Songs of genocide

last updated 8 January 2015

Arusha, Tanzania

Renowned Rwandan singer and composer Simon Bikindi went on trial this week for writing songs that encouraged Hutus to slaughter Tutsis in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The indictment at the Tanzania-based U.N. tribunal for Rwanda says that Bikindi collaborated directly with Hutu officials over several years to increase recruitment to the Interahamwe militia. Interahamwe means “those who kill together.” Prosecutors likened Bikindi to a Nazi propagandist, but his lawyer called the charges a violation of free expression. Some 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were hacked to death in the three-month killing spree.