HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Hassan Ngeze (born 25 December 1957) is a
Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equ ...
n
journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
and convicted war criminal best known for spreading anti-
Tutsi The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic grou ...
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
and
Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the prin ...
superiority through his newspaper, ''
Kangura ''Kangura'' was a Kinyarwanda and French-language magazine in Rwanda that served to stoke ethnic hatred in the run-up to the Rwandan genocide. The magazine was established in 1990, following the invasion of the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front ( ...
'', which he founded in 1990. Ngeze was a founding member and leadership figure in the Coalition for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), a
Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equ ...
n
Hutu Power Hutu Power is a racial and ethnosupremacist ideology that asserts the ethnic superiority of Hutu, often in the context of being superior to Tutsi and Twa, and that therefore they are entitled to dominate and murder these two groups and other mino ...
political party that is known for helping to incite the genocide. Ngeze is best known for publishing the " Hutu Ten Commandments" in the December edition of ''Kangura'' in 1990, which were essential in creating and spreading the Hutu supremacist ideology that led to the
Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hu ...
. During the genocide, Ngeze served as an organizer for the Impuzamugambi militia, and is alleged to have personally supervised and taken part in
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts car ...
, mass rape, and killings of Tutsis.


Biography


Early life

Ngeze was born in Rubavu commune, Gisenyi prefecture, in Rwanda. He is a
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
, of
Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the prin ...
ethnicity. In addition to working as a journalist in 1978, Ngeze allegedly also earned money as a
bus driver A bus driver, bus operator, or bus captain is a person who drives buses for a living. Description Bus drivers must have a special license above and beyond a regular driver's licence. Bus drivers typically drive their vehicles between bus st ...
. By 1990, he was without training or experience in journalism.


Kangura, the "Hutu Ten Commandments" and RTLM

Ngeze was the Editor-in-Chief of the bimonthly ''Kangura'' magazine, which was initially intended as a counterweight to the popular anti-government newspaper ''Kanguka'', and was financed by high-level members in the ruling
MRND The National Revolutionary Movement for Development (french: Mouvement révolutionaire national pour le développement, MRND) was the ruling political party of Rwanda from 1975 to 1994 under President Juvénal Habyarimana. From 1978 to 1991, the M ...
party of Hutu dictator
Juvénal Habyarimana Juvénal Habyarimana (, ; 8 March 19376 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and military officer who served as the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until 1994. He was nicknamed ''Kinani'', a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible". An eth ...
. Ngeze and his magazine had extensive links to the
Akazu The Akazu (, ''little house'') was an informal organization of Hutu extremists whose members contributed strongly to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. A circle of relatives and close friends of Rwanda's then-president Juvénal Habyarimana and his influen ...
, the network of officials surrounding the President and his wife; this group included supporters of
Hutu Power Hutu Power is a racial and ethnosupremacist ideology that asserts the ethnic superiority of Hutu, often in the context of being superior to Tutsi and Twa, and that therefore they are entitled to dominate and murder these two groups and other mino ...
and the architects of the
Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were killed by armed Hu ...
. In December 1990, Ngeze published the '' Hutu Ten Commandments'' (sometimes called the ''Ten Commandments of the Bahutu'') in ''Kangura'', which made disparaging remarks about Tutsis in general and Tutsi women in particular. With the ''Hutu Ten Commandments'', Ngeze revived, revised, and reconciled the Hamitic myth (Tutsis were considered by the Europeans to be a "Hamitic race" superior to the "
Negroid Negroid (less commonly called Congoid) is an obsolete racial grouping of various people indigenous to Africa south of the area which stretched from the southern Sahara desert in the west to the African Great Lakes in the southeast, but also to ...
" populations of
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
based on their having more
Caucasoid The Caucasian race (also Caucasoid or Europid, Europoid) is an obsolete racial classification of human beings based on a now-disproven theory of biological race. The ''Caucasian race'' was historically regarded as a biological taxon which, d ...
facial features; that is, the
idea In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of bein ...
that the Tutsis were foreign invaders and thus should not be part of the Hutu-majority country) and the rhetoric of the Hutu revolution to promote a doctrine of militant Hutu purity. The "Hutu Ten Commandments" were essential in creating and spreading the anti-Tutsi feeling among Rwandan Hutus that led to the Rwandan genocide. In 1993, Ngeze became a
shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal ow ...
and
correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...
for the newly founded
Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) ( rw, Radiyo yigenga y'imisozi igihumbi) was a Rwandan radio station which broadcast from July 8, 1993 to July 31, 1994. It played a significant role in inciting the Rwandan genocide that took place from April to July 1994, and has been ...
(RTLM), which was largely a radio equivalent of ''Kangura''. He was interviewed approximately eight times on RTLM.


Genocide

During the Rwandan genocide, Ngeze provided RTLM with names of people to be killed in his prefecture, which were broadcast on air. He was interviewed by RTLM and Radio Rwanda several times between April and June 1994, and in these broadcasts called for the extermination of the Tutsis and Hutus in opposition to the government. At the same time, ''Kangura'' published lists of people to be eliminated by the military and the
Interahamwe The Interahamwe ( or ) is a Hutu paramilitary organization active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The Interahamwe was formed around 1990 as the youth wing of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development (MRND ...
and Impuzamugambi militias during the genocide.


Trial and imprisonment

Ngeze fled Rwanda in June 1994 as the country fell to the RPF. He was arrested in
Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...
,
Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...
on July 18, 1997, and was sentenced to
life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes ...
in 2003, by the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; french: Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda; rw, Urukiko Mpanabyaha Mpuzamahanga Rwashyiriweho u Rwanda) was an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nati ...
. In 2007, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR reversed some of his convictions, but confirmed others. It also changed his life sentence to one of 35 years' imprisonment. The charges of "aiding and abetting the commission of genocide in Gisenyi prefecture; direct and public incitement to commit genocide through the publication of articles in his Kangura newspaper in 1994; aiding and abetting extermination as a crime against humanity in Gisenyi prefecture" were upheld. On 3 December 2008, he was sent to
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
to serve his sentence of imprisonment.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngeze, Hassan Living people 1957 births People from Rubavu District Rwandan Muslims Hutu people Coalition for the Defence of the Republic politicians People convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Rwandan people convicted of genocide Rwandan radio presenters Rwandan people convicted of crimes against humanity Rwandan people imprisoned abroad Prisoners and detainees of Mali People extradited from Kenya People convicted of incitement to genocide Rwandan propagandists Radio controversies