Chris McGreal on the Belgian who embraced Rwanda’s extremists
Georges Ruggiu is a mystery even to those who savoured his excited, foreign accent invoking Robespierre to keep the blood flowing across Rwanda. The 37-year-old Belgian is the only non-Rwandan arrested by the International Tribunal for complicity in the 1994 genocide of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis. He was picked up last month in a swoop in Nairobi that netted six other prominent accused, all Hutus.
As far as is known, Ruggiu never wielded a machete or directly oversaw a single killing. Yet the white, Italian-born teacher – who took Belgian nationality 22 years ago – was among the most-wanted for genocide. His tool was the notorious Radio Mille Collines – a private radio station run by Hutu extremists.
Although the station became known as the voice of the genocide, before the killing started it was immensely popular among Rwandans for its snappy, Western-style chat. Among its more popular presenters was Noel Hitimana, who broke a taboo of Rwanda’s staid society by regularly appearing on Mille Collines so drunk he was unable to speak clearly. Even Tutsi rebel soldiers fighting to overthrow the Hutu government preferred the station to their own propaganda broadcasts.
But Radio Mille Collines’ underlying sinister tone leapt to the fore with the assassination of President Juvenal Habyarimana in April 1994 .
Ruggiu was quickly on air. While other broadcasters urged Hutus to slaughter their Tutsi neighbours, Ruggiu’s targets were more specific. He accused the Belgian army of plotting with Tutsi rebels to assassinate President Habyarimana.
Belgium blames Ruggiu’s broadcasts for helping to incite the torture and murder of ten Belgian paratroopers assigned by the United Nations to defend the moderate Hutu prime minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana. She was killed and the paratroopers disarmed and slaughtered by Hutu extremists. Ruggiu also led a campaign against UN peacekeepers.
A few weeks after rebels overthrew the Hutu regime, and before Ruggiu went to ground, he tried to justify his broadcasts: “We did not incite racial hatred. We did incite people to be critical about the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) and some interpreted that as a call to kill Tutsis. But we never pronounced the word `Tutsi’.”
“It was a station where people dared to say what they thought. But I defy anyone to find a tape of me saying: `You must kill’.”
It is doubtful that Ruggiu ever did utter the word “kill” on Radio Mille Collines. The station followed the example of government ministers and others by associating all Tutsis with the RPF, and thereby condemning even babies to death as collaborators. And then there were the notorious euphemisms for killing. “Clean around your house,” the voice on the radio urged.
Ruggiu also went for more historical allusions. A favourite was to compare the genocide with the French revolution, and to invoke Robespierre to justify the terror.
Ruggiu was sucked into Rwanda’s Hutu extremist mire while still in Belgium. He joined the Rwanda-Belgium thinktank, which stood firmly in the Hutu camp. And he developed a close friendship with Paulin Murayi, the chief representative in Brussels of Rwanda’s ruling party.
Ruggiu flew to Rwanda in 1993, the year before the genocide. Officially he joined Radio Mille Collines to offer technical assistance. But he quickly fell in with the regime and was an easily recognised face around the city. For a while, he lived at the main military camp. On occasions he was seen in uniform.
By the time of the genocide, Ruggiu had unfettered access to senior members of the extremist government holed up at a heavily guarded Kigali hotel from which most people were barred. At the height of the slaughter, Ruggiu moved to counter reports about the killings he was encouraging. In May 1994, he sent a fax to Belgian state radio denying he was inciting violence.
At the time, thousands of Tutsis were crammed into the St Famille church where the priest, Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, collaborated in the selection of victims. As word of killings at the church reached the outside world, Ruggiu arrived with members of the Hutu militia and enlisted the priest’s help.
Three men and a young woman were plucked from the terrified Tutsis because they spoke French. Under the watch of men whose hands were drenched in blood, the three were forced to reassure listeners to Radio Mille Collines that life inside the church was quite fine.
The woman later said: “These journalists were accompanied by military officers and among them was a Belgian journalist who worked for Radio Mille Collines, Georges Ruggiu. [Munyeshyaka] took us aside and told us: `I expect you to say that you are well, that you are eating, that you wash yourselves, and that your enemy is the RPF.’ We told them the phrases dictated to us.”
In July 1994, Ruggiu fled, emerging later in refugee camps in Tanzania. Impending arrest caused him to flee to Kenya. Like many responsible for organising genocide, he believed he was beyond the grasp of the tribunal. He has learnt otherwise.