Hutu-Tutsi radio station is highest rated

An independent radio station in Burundi, the Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), which is said to be a symbol of national reconciliation with both Hutu and Tutsi staff members, has become the most listened-to station in the capital of Bujumbura, ahead of state radio and other private stations, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported on Tuesday. Established in March of this year with funding from the Ford Foundation, RPA has integrated former Hutu rebels and former Tutsi soldiers into the station’s 30-member editorial board. “When they recount their adventures, one will tell the other ‘So you were fighting in this area? I was on the front-line just opposite you, so we could have killed each other.’ And now, they are friends. They realize there are other things to do in life than killing one another. So I do not see any real problem between Hutus and Tutsis. The real issues are future prospects. The youth have no future prospects,” station founder Alexis Sinduije told RFI.

While national reconciliation remains the station’s priority, Sinduije said that RPA “is not a humanitarian radio. We also try to highlight societal issues such as corruption, exploitation, non-ethnic political problems, struggle for individual interests. Instead of broadcasting a vertical type of information, we provide horizontal information that involves everybody - specialists as well as people considered to be voiceless. We try to give a voice to the voiceless who have had no medium to express themselves.”