Journalist Arrested in ’94 Genocide

Rwanda announced the arrest of a journalist who allegedly led a radio hate campaign that helped fuel the 1994 genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered. “Valerie Bemeriki was arrested in northwest Rwanda late last week. She will be prosecuted for genocide and crimes against humanity,” Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo said. Bemeriki is remembered by Rwandans for her inflammatory broadcasts on Radio Milles Collines urging Hutus, the majority ethnic group, to slaughter ethnic Tutsis. She is alleged to have denounced Tutsis hiding in the capital, Kigali, and to have directed attacks by Hutu militias on Tutsi refugee camps. Local residents recall hearing her saying repeatedly, “Do not kill those inyenzi [cockroaches] with a bullet--cut them to pieces with a machete.”