ARUSHA 16 May 2002 (Internews) Marcel Kabanda, an expert in Rwandan print media, today told judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) that an alleged anti-Tutsi newspaper, ‘Kangura’, published articles that accused ethnic Tutsi of intending to set up a regional empire.
Articles in Kangura stated that ethnic Tutsi were not only a threat to Rwanda but to neighboring countries, testified Kabanda, who is a Rwandan historian based in Paris.
Kabanda is the second prosecution expert witness in the so- called “Media Trial” against three people charged with using their respective media to incite the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Ferdinand Nahimana, Jean Bosco Barayagwiza, both founding members of Radio Television Libre Des Mille Collines (RTLM) and Hassan Ngeze, a former owner and editor of Kangura have denied charges of genocide and direct incitement to genocide.
“It took a concerted campaign of dehumanization to create the genocide,” Kabanda told the court, citing various passages from Kangura newspaper to illustrate the campaign.
“Kangura has said everything: ‘only history will reward us from our efforts, we have just finished the first phase, to prevent the Inyenzi [a derogatory term for Tutsi] from enslaving us, we are now entering the second phase, that is asking all Hutus to share in the achievements of the revolution [1959 change of government from Tutsi monarchy to Hutu led Republic]… He who has been warned has been warned, he who refuses to listen will face the consequences’,” Kabanda quotes from a story written by Ngeze in Kangura.
“If they [the Tutsi] commit even the slightest mistake they will perish and if they make the mistake of attacking again all accomplices will perish in Rwanda,” the article warned.
Kabanda has been testifying since Monday. He told the court that the RTLM aired Kangura advertisements and that people targeted by the newspaper were subsequently killed.
“That what Kangura wrote led to genocide for me there is no doubt,” Kabanda said, explaining the heading of his report, ‘Kangura: The Media of the Genocide’.
Kabanda continues to testify before Trial Chamber I of the ICTR, comprising Judges Navanethem Pillay of South Africa (presiding), Erik Mose of Norway and Asoka De Zoysa Gunawardana of Sri Lanka.
