United Nations Criminal Court for Rwanda Severely Punishes Media that Incited Killings

(Clearwisdom.net) On Wednesday, December 3, 2003, the United Nations Criminal Court for Rwanda handed two convicted individuals its maximum sentence, a life prison sentence, and sentenced the third to 35 years in prison. The three men are Ferdinand Nahimana, founder of Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), former magazine publisher Hassan Ngeze, and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, another top RTLM official.

According to an account in AFP (Agence France Presse) December 3, "Ferdinand Nahimana, 53, a founder of Radio Television Libre des Milles Collines (RTLM), which openly incited the massacres, and former magazine publisher Hassan Ngeze, 42, received the life terms, and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, 53, another top RTLM official, was imprisoned for 35 years."

"All three were found guilty on charges of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and direct and public agitation to commit genocide, among others." In the 1994 Rwanda massacre, "up to a million people, mostly Tutsis, but also Hutus opposed to the slaughter, were dead."

Presiding Judge Navanethem Pillay of South Africa ruled that RTLM "broadcasts collectively conveyed a message of ethnic hatred and called for violence against the Tutsi population."

"This message was heard around the world and as board members responsible for RTLM, including its programming, Ferdinand Nahimana and Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza were responsible for this message," she said.

To Nahimana the judge said, "You were a known academic, a professor of history at the national university of Rwanda and you used the radio to disseminate hatred and violence."

VOA also reported, "War crimes judges in The Hague have sentenced a Bosnian Serb army officer to 27 years in prison for massacres at Srebrenica. Momir Nikolic. This is the first Bosnian Serb army officer who cooperated and admitted his role in the 1995 execution of more than 7,000 Muslim men. After the sentence was pronounced, Momir Nikolic broke down and cried."

We can draw a parallel between the Rwanda Case and what is happening in China.

In the more than four years of persecution against Falun Gong, ordered by Jiang, the mouthpiece media in Mainland China, including the Xinhua News Agency, CCTV and other newspapers, TV stations and radio stations consistently fabricated murder and suicide cases about Falun Gong practitioners to deceive the public and to incite hatred against Falun Gong. The Focal Point Interview program aired by CCTV in particular has continuously made up various lies to demonize Falun Gong. The so-called reporters are accomplices who carry out Jiang's order and have committed crimes with their actions.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/12/5/61812.html

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