Global North media thrives in serving as propaganda tools for Rwanda terror Kingpin

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. This is exactly what the global north media has been doing while lobbying for the case of Rwanda’s terror kingpin Paul Rusesabagina.

They have willingly accepted to be vehicles of false propaganda spearheaded by his adopted daughters Carine and Anaise Kanimba, and a worldwide network of his lobbyists.

Rusesabagina, a former hotelier, was tried and found guilty of charges including financing terrorism, murder as an act of terrorism, formation of an irregular armed group, and membership of a terrorist group, among others.

The Rwandan High Court sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Prosecution found this sentence too lenient and appealed. The Court of Appeal will decide  either to increase Rusesabagina’s sentence to life imprisonment, or not.

But despite overwhelming evidence linking Rusesabagina to the terrorist acts, his family and a cabal of advocates continue to argue that the charges against him were fabricated because, they allege, he’s just a humanitarian who became a fierce critic of the current Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

They always remind people of his Hollywood fame which he gained from the blockbuster fiction film “Hotel Rwanda” which wrongly attributes to him saving more than 1,000 refugees during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

They add that he’s a recipient of the Presidential Medal awarded to him by former President George W. Bush for allegedly saving those lives.

To attract more sympathy, the daughters claim that their father is a cancer survivor they wish released on humanitarian grounds. Most western publications kowtowed this false narrative and have all run articles exculpating Rusesabagina of his crimes, using his cosmetic glorious past to advocate for his immediate release.

Those publications opted to work as mouthpieces of the Rusesabagina family. They include The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Hill in the US, the Guardian and Mirror in the UK.

The latest to join the fray is Politico which also run an article aimed at rekindling empathy for Rwanda’s terror mastermind by reminding of his fake past heroism. The story titled “Can Biden save the man who inspired ‘Hotel Rwanda’? by Max Tani and Alex Thompson, on February 17, is aimed at egging US President Joe Biden to use all leverage over Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame to interfere in the judicial process and free Rusesabagina.

They wrote: “PAUL RUSESABAGINA’s harrowing real-life story of survival during the Rwandan genocide of 1994 captured the public imagination and inspired the Oscar-nominated film Hotel Rwanda in 2004. But long after Hollywood toasted his heroism, Rusesabagina found himself at odds with increasingly autocratic President PAUL KAGAME, which ultimately landed him in jail, sentenced to life in prison for terrorism-related charges.”

In the above excerpt, Rusesabagina is wrongly described as a survivor, and not someone who cosied up with ringleaders of the genocide including Col Theoneste Bagosora, Gen Augustin Bizimungu, and Col Tharcisse Renzaho who were spearheading the extermination of the Tutsi.

It’s also on record that Rusesabagina used his newly gained fame to propagate genocide denial and revisionism around the world in well-paid speaking engagements. It’s the same money that Rusesabagina used to prop up his terrorism activities.

What’s clear from this article is that Rusesabagina’s daughters continue to nurture pipe dreams that the international community can exert pressure on President Kagame to release their father.

It’s highly hypocritical for all these media outlets to be subservient to a misplaced campaign by Rusesabagina’s family while they have never showed any sympathy to his victims.

But they need to know that Rwanda, as a sovereign state, will never cow to any propaganda. The President will never interfere in the judicial process, like any leader wouldn’t do anywhere in the world. If Biden cannot do it, why do they expect Kagame to do it?