Over 800,000 were killed, in what is said to be the one of the bloodiest genocides to date. It occurred in Rwanda during the year of 1994, targeting the Tutsi population.
The genocide was triggered by the assassination of Rwanda’s President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, by Paul Kagame who was the leader of a Tutsi rebel group due to the rivalry present amongst the ethnicities.
At the time, the genocide was promoted through various media outlets, the most prominent being the radio station called Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines(RTLM) created by by Félicien Kabuga, a Rwandan businessman.
RTLM broadcasted from July of 1993 to July of 1994, a timeframe where it quickly become the most listened to station in Rwanda.
It popularized the ideology that the Tutsi were a race completely inferior to the Hutus and that they were a threat to them. It achieved this by using various propaganda techniques like Name-Calling, and euphemisms that appealed to the Hutu population.
Today, we only have transcripts broadcasted during the
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“Kill or be killed/loss of power” was the thought that went through the minds of the Hutus as they participated in the killings of 1994.
The killing of the Tutsis caused the Hutus to feel little remorse and guilt because of the labels used to describe them, and euphemisms that were used. RLTM used the word tool as a euphemism for weapons, guns, and/or firearms.
For example, in the May 15th, 1944 broadcast the speaker said, “Because in a very near future you will be given tools in order to go and liberate Rwanda.” In the Rwandan society, the word tool is associated with agriculture, as tools like shovels were used to farm, and make a living for themselves. This results in the word tool to have a positive connotation allowing RLTM to hide the cruelty associated with what these tools were being used for, ultimately mitigating the feeling of