État d'Urgence Production

Burundi, 21st October 1993: The Democratically elected President Ndadaye is assassinated by a group of Tutsi officers. Another round of reprisals and counterattacks begins under pressure from the militia and extremist parties who encourage the racial hostilities and fan the flames of terror. There is one pogram after another, with tens of thousands of people becoming refugees in their own country.

The genocide in Rwanda (Itsembatsemba) took place amongst general indifference. On the 6th April 1994, a fury of purification swept the country. Within one hundred days, soldiers and militiamen (interhamwe) massacred at least 700,000 Tutsis. These images were taken two years after the genocide, in April 1996. The sound track comes from Radio Télévision Libre Mille Collines (Thousand Hills Free Broadcasting)–RTLM–and dates from April to June 1994. RTLM began to transmit in 1991 with the help of the regime and played a key role in the unleashing and the coordination of the killing.