Blood Media

Carly Strathdee

“Genocide is the deliberate destruction, in whole or in part, by a government or its agents, of a racial, sexual, religious, tribal or political minority. It can involve not only mass murder, but also starvation, forced deportation, and political, economic, and biological subjugation.”

Genocide in Rwanda1993• Civil unrest• Anti-Tutsi propaganda being spread across radio and television• Signing of Arusha Peace Accords• Transitional government• Unification of army• UN presence• UNAMIR• General Dellaire

• UN informed about Hutu extremists

Genocide in Rwanda1994• Militias continue to arm themselves• UN ignores allegations

• April 6: President Habyarimana’s plane shot down• Tutsi’s blamed• Genocide begins

• Hutu and Interahamwe slaughter governmental leaders and Tutsis

• UN and outside forces deny occurrence• July 17: Genocide ends

Environment for a Genocide• Colonial/post colonial history• Role of outside countries• Funding of Hutu extremist movements• Inhibition of humanitarian efforts in early 1990s

• Economic crisis• Population dense• Extremely low income

• Skewed perception of events

Political Agendas• International Agendas• “Rwanda was simply too remote, too far, too poor, too little,

and probably too black to be worthwhile.”• International media focused on South Africa elections

• Hutu Extremist Regimes• Goal to strike down Tutsi power• Strategically targeted Hutu jealousy• Used mass amounts of propaganda to transform this

jealousy into hate

Propaganda Dispersal

• Methods• Magazines• Newspapers• Television• Radio

• Well targeted toward demographic• Progressive methods

Example Radio Broadcast

Useful for better educated citizens

Spoke to illiterate or more rural groups

Hutu 10 Commandments1. Every Hutu should know that a Tutsi woman, whoever she is, works for the interest of her Tutsi ethnic group. As a result, we shall

consider a traitor any Hutu who

1. marries a Tutsi woman

2. befriends a Tutsi woman

3. employs a Tutsi woman as a secretary or a concubine.

2. Every Hutu should know that our Hutu daughters are more suitable and conscientious in their role as woman, wife and mother of the family. Are they not beautiful, good secretaries and more honest?

3. Hutu women, be vigilant and try to bring your husbands, brothers and sons back to reason.

4. Every Hutu should know that every Tutsi is dishonest in business. His only aim is the supremacy of his ethnic group. As a result, any Hutu who does the following is a traitor:

1. makes a partnership with Tutsi in business

2. invests his money or the government's money in a Tutsi enterprise

3. lends or borrows money from a Tutsi

4. gives favours to Tutsi in business (obtaining import licenses, bank loans, construction sites, public markets, etc.).

5. All strategic positions, political, administrative, economic, military and security should be entrusted only to Hutu.

6. The education sector (school pupils, students, teachers) must be majority Hutu.

7. The Rwandan Armed Forces should be exclusively Hutu. The experience of the October 1990 war has taught us a lesson. No member of the military shall marry a Tutsi.

8. The Hutu should stop having mercy on the Tutsi.

9. The Hutu, wherever they are, must have unity and solidarity and be concerned with the fate of their Hutu brothers.

10. The Hutu inside and outside Rwanda must constantly look for friends and allies for the Hutu cause, starting with their Hutu brothers.

11. They must constantly counteract Tutsi propaganda.

12. The Hutu must be firm and vigilant against their common Tutsi enemy.

13. The Social Revolution of 1959, the Referendum of 1961, and the Hutu Ideology, must be taught to every Hutu at every level. Every Hutu must spread this ideology widely. Any Hutu who persecutes his brother Hutu for having read, spread, and taught this ideology is a traitor.

Example Radio Broadcast

Propaganda: Techniques• Bandwagon• Promote group movement• Regimes/Dictation

• Testimonial• Providing first hand counts of how Tutsi wrongdoings

• Scare Tactic• Suggestion of counter attacks

• Transfer• Using national symbols to represent Hutus• Symbols such as snakes and cockroaches to represent Tutsi

Propaganda: Associations

Tutsi

Oppression

Hateful

Murderous

CockroachDishonest

Greedy

Deceitful

Narcissistic

Rebellious

Propaganda: Cultivation

Stereotypes

Prejudice

Discrimination

Propaganda: Reception• Cognitive• Changes perception of events• i.e. Shooting of President’s plane

• Emotional• Fear • Anxiety

• Attitudinal• Changes attitude toward friends, family, neighbors• Changes attitude regarding politics and leadership

• Behavioral• Ruthless

Aftermath• Killing continued after the end of genocide by individual

forces• 800,000 deaths• 5x death rate of Jewish Holocaust

• UN and international apologies• Rebuilding of Rwanda• Organizations to reunite families• Working together to overcome tragedies

THIS COULD BE YOU