Hutus And Tutsis War: Félicien Kabuga Responsible For Propaganda-witness

By Adeyemi Adekunle

Félicien Kabuga, 89 years old Rwandan businessman is standing trial for the role he played in the run-up to the killings of Tutsis in 1994 in Rwanda. The trial of the business mogul started last week at a United Nations tribunal in The Hague, a witness testifying at the trial said, Kabuga was at the position of curtailing the propaganda broadcast on his radio station that called for the killing of Tutsis.

The octogenarian is facing trial on three counts charge of genocide and two counts of crimes against humanity. Kabuga has been on the run for decades and was captured in Paris two years ago.

Kabuga is appearing on Wednesday before the UN court for the first time after a long time of declining to appear before the court.

Killing Jamboree

In 1994, more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed within 100 days in massive killings carried out by ruling Hutu majority extremists.

Kabuga accuses by Prosecutors of using his infamous radio station, Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines, to promote genocide in the East African country.

The anonymous witness, who was a staff at the Rwandan Ministry of Information at the time of the genocide in Rwanda, disclosed to the court that “if one is in charge of an institution and members of that institution commit faults, the chief is the first one to be responsible”.

‘The witness said further “The chairman of the RTLM was first in person who needed to make sure that the sub-paragraph of the article in question was complied with by the staff”.

Despite continuous warnings and sanctions from the Rwandan Ministry of Information, the ‘RTLM did not deem it fit to put its media organization into check but redoubled its efforts in the propagation of propaganda leading to incessant exposure of members of the Tutsi population to being killed throughout the country,’ the witness added.

The trial will likely last for months despite Kabuga’s plead of not guilty to the charges against him, with prosecutors expected to call more than 50 witnesses as the hearing continues.