{Senator Prof. Laurent Nkusi has scoffed at researchers who feature in a controversial documentary by BBC referring to them as “men who have dedicated their lives to denying the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.”}
Nkusi, an academic, made the critique as he appeared before the commission established to look into the alleged role of BBC in denying the 1994 Genocide.
Among those that Nkusi criticised include Filip Reyntjens, a Belgian law professor at the Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Antwerp, who denies the Genocide and has relentlessly attacked the Kigali Government.
Other researchers that the senator pointed out include Pierre Erny and Bernard Lugan who were once lecturers at the former National University of Rwanda.
The commission, led by the former Prosecutor-General Martin Ngoga, is currently hearing testimonies from different experts at Telecom House in Kacyiru, Kigali.
Nkusi questioned the credibility of the researchers as he responded to questions posed to him by Evode Uwizeyimana, one of the inquiry commissioners.
Nkusi told the inquiry that Erny, a former priest, left Rwanda around 1975 and has since fabricated his own narratives based on the past regimes.
“Reyntjens is a victim of his ego, he was denied entry into Rwanda yet he assumed he was an expert on Rwanda, while Lugan is a man who can change anytime. He has even written documents claiming that researchers can change their perception on something at any given time. So definitely these men’s credibility is highly questionable,” Nkusi said.
Meanwhile, Nkusi, a former Minister of Information, also told the inquiry that the relations between Rwanda and BBC have been sour since the two parties entered into an FM broadcasting agreement in 1997.
“I wrote to BBC several times complaining about airing content that minimises the Genocide and giving a platform to convicted genocidaires who voice out genocidal ideology but it persistently repeated doing the same.”
In April 2004, as Rwanda marked 10 years after the Genocide, the BBC through their Kiyarwanda-Kirundi service called Imvo n’Imvano, aired a programme that featured Genocide convicts incarcerated in Mali.
All the convicts interviewed by the BBC journalist were tried and convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and they included Jean Kambanda, the prime minister of the genocidal government.
The commission of inquiry was set up by the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (Rura) to investigate accusations of Genocide denial and revisionism leveled against the BBC.
Last month, Rura suspended BBC Kinyarwanda broadcasts following complaints in the wake of the controversial documentary Rwanda’s Untold Story, aired on BBC2 on October 1.
{{The New Times}}
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