Felicien Kabuga and other shareholders started RTLM radio with an aim of perpetrating hate among Rwandans and creating confusion with view to scuttle the Arusha Peace Accord signed in 1993 between the then government of Rwanda and RPF-Inkotanyi.
This was said by an expert witness who on Wednesday, October 19, appeared before the judges at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) during the trial of Kabuga, who faces crimes of Genocide against the Tutsi.
The witness, French veteran journalist Jean-Francois Dupaquier, had appeared before the UN-backed court to testify about the role of RTLM in fuelling hate and promoting extremism in the lead to and during the Genocide in 1994.
RTLM was a privately own radio station that was a key mouthpiece of the genocidaires.
Duparquier had previously appeared in the case of another genocide ideologue and RTLM co-founder Ferdinand Nahimana whose case was enjoined in the infamous Medial Trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, a precursor of the Mechanism.
The witness said that Kabuga was a core member of the Akazu (inner circle) of genocide architects and being the wealthiest man in Rwanda at the time with state connections, he welded a lot of power.
Responding to the judge’s question on clarification on the concrete powers of Kabuga, Dupaquier indicated that Kabuga was the majority shareholder of the radio station.
"It would become the main body of propaganda,” he said adding that Kabuga would directly order journalists on programmes to air and what not to air.
"He did not only have a financial influence but also on the editorial line of the radio.”
The witness disclosed that he was convinced that Genocide, going by the way it was organised, was a plot that was hatched secretly and with precision,
He pointed out that this is not only his personal opinion but a result of a reasonable assessment of the events that took place in Rwanda. He explained that neither RTLM nor the Kangura newspaper founders and managers believed the Arusha Peace Agreements were a peaceful solution.
The agreement, named after the Tanzanian city it was signed, was meant to bring an end to end the war between RPF-Inkotanyi and the former government forces.
In addition, Deparquier said that the extremist outlets called the agreement ‘treasonous” and they believed the only solution was to annihilate the Tutsi, and this reflected in different publications of the two sister outlets.
He continued to explain that RTLM and the newspaper spent much of their time stocking fear among the population, claiming that RPF had a secretive agenda and that war is impending.
"For that, they provided false evidence and testimonies, something we would today call "fake news”, and propagated the conspiracy theory that there was a conspiracy to kill Hutus, so they must take up arms,” he said.
The witness stated: "These people wanted to burn Rwanda down”. He further told Court that RTLM was complicating the work of peacekeepers by inciting confusion among the population.