Dictionary of Genocide - D Ank Unlimited

MEDIA, INCITING GENOCIDE
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agencies in the past. (A classic example of the latter was the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC), from which MSF had split.)
The main aspects of MSF’s ethos are independence, impartiality, and a spirit of volunteerism.
Unlike the ICRC, MSF is prepared to speak out publicly about what it sees when
providing aid in dangerous or unstable political climates, and this departure from
neutrality has not won it many friends in dictatorial or authoritarian regimes. MSF
operatives have been kidnapped, assaulted, and killed in the field, and in 1989 a missile
destroyed an airplane flown by MSF’s sister organization Avions sans Frontières (Fliers
without Borders) while it carried MSF doctors on board. Be that as it may, MSF has
become a major player in the provision of medical assistance in humanitarian (including
genocidal) situations, and was in the forefront of aid agencies during such crises as those
in Bosnia (the 1990s), Rwanda (1994), and Darfur, Sudan (2003–present).
MSF was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 for its work in the provision of medical
aid, refugee relief, and other elements of humanitarian work. Although not able to
stop genocidal outbreaks or apprehend those responsible for committing genocide,
Médecins sans Frontières is one of the world’s most forthright and intrepid reactive aid
agencies, and it has become a vital adjunct to the efforts of governments and intergovernmental
organizations in the work of humanitarian relief.
Media, Inciting Genocide. Although many perpetrators throughout the twentieth
century used the media in various ways to incite hatred, disdain, and contempt of the
“victim or target group,” some also actually used it to incite genocide. Early on during the
Holocaust, before the killing process even began, the Nazis used the modern press to publish
despicable lies and propaganda about Jews. Particularly hateful in this regard was the
crude antisemitic tabloid Der Stürmer.
In 1972, during the genocide of the Hutu by the Tutsi in Burundi, government radio
broadcasts urged the population to “hunt down pythons in the grass,” which was understood
as an order by the Tutsi populace to kill all educated Hutu, including the youngest of schoolage
children.
Prior to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a Hutu supremacist, Hassan Ngeze (b. 1957),
published a newspaper entitled Kangura (Wake Them Up), which printed lists of prominent
Tutsi and Hutu who had allegedly “infiltrated” public institutions. The newspaper also
called on the government and the masses to implement what he referred to as “selfdefense”
efforts. His newspaper also published “The Hutu Ten Commandments,” one of
which stated the following: “Hutu must stop having mercy on the Tutsi.” Also, prior to and
during the genocidal period, the state-owned radio station in Rwanda (Radio-Télévision
Libre des Mille Collines) broadcast hate messages aimed at the Tutsi and propaganda to
induce hatred among Hutu for the Tutsi. Broadcasts were also used to incite Hutu to carry
out the killing process. Such statements as “You cockroaches must know you are made of
flesh. We won’t let you kill. We will kill you” were common at the time, as were commands
that beseeched the Hutu population to kill every last Tutsi in the nation, urging listeners
“not to take pity on women and children.” The radio broadcasts were also used to sustain
the murder process by broadcasting the names of victims and their locations and cajoling
listeners to carry out the “work” (e.g., genocide).
In the 1990s RTS TV (Serbian Television), the official Serbian government-run
television station, broadcast propaganda during the crisis in the former Yugoslavia. In
doing so, RTS TV issued broadsides in favor of its position and against its opponents and