By Chantal Bakker 23-03-2011
Ethnic competition and tensions between two different populations living in the same country were the main reasons of the beginning of the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. On April 6 trough mid-July approximately 800.000 people were killed in mass murders during the genocide that took place. This cruel conflict was between the minority Tutsis, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutus, who took over power in the rebellion of 1959 – 1962 and overthrown the Tutsi monarchy.
The pictures and TV images of this war are well known and a lot of people have these pictures still quite clear in their minds. But most of them showed up when the conflict was already been fought and when thousands of people were already been killed. Questions about the role of the media are rising up. Why did the media not report about the conflict when Rwandans population needed that so much? Only a few journalists and photographers were in the area to report about all the violence and cruelty of this civil war. What is the reason for the little attention in the media about such a huge criminal incident? Can the international media be blamed for this? The following describes the role of the media while they were reporting about the Rwandan Genocide. But first of all it will explain the situation in Rwanda in 1994 and describe the Genocide itself.
Rwandan history
In the small East African nation of Rwanda are living approximately 1.1 million people. Rwanda is a very small country and its density is the highest in Africa. In this densely populated country are living three different groups: the Hutus, Tutsis and Twas. In 1890 Rwanda became a colony of Germany. In 1918, after world war one, Belgium took over power. For over 20 years prior to this colonization, a Tutsi monarchy had controlled most of the power in Rwanda. This is remarkable, because the Tutsi monarchy only had a population of 10% towards a Hutu population of almost 90%.
During the 1950s, the majority Hutu population became more rebellious and when time went by they no longer accepted their submissive position in the country. In 1957 the Hutu Emancipation Movement decided to fight for the Hutus and they started the ‘Hutu manifesto’. This manifestation was successful, in 1962 the Hutus overthrew the monarchy of the Tutsis and they established the Rwanda Republic. Because of this establishment Rwanda became also an independent country.
A horrible genocide
The Tutsis population has always been seen as the intelligent and rich group of Rwanda. Most of them had a noble background and most Hutus were farmers. In 1990, a rebel group named ‘Rwandan Patriotic Front’, leaded by Tutsis, tried to defeat the Hutu-led government. Although it did not work out, it can be seen as the beginning of the Rwandan civil war. From that year on, Rwanda was filled with big social tensions.
The catalyst for the Rwandan Genocide is the assassination of Habyarimana, who was the president of Rwanda at that time. On the evening of April 6, 1994 his airplane was shot down. It is still not clear who is responsible for this attack, but most theories propose the Rwandan Patriotic Front as main suspect.
This was the beginning of the genocide. The assassination of Habyarimana resulted in mass killings of Tutsis by the Hutus. The killing was well organized by the government and was structured all over the nation. In the testimony for the International Criminal Tribunal, Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda described that one of the ministers said she was in favour of getting rid of all Tutsis. Without them, she told her colleagues; all the problems would be over.
Both Hutus and Tutsis were forced to always bring ID cards with them, which specified their ethnic group. In that time, Tutsi men, women and children were separated from the general population and often forced to be slaves for the Hutus. Just like the government and the army, the Rwandan media played a big role in coordinating the genocide, by telling the population what to do.
Nowadays, almost everybody agrees with the fact that the Rwandan media is partly responsible for the genocide that took place almost seventeen years ago. But more and more discussions are rising up about the role of the international media in 1994. Some are blaming the international media for not be in Rwanda at that time.
What about international media?
A real genocide is going enormously fast. This makes it very difficult for international media to report about it. But it must be mentioned that if the media would have report earlier about the fact that a nationwide killing campaign took place in Rwanda, they could have saved a lot of people. But is it fair to blame the international media for this?
According to some people, the international media indeed must share blame for not immediately recognizing the extent of the carnage. “It really is a shame that journalists in the first three weeks only reported about a civil war. They should have noticed the fact that the government, the army, and the Rwandan Media organized this ‘civil war’. They really failed in their work because they did not recognize it as a genocide”, says Alan J Kuperman in his article ‘How the media missed Rwandan genocide’.
Allan Thompson, former journalist at Toronto Star and journalism professor at the University of Carleton agrees with Kuperman. In 2007 he wrote the book ‘The media and the Rwanda genocide’, in which he blames the international media for ignoring Rwandans situation. “International media are also guilty for the massacre in Rwanda. Simply because of their absence”, decided Thomson during his book presentation. According Thompson, groups who were trying to avert the conflict needed public and political support. They were ignored, just because the world was not aware of the tensions between the Hutus and the Tutsis. “If the media would have given attention to Rwanda, the international community would probably be more aware of the extreme situation in the country”.
Thompson is also very aware of the fact that he was one of the journalists who was not in Rwanda in 1994. “, I can also blame myself for ignoring the genocide. One of my colleagues, the Africa correspondent of Toronto Star was reporting about the apartheid in South Africa at that time. I should have travelled to Rwanda myself to inform my readers of the extreme situation”.
To clarify his point of view, Thompson explained the Heisenberg-principle in his book. He translated this principle to the theory that journalists can influence an incident only because of their presence. According Thompson, you can also converse this theory. “Because no one was reporting about the conflict, the Hutu-led government did not have to justify to anyone. Nobody was stopping them, so the genocide could go on and on”.
Media defence
Some journalists are trying to defend their selves. “In our daily work we, journalists and photographers, have to make choices out of a big variety of news. Because of these choices, we are consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally depended on the volatility of news. Although we do the best we can to split ourselves and report about situations as good as possible, it does not always work out right”, journalist Jeroen Corduwener and Photographer Chris Keulen said in their book ‘Rwanda, country without a horizon’.
According Jeroen Corduwener and Chris Keulen it is also very difficult to report about such a violent conflict and make ethical considerations at the same time. “The truth about Rwanda does not even exist. The first mistake we have made was to profile this conflict as terrible and pathetic. Western media, and in particular television, played a big role in this case. TV images have such a huge impact and create more or less their own truth because they look so real. Of course the images are real, but at the same time they create a certain reality. The people who watch those images do not realize that this is only one part of the reality. We do not say that we deny the images of dead bodies and suffering human beings, but they do not always fit our impressions and observations”.
The point Corduwener and Keulen are trying to make is about the superficiality of the media. According to them it is almost impossible to give a clear view of the situation when there are so little journalists in the area. “You just can not report about everything when there is so much going on. People who blame the media should also think about the difficulty of reporting in an enormously dangerous country. If we had the time, space and journalists, the reporting about this conflict would definitely be improved.
Blame the media, not the journalists
Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire was one of the people in Rwanda during the genocide in 1994. He was the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda and he tried to get the attention of the international media, but without any success. “I think the gatekeepers of big media stations were somehow aware of the situation in Rwanda, but they just decided to keep it out of public interest. Big American newspapers and news agencies at that time published articles about boxer O.J. Simpson and ice skater Tonya Harding. Probably not because these stories were selling better, but because some unknown people were telling them to give the situation in Rwanda no attention”.
Dallaire thinks this is one of the reasons international media more or less failed in their reporting on Rwanda. “The VS made it clear that they did not want to have anything to do with Rwanda. It was best for the government if the American civilians were uninformed about the extreme situation in Rwanda”.
Meanwhile, Dallaire was aware of the fact that media was the only possibility to get the attention. “I asked journalists to write at least one story per day, and I also gave them food and a safe place to sleep. The journalists were doing great jobs, but their stories somehow did now appear in the media. What was happening at the editorial offices? Why did they not publish these stories? I still do not know. But I do know that you can not blame the journalists in Rwanda for doing a bad job”, says Dallaire.
Thompson agrees with Dallaire at some point, but he thinks the journalists in Rwanda at that time should have took more responsibility. “They should have forced the gatekeepers to publish their stories. The fact that one individual or one small group can decide to keep such an important conflict out of the media is absurd and dangerous”, he concludes.
Anyway, media definitely played a big role in the genocide of Rwanda. First of all Rwandans local print and radio media fuelled the killings by telling one ethnic group to murder the other ethnic group. Secondly, the international media either ignored or misconstrued the situation in Rwanda. Some critics blame the journalists for the bad reporting, some of them blame the gatekeepers and people in charge for the media failing.
Whether it is the fault of the journalists or it is not, one thing is for sure. If the international media had reported in a better and different way about the situation in Rwanda, they probably would have saved a lot of lives. Nowadays we can tell that the media somehow is involved in this conflict, but it is still unclear why they decided to keep it out of public interest. The question still remains, and probably always will remain: what was the reason for the international media to ignore Rwandans genocide?
Sources
Books:
– Rwanda, land zonder horizon – Jeroen Corduwener en Chris Keulen
– Terug naar Rwanda – Koert Lindijer
– The media and the Rwanda Genocide – Allan Thompson
Internet:
– Internationale media faalden tijdens de Rwanda genocide.
– How the media mist the Rwandan genocide, by Alan J. Kuperman http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COMM.7.8.03.HTM
Background information:
chantalbakkerjournalism 