLM coverage (2014, p.1).
However, other scholars such as Gordon Danning question this and specifically
Drott’s methodology, concluding that availability is an inadequate proxy for
media consumption (2018, p.5). The analysis section of this report will explore
primary accounts of how people responded to the propaganda and the
significance of this. In addition to a small segment on the availability of RTLM
and Kangura.
Rhiannon Neilsen (2015) introduces the newly emerging and convincing
concept of toxification as a more precise early warning indicator of genocide
than dehumanisation. Dehumanisation exists in several instances that do not
lead to violence and is therefore not that strong of an early warning of genocide.
Additionally, dehumanisation only considers the other group inhuman and does
not necessitate killing (p.83-85). Alternatively to dehumanisation, toxification
flags that perpetrators see “the victims’ destruction as a necessity.” Whereby,
the victim group must be eliminated for the security of the perpetrators’ society
(p.86&90). Neilsen highlights two strains of toxification that are identifiable prior
to genocide. The first being toxic to the ideal, where the victim group are
considered to be toxic to the “furtherance of human civilisation”, which is
evident in the holocaust. Secondly, is toxic to the self where the perpetrators
believe that the victims will, given the chance, murder the perpetrators (p.87).
This is applicable to Rwanda as the Hutus were convinced that, if given the
chance the Tutis would murder them. Neilsen explores how Rwanda illustrates
this aspect of toxification. She highlights RTLM and Kangura labelling Tutsis as
‘inyenzi’ stating that it is not simply dehumanisation. A cockroach is not just
inhuman, it is a creature that spreads diseases and illnesses that are lethal to
humans. Neilsen highlights an example of this, where the March 1993 edition of
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