Paul Rusesabagina the “hero” manufactured in Hollywood through the movie Hotel Rwanda, was tried and sentenced by competent courts over his role in the death of Rwandans, injury of others and destruction of property.

 

The trial took place in the full glare of the international community and everyone saw the compelling evidence presented by prosecution and water-tight testimonies from witnesses and victims.

 

He was tried alongside colleagues from his terror outfit MRCD, and its military wing FLN which is responsible for these atrocities.

 

The FLN’s two major attacks in South and Western Rwanda took place on June 19 and December 15, 2018. In June 2018, the attack was carried out in Nyabimata, Nyaruguru District, with two people dying on spot.

 

A third victim of the attack succumbed to gunshot wounds later, while at least two others sustained injuries.

 

The second attack by Rusesabagina’s terror group targeted public transport with assailants waylaying at least three buses on the Kigali-Rusizi highway, in South-Western Rwanda and killed at least six passengers in the Nyungwe National Park, specifically at Kitabi.

 

This second attack took place just a few days before Christmas.

 

A few days after these attacks, Rusesabagina was on record boasting of the attacks by his ‘boys’ and pledging unwavering support for them to continue their mission of terrorizing innocent civilians.

 

Evidence sent to the Rwandan judiciary from the FBI and the Belgium security agencies directly linked Rusesabagina to other armed terror groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo such as the FDLR. The latter comprises remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

 

The same trove of documents showed the money trail, where Rusesabagina was deeply involved in the operational details of FLN, including buying for them military hardware.

 

For the USA authorities, just as the Belgians, the atrocities to which Rusesabagina is linked should not have come as a surprise, given the incriminating documents they handed to their Rwandan counterparts.

 

Equally, the legal detention of Rusesabagina as a Rwandan national and his co-accused and later on his condemning should not be considered problematic.

 

The arrest of a known criminal should never be weaponized for propaganda purposes. It is not only a contradiction to the whole concept of justice but more so, irrational when it gives the impression of all-out double standards at display.

 

There was no kidnap. There was no wrongful detention. For a long time, Rusesabagina, featured on Interpol’s most wanted list. The Rwanda Investigation Bureau staged a sting operation to lure him to Rwanda so that it could arrest him. The operation was successful, just like many others that the US government and its agencies pulled around the world when the situations fitted their interests. What Rwanda did is what every country in the global north does or has done.

 

In 2021, Ukraine lured dozens of suspected Russian war criminals out of the country with offers of fake, $5,000-a-month jobs so that they could try and hold them accountable.

 

Ukrainian security services posed as a private Russian security company looking to hire Russian mercenaries for jobs guarding Venezuelan oil facilities.

 

Many took up the job offers and proffered illuminating details about their past work for Russian agencies as part of the interview process. Belarus security agencies foiled the sting operation which was supported by the CIA.

 

In October 2013, Belgian Police arrested a Somali pirate, Mohamed Abdi Hassan, nicknamed “Big Mouth after being lured to Belgium by undercover agents who said they wanted to make a film about the pirates’ exploits.

 

How is Rusesabagina’s entrapment different from these cases?

 

Rusesabagina is a Rwandan national who committed crimes on Rwandan territory against Rwandans. An important reminder to the United States of America and whoever out there is bemoaning his arrest, Rwanda is a sovereign state and a country that abides to the principles of justice and integrity.

 

We have all seen how other countries have dealt with terrorists, most of the times without due process at all. How a similar terrorist to Rusesabagina, Bin Laden, was handled, is a clear pointer to the US double standards when it comes to dealing with terrorists.

 

The infamous Guantanamo Bay is far from being a court of law where suspected terrorists are legally tried. To the contrary, the place is a den of gross human rights abuses meted out on the thousands of detainees there – including those that were later found to be innocent.

 

The United States should comprehend the fact that the case of Rusesabagina is not in any way tied to the bilateral relation between the US and Rwanda.

 

Rwanda is a sovereign state.