Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo on Wednesday, July 26, said it was unfortunate that “the Belgian government seems to have capitulated to pressure from” the DR Congo government and propaganda from genocide negationist organizations and activists, through whom they decided to leak the decision to reject the appointment of Vincent Karega as Kigali’s Ambassador-designate to Brussels.

The decision by the Belgian government to reject Amb. Karega’s appointment was yet to be officially confirmed when it was leaked by Jambo News, an outlet owned by Jambo Asbl. The latter is a Belgium-based organization of descendants of perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Their activities, sources say, are all aimed at denying or minimising the 1994 genocide.

Gustave Mbonyumutwa, the grandson of Dominique Mbonyumutwa, Rwanda’s first president and one of the architects of Parmehutu, the extremist party that introduced ethnic cleansing, was Jambo Asbl president from 2017 to 2019.

His father, Shingiro Mbonyumutwa was a key player in MDR-Pawa that played a major role in the 1994 Genocide. At the height of the Genocide, Shingiro is on record instigating killing of the Tutsi.

In 2018, when the Belgian parliament was debating a law that criminalised denying the Genocide against the Tutsi, Jambo moved to block it but failed.

“Jambo is an association under Belgian law that brings together the children of former regime dignitaries. They claim to campaign for human rights in Rwanda, but in most cases they are defending the image of their parents and family acquaintances for the acts they allegedly committed during the genocide against the Tutsi,” a member of the Rwandan diaspora community in Belgium told The New Times.

“They have managed to make themselves known in the civil society of Afro-descendants in Belgium as opponents of President Paul Kagame’s government, enemies they share with the Congolese in Belgium.”

As noted, this credibility within the Belgian associative world gave them access to the political world and in particular to the Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V), a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium whose NGOs had a foothold in pre-1994 Rwanda. It was traditionally the largest political party of Flanders, until it was overtaken by the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) in the 2010s.

With a history that dates back to the 19th century, the CD&V has generally the largest number of mayors and most Prime Ministers of Belgium and Ministers-President of Flanders have been CD&V politicians.

“This was the party that enabled most of the parents of Jambo Asbl members to obtain refugee status in Belgium, particularly in Flanders. Well established in this part of Belgium, they now constitute a significant electorate for Belgian political parties.”

Flanders is the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium.