OTTAWA — A Rwandan cabinet minister says he will refuse to declare his ethnicity before an upcoming visit to Canada as required by foreign affairs because the demand is “insulting.”

Joseph Habineza risks being blocked from entering the country if he doesn’t state whether he is a Hutu or Tutsi on his visitor’s visa. The ethnicity requirement was front page news Thursday in the New Times, the largest newspaper in Rwanda.

Canada’s relationship with Rwanda is shadowed by the horror of 800,000 dead killed in bloodshed over 100 days in 1994. A United Nations peacekeeping force was ill-equipped and under-staffed to prevent the rampant killings of Tutsis by Hutus.

Rwandans see Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian general who was in charge of the UN force in the country in 1994, as a hero for his frantic and fruitless efforts to provoke the international community into action before and during the violence.

Canada is among the few nations to ask Rwandans for ethnicity before granting visas, which rankles the government in Kigali. It is illegal to ask Rwandans about their ethnicity in their home country, Habineza said.

“It’s nonsense, because we do not believe in ethnicity, especially because it was something that was purely invented,” the minister of culture and sport said over the phone from the capital Kigali.

“I think first of all, its an insult,” Habineza said. “Its like me asking a Canadian where their grandparents came from before allowing them into the country. Do we ask them that?”

He refused to state his ethnicity when filling out a visa last December to enter Canada for a United Nations conference. He believes his government post forced Foreign Affairs to relent. Others have not been as fortunate.

Theodore Simburudali, president of an association for genocide survivors, was slated to speak at Concordia University in Montreal two weeks ago, but his visa was denied when he also declined to write his ethnicity on the application form.

This section of the questionnaire is reserved for Rwandan nationals born before 1980. On the questionnaire, it asks:

“What is the number on your pre-1996 Rwandan ID card and the name of the ethnic group listed for you on this card?”

Applicants are also required to present a copy of the identification card for verification. The ethnic ID card was established by Belgian colonialists to distinguish Tutsis and the Hutu. It then became a tool for the target killings of 1994.

A spokesperson for the Ministry Citizenship and Immigration said the Canadian government asks for ethnicity to screen for individuals involved in massacres or crimes against humanity during the genocide.

“These questionnaires are continuously reviewed to ensure that the only information essential to determine admissibility to Canada is requested and it’s there to ensure the safety and security of Canadians,” said Danielle Norris.

Canada has a history of harbouring Rwandan genocide suspects.

Leon Mugesera who lives in Quebec and once taught at Laval University is currently facing deportation for a speech he made in November 1992 in Rwanda. He is told 1,000 members of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development that they should kill Tutsis and “dump their bodies into the rivers of Rwanda.”

Mugesera’s lawyers are arguing he never incited people to kill Tutsis or political opponents and if deported he would face certain death.

Habineza said it is impossible to locate genocide suspects by merely asking their ethnic background.

“If they want us to track former militias, we can help them but not like this.”

Habineza hopes to return to Canada in a couple months to speak with Rwandan youth about the opportunities in Africa but when he’s asked to declare his ethnicity on the application “I will keep putting down no, no, no, no.”