Kigali — Rwanda has denied entry visa for Belgian journalist Mr. Peter Verlinden of the Flamish Television VRT who was supposed travel along with the visiting Belgian Development Cooperation Minister, RNA has established.

Information coming in from Belgian media indicates that Mr. Peter Verlinden was informed last week by the Rwandan embassy in Brussels that his visa request was not successful. However, his technical team including a cameraman and sound technician were allowed their visas.

Efforts to get comments from officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate of Immigration and Emigration were futile - apparently they were locked up in meetings.

Information Minister Prof. Laurent Nkusi said he was only given the list of accepted journalists. "I am only given the list of journalists who have been granted visas in such situations. Those that deal with visas can have more details about that issue" he said.

He added: "Here we (Ministry of Information) deal largely with cases of accreditation of journalists but not visas".

The controversial journalist told Belgian newswire Belga that "President Paul Kagame himself" was behind the refusal by Rwanda not to allow him the entry visa. Visas are issued by the Directorate of Immigration and Emigration in Kigali.

RNA has tried to piece together bits of information on Mr. Verlinden that connects him to Rwanda or the authorities here.

On September 28 2004, he released a report summary purportedly based on interviews of a couple that lived in Rwanda during the war and subsequent Genocide in 1994.

In October, 1998, Mr. Peter Verlinden spent three hours interviewing the African-born Belgian rancher, Mr. Marcel Gerin, and his Mexican-born wife Gloria Martinez.

The couple are said to have been managers of the Mpanga Ranch in southeastern Rwanda, a popular tourist stop near the southern extremity of Akagera National Park.

According to Mr. Verlinden, the couple alleges that they witnessed various crimes being committed in the areas they reached by "soldiers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front" (RPF).

He also handed the same research to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The Tribunal was set up by the UN to bring to book all those associated with the Genocide.

Mr. Verlinden is reported to have said he was acting as an "intermediary and spokesperson" for the couple, who had left Rwanda, and were no longer willing to talk about the events they witnessed in 1994, for "very personal reasons."

Meanwhile, the Belgian Minister Charles Michel is already in the country heading a delegation of parliamentarians, journalists and officials from the foreign affairs office in Brussels. The Minister meets President Kagame today.

Belgium is one of the top funding partners for Rwanda with annual commitments of up to 16 million euros over this year and 2009. Just last month, the Belgians injected another 23.5 million euros (about Frw18.5 billion) into horticulture, energy and justice sectors.