Rwanda's Minister for National Unity and Civic Engagement Jean Damascene Bizimana says genocide ideology is the most concerning threat that the country's unity and reconciliation faces. PHOTO | CYRIL NDEGEYA | NMG
Children of perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi living abroad continue to engage in genocide ideology, government officials say.
Genocide ideology is defined as an aggregate of thoughts characterised by conduct, speeches, documents and other acts aiming at exterminating or inciting others to exterminate people basing on ethnic group.
While the cases are fewer among the youth born after the genocide, hate speech and genocide ideology persist on social media platforms largely by the diaspora, according to Jean Damascene who is Rwanda’s Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement.
Rwandan Community Abroad and ex-combatants gathered at the Mutobo Reintegration and Demobilisation Centre in Musanze District during which the country’s minister for national unity and civic engagement expressed concerns that some neighbouring continue are protecting elements that harbour the ideology.
He said there are some former affiliates of the genocidal regime in exile who have opened Internet-based media that they use to continue propagating the genocide ideology.
Pushing hate agenda
He gave an example of Belgian-based Gaspard Musabyimana whom he said started an online radio, where he broadcasts messages riddled with genocide ideology and revisionism.
“How can someone like that still be out there? What is sad is that he still has people in the country who listen to him as well as share information with him,” the minister said.
Twenty-nine years later, the children of some of the genocide perpetrators now push the hate agenda. They have created an association called Jambo ASBL which continues to deny the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
A picture taken on March 22, 2019 at the Ntarama Genocide Memorial in Kigali showing skulls of Rwanda victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. PHOTO | JACQUES NKINZINGABO | AFP
The founder and former president of Jambo ASBL Placide Kayumba is a son of Dominique Ntawukuriryayo, former Sous-Préfect of Gisagara during the genocide who in 2010 was sentenced to 25 years by ICTR for genocide. He led massacre on the Kabuye hill where more than 30,000 Tutsi were killed.
Liliane Bahufite, a lawyer and member of the Jambo group, is a daughter of Col Juvénal Bahufite who was a spokesperson of the genocidal forces in Bukavu after their defeat.
