Radio Muhabura was a radio station of RPF (

Rwandan Patriotic Front The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF–Inkotanyi; , FPR) is the ruling political party in Rwanda. The RPF was founded in December 1987 by Rwandan Tutsi in exile in Uganda because of the ethnic violence that had occurred during the Rwandan Hutu Revo ...

) during the

Rwandan Civil War The Rwandan Civil War was a large-scale civil war in Rwanda which was fought between the Rwandan Armed Forces, representing the country's government, and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from 1October 1990 to 18 July 1994. The war arose ...

from 1990 to 1994. It was created in 1991 and broadcast from

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. It was the first alternative to

Radio Rwanda Radio Rwanda (est. 1961) is a radio station of the Rwandan Broadcasting Agency, a public broadcaster that also owns Rwandan Television, Magic FM, and other public radio stations. Before the attack of the Rwandan Patriotic Front on October 1, 1990 ...

, reaching all but the south of Rwanda by mid-1992. It was recorded by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

starting in 1992. It promoted armed resistance to the "extremist" Rwandan government. In an October 1992 broadcast it claimed that militia forces of the government's party had "devised traps aimed at exterminating the youth." As early as January 1993, months before the RTLM went on-air, Radio Muhabura accused the Rwandan government of genocide. It routinely denied RPF involvement in civilian killings, and promoted resistance to "

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great L ...

power", to the Habyarimana government, and desertion by the military. It regularly discussed the return of the Rwandan diaspora and the creation of a new government. Although the pro-Hutu RTLM (which became an inciting instrument of the

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Gre ...

of 1994) was extensively listened to, Radio Muhabura had a much smaller audience, probably because it broadcast in English instead of

Kinyarwanda Kinyarwanda, Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, is a Bantu language and the national language of Rwanda. It is a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is also spoken in adjacent parts of the Democratic Republic of the ...

. The existence of Radio Muhabura was cited as a part of the defense in the trial of

Ferdinand Nahimana Ferdinand Nahimana (born 15 June 1950) is a Rwandan historian, who was convicted of incitement to genocide for his role in the Rwandan genocide. Nahimana was co-founder of the radio station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), whi ...

in the

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR; ; ) was an international court, international ''ad-hoc'' court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in United Nations Security Council Resolution 955, Resolutio ...

References

Radio stations in Rwanda Radio stations in Uganda Radio stations established in 1990 Radio stations disestablished in 1994 Defunct mass media in Rwanda Defunct mass media in Uganda {{Rwanda-stub Rwandan genocide

See also

References