Georges Ruggiu - Participation in Genocide

Participation in Genocide

From January to July 1994, prior to and during the genocide, Ruggiu worked in Kigali, Rwanda as a journalist and producer for Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). Ruggiu had no experience in journalism and did not speak Kinyarwanda. RTLM was one of the chief sources of extremist Hutu propaganda, broadcasting twenty-four hours a day and openly exhorting its audience to kill Tutsis and "disloyal" Hutus. Ruggiu personally wrote and broadcast much content of this nature, relentlessly egging on his listeners that the "graves were waiting to be filled". Ruggiu personally broadcast programs inciting Hutus to commit murder or serious attacks against Tutsi rebels, whom he called "cockroaches". He also encouraged persecution of these Tutsis, and moderate Hutus and Belgian citizens in the area.

Although some of his defenders have suggested that Ruggiu did not know exactly what was going on around him in Rwanda, this opinion is sharply disputed by Rwandan Genocide scholar Alison des Forges: "It is beyond belief that Ruggiu did not know ... The tone of Mille Collines became more and more violent and witnesses say Ruggiu was living at the army barracks in Kigali and eating in the mess. He was hanging out with those that did the killing."