INFORMATION MINISTER ON BBC KINWYARWANDA SERVICE

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 000302

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/06/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV KCRM RW
SUBJECT: INFORMATION MINISTER ON BBC KINWYARWANDA SERVICE
CLOSURE

REF: KIGALI 256

Classified By: Ambassador Symington for reasons 1.4 (b) (d)


1. (U) On May 11, Information Minister Louise Mushikiwabo
addressed the diplomatic corps on the April 25 suspension of
BBC Kinyarwanda service FM transmissions in Rwanda (reftel).
Flanked by Foreign Minister Rosemary Museminali, Mushikiwabo
spoke at length on the history of media in Rwanda and the
Government of Rwanda (GOR) rationale for blocking the
Kinyarwanda service locally (Note: the service can still be
heard on short-wave from London and as a podcast on the BBC
website; BBC's French, English and Swahili FM transmissions
continue in Rwanda).


2. (SBU) Mushikiwabo offered two main critiques of the BBC
transmissions, focusing in particular on the weekly
Kinyarwanda discussion program called "The Root of Origins."
When the program first began broadcasting after the genocide,
the BBC had reportedly agreed to provide in this program a
"neutral" discussion venue for the Rwandan people on
important national issues. She contended this neutrality had
been repeatedly violated by a program that interviewed people
who offered its audience an implicit and corrosive message.
According to some of those participating in this BBC program,
she said, the GOR was fooling its people, enslaving them in
oppressive "community service" programs, limiting justice to
Tutsi families who had suffered during the genocide, and
generally pursuing an exploitative and ethnically-based
agenda disguised by calls for "unity" and "reconciliation."
Second, the BBC show regularly offered opinions providing a
"reinterpretation" of the 1994 genocide that amounted to
either a denial of the original crime, or an assertion that
revenge killings by Rwanda Patriotic Army (RPA) troops
constituted a second genocide -- in either case, denigrating
the terrible suffering of the actual genocide. She noted a
BBC team would come shortly to discuss the broadcast and the
possibility of resuming transmissions.


3. (SBU) In response, British Ambassador Cannon offered a
stout defense of the BBC, saying the broadcaster had a proud
80-year history of independent broadcasting. The suggestion
that the BBC was "conspiring with purveyors of genocide" was
farfetched. He expressed the British Government's
disappointment at the unilateral decision to halt the
broadcasts, wishing that discussions with BBC officials had
taken place first. Based upon the BBC's own careful
translation of the program, Cannon said no one on the program
denied the genocide, and no one proclaimed a second genocide.
Rather, a spirited discussion occurred on the nature of
reconciliation and justice in Rwanda. In later comments, the
Dutch Ambassador expressed dismay at the decision, saying
Rwanda's supporters around the world had difficulty
explaining such a closure. Help us to defend you, he urged,
by making this sort of decision easier to explain -- give us
greater detail, and more examples of language that crosses
the line of acceptable speech. At the U.S. Mission, we have
made a different point to our GOR interlocutors, namely that
reaching an accord with the BBC that results in restarting
their service would be a very positive step.


4. (SBU) Mushikiwabo replied that genocide denial was "never
Q4. (SBU) Mushikiwabo replied that genocide denial was "never
straightforward." Any Rwandan listener would believe a
second genocide had taken place after hearing an assertion
that "all the bodies in Lake Victoria" were Hutu. (Note: many
Tutsis killed in 1994 were thrown in nearby rivers and lakes,
and many of those ultimately floated into Lake Victoria).
"We will not allow the sowing of distrust, the fanning of
hatred, the appeal to emotion," she said. When former Prime
Minister Faustin Twagirimungu said on the program that he
would never kneel and apologize to Tutsis, that message was
unacceptable, as it undermined reconciliation. (Note:
Twagiramungu went on to explain that many members of his own
Hutu family had been killed by Hutu genocidaires, and he
could never join a Hutu killer and apologize for the killer's
acts). In response to a question, Mushikiwabo also said the
GOR was listening "very carefully" to Voice of America
Kinyarwanda broadcasts, but added the VOA Kinyarwanda service
had "improved" lately.


5. (C) Comment. Mushikiwabo defended the GOR decision with
great intensity, offering no apologies for the halt in

transmissions, and suggesting that non-Kinywarwanda-speakers
would always be at a disadvantage in evaluating such a
program. According to the Minister, the BBC in London did
not quite understand what was occurring in its own
Kinyarwanda programming. The vast majority of radio
listeners in Rwanda tune in to Kinyarwanda broadcasts --
they understand no other language as well. Mushikiwabo's
assertion that genocide denial is insidious has merit.
Nevertheless, the GOR would be best served if it restarted
the suspended transmission of the BBC Kinyrwanda broadcasts
following upcoming talks with the BBC. Whatever the content
of the program that led to the ban, a prolonged suspension
will reinforce perceptions that the GOR is intolerant of
critical opinion. End comment.
SYMINGTON