Georges Ruggiu
| Georges Ruggiu | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
October 12, 1957 Verviers, Belgium |
| Occupation | Radio presenter (animateur), journalist |
Georges Henri Yvon Joseph Ruggiu (born October 12, 1957 in Verviers, Belgium) was a presenter on the Rwandan radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, which played a significant role in promoting the Rwandan Genocide. Like the station's other broadcasters, Ruggiu incited violence against Tutsi and moderate Hutu over the air. Ruggiu eventually pleaded guilty to charges of incitement to commit genocide and in 2000 was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. An Italian-Belgian who became involved in Rwandan politics two years before the genocide, Ruggiu was the only non-Rwandan charged with involvement in the genocide.
Ruggiu's mother was a Belgian teacher, his father an Italian fireman. Until the age of 35 he lived at home and worked in Verviers, first as "a counsellor for young drug addicts and then as a teacher for mentally handicapped children." In 1992 he moved to the city of Liège, commuting to Brussels to work in a social security office. In Liège he "befriended a Rwandan Hutu, was drawn into the Rwandan expatriate community and was soon seen in the company of Rwandan diplomats and officials of President Juvenal Habyarimana's, party, the MRND." He began visiting Rwanda and moved there in 1993.
From January to July 1994, prior to and during the genocide, Ruggiu worked in Kigali, Rwanda as a journalist and producer for Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). Ruggiu had no experience in journalism and did not speak Kinyarwanda. RTLM was one of the chief sources of extremist Hutu propaganda, broadcasting twenty-four hours a day and openly exhorting its audience to kill Tutsis and "disloyal" Hutus. Ruggiu personally wrote and broadcast much content of this nature, relentlessly egging on his listeners that the "graves were waiting to be filled". Ruggiu personally broadcast programs inciting Hutus to commit murder or serious attacks against Tutsi rebels, whom he called "cockroaches". He also encouraged persecution of these Tutsi, and moderate Hutu and Belgian citizens in the area. Airtime filled by Ruggiu accounted for approximately 8% of RTLM's broadcasts.
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