by Kristen Landreville

Sounds of hate: "Inyenzi (cockroaches)!" "Cut up the inyenzi with machetes!"

Those statements, made in the Rwandan language Kinyarwanda, calling for the murder of the Rwandan ethnic minority and the politically moderate Rwandan ethnic majority jammed radio airwaves before and during the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed between 500,000 and 1 million Tutsi and moderate Hutu.

Hate media even regularly broadcast the names of Tutsi, the minority, and politically moderate Hutu, the majority, who were to be found and killed, said Gina Bramucci, an aid worker in Uganda who is completing Rwandan media research for a master's degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.

The two major mouthpieces for hate were Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines and the newspaper Kangura ("wake him up"), according to an International Media Support report. IMS promotes and strengthens press freedom and professional journalism in conflicted areas.

Most Rwandan researchers, including Bramucci, consider these privately owned, but government supported, media as an influential role in promoting the genocide.

For example, Kangura newspaper used cartoons to appeal to illiterate Hutu and instructed them to attack minority Tutsi, Bramucci said.

"Part of the tactic at this time was to create fear among the Hutu population - make them (Hutu) feel as if they would be killed by the Tutsi if they didn't rise up to defend themselves," Bramucci said.

RTLM soon followed Kangura's lead in August 1993, she said.

RTLM's conversational and lively style was a hit in a nation where radio is the dominant tool of mass communication.

"Rwandan Tutsi have told me that even they used to listen to the station simply because it played such catchy music," Bramucci said.

Anyone seemed a target in RTLM broadcasts.

For example, RTLM encouraged attacks on priests who were suspected of protecting Tutsi and moderate Hutu in churches, according to the IMS report. Some of the largest massacres occurred at churches.

Almost 10 years after the genocide, Rwandan journalists point to hate radio as one of the primary signs of preparation for genocide, Bramucci said.

Bramucci said in her research, she has found that many Rwandan journalists now see it as their job to alert the international community if they see a danger of genocide.

As for the hate journalists, many are being prosecuted by the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.