Former ‘hate journalist’ pleads for forgiveness

A former journalist with Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), Georges Ruggiu - who changed on Monday to plead guilty to two charges of direct and public incitement to genocide and persecution as a crime against humanity - has asked for forgiveness for his role in the Rwandan genocide. “I beg you to accept my regrets and my apologies for what happened,” he pleaded. “I know that, alas, I can do nothing more than to testify and make known the truth, which is horrible. But I am ready to do it to repair the wrong that I have done you, and I ask you once again to forgive me,” the independent Hirondelle news service quoted the Italian-born Belgian journalist as saying. However, Ruggiu’s lawyers said he had been manipulated and was “a small-scale collaborator who did not understand the sordid complexity of Rwandan politics.” They urged the court to make its sentence “proportionate and individualised,” Hirondelle reported. UN Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, for her part, asked the court to pass a 20-year prison sentence. “Ruggiu’s political involvement was total and he had all the necessary information at his disposal,” Hirondelle quoted her as saying. “He [Ruggiu] associated with the top architects of the genocide and thus made himself a co-author,” she added. Judge Navanethem Pillay said the court would announce its sentence on 1 June.