Rusesabagina arrest will never halt Rwanda’s foreign relations

Author: Samson Kasujja

• 2022-12-29 05:40:00

The arrest of Paul Rusesabagina in Kigali on August 28, 2020, caused a hullabaloo of sorts, with so-called rights activists calling it kidnapping. The 68-year-old is serving 25 years in jail after being tried and convicted of terrorism by a Rwandan court in September 2021.

His arrest and trial was followed by numerous campaigns,  by his backers, demanding his immediate release, or else, they threatened, Rwanda would be sanctioned. But who would sanction Rwanda, and for which reasons? Trying a terrorist?  Rwanda should, instead, be appreciated for this achievement – arresting, bringing to court, and putting a terrorist where he belongs, behind bars.

The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) linked terrorism to international crimes. Some terrorist acts can constitute crimes against humanity provided that a terrorist attack is part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population or war crimes when committed during armed conflicts.

In some situations, terrorist acts may also constitute genocide if they were committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such.

“States are required to prosecute and hold the perpetrators of terrorist acts accountable for their actions in a manner duly reflecting the seriousness of the offence, in accordance with international human rights law, international refugee law, and international humanitarian law, and within the rule of law,” states the ICCT.

Rusesabagina’s case does not seriously impact Rwanda’s foreign relations with other countries or its standing within the international community. No government or international organization sanctioned Rwanda, and the country experienced no diplomatic crisis as a result of this case.

No serious government can stand with a terror convict.  

Rusesabagina was elevated, by his Western backers, into a Hollywood ‘hero’ through the fictitious “Hotel Rwanda” film. At the beginning of his trial, he showed signs that he may eventually atone for his crimes. But as the case progressed, faced with overwhelming evidence pinning him on atrocities he masterminded as boss of the MRCD and its military wing, FLN, he recoiled and boycotted trial.

But as rules of procedure of Rwandan courts prescribe, the trial continued in his absence. A court of appeal upheld his 25-year sentence, in April 2022.

Jonathan R. Beloff, a researcher focusing on the Great Lakes Region and East Africa, has in 2022 revealed that Rwandan foreign policy has remained relatively resolute in promoting state interest and security, and was not seriously impacted.

He observed that the most prevalent condemnation of Rusesabagina’s arrest and trial stem from foreign human rights critics rather than state governments.  International human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and global government institutions like the European Union, journalists and academics used the arrest to repeat existing narratives criticizing Rwanda’s post-genocide development.

“Rwandan human security does not incorporate protecting Rwandans who promote ethnic divisions but instead protects those accused by a third actor as being a member of Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa.

Rusesabagina’s involvement and leadership of several antagonist political groups such as the MRCD, FLN and PDR-Ihumure threaten not only state security by committing terrorism, but the promotion of ethnic divisionism,” reads Beloff”s research article.

Rusesabagina’s family is in big business; collecting huge sums of money the same way their adoptive father did; preparing fundraisers for the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation, which their father used to obtain funds to sponsor terrorist attacks on Rwandan soil.

Their donors continue pouring in cash, unknowingly, thinking that they are contributing to humanitarian causes yet they are sponsoring terrorism, and supporting criminal individuals who are filling their own pockets.