Witness says Rwanda’s Kabuga failed to stop hate radio

The trial of Rwanda genocide suspect Felicien Kabuga heard Wednesday from its first witness, who testified that the tycoon failed to stop broadcasts calling for the murder of Tutsis.

Kabuga, 87, watched the testimony at a UN tribunal in the Hague via videolink from a wheelchair in a detention centre, having refused to attend court or appear remotely at the opening of the trial last week.

The witness, who worked at the Rwandan information ministry at the time and was speaking under condition of anonymity, said Kabuga was chairman of Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM).

Prosecutors say RTLM broadcast propaganda urging ethnic Hutus to kill rival Tutsi “cockroaches” during the 1994 slaughter in which 800,000 people were killed.

“If you are in charge of an institution and the members of that institution are making mistakes, the chief is the first one who is responsible,” the witness told the court.

Despite warnings from the ministry, “RTLM did nothing to correct the situation but in fact went all out to continue with its divisionist propaganda,” said the witness.

“Hate propaganda and division propaganda continued to such an extent that some members of the Tutsi population were killed across the country,” the witness added.

Around 50 witnesses for the prosecution are expected to testify during the trial, which could take months.

Kabuga was arrested in Paris in 2020 after decades on the run and sent for trial in The Hague.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges of involvement in RTLM and of supplying machetes and otherwise supporting the murderous Interahamwe Hutu militia.