Long before US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s plane landed in Kigali for his August 10-11 visit, too much noise was made about his intended “pressure” as regards Rwanda’s alleged involvement in the conflict in eastern DRC and the “unfair detention” of Washington's “hero,” Paul Rusesabagina.

 

Rusesabagina, a ‘hero’ manufactured in Hollywood through the movie, Hotel Rwanda, founded the National Liberation Front (FLN), a terrorist organization that served as an armed wing of his Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRDC).

 

In 2018, on three different occasions, his militias carried out violent attacks inside Rwanda, killing nine civilians, injuring several, and destroying properties. Rusesabagina made several statements celebrating these criminal acts and claiming responsibility. On many occasions, he publicly announced his support to the National Liberation Front. In early 2019, in a video available online, Rusesabagina reaffirmed his allegiance to his criminal group, declared war against Rwanda, and called for recruitment and mobilization of combatants.

 

In September 2021, a court in Kigali handed him a 25-year sentence for terrorism. 

 

His lobbyists – including senior US officials like Blinken – will not blink but continue to cry foul. In the past, information provided by the FBI and Belgian Prosecution to Rwandan authorities revealed that he supported the DRC-based terrorists who committed the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and are now behind the rise of a deadly genocide ideology in the region.

 

Before Blinken arrived in Rwanda, his government issued a statement saying he “will also raise democracy and human rights concerns, including transnational repression, limiting space for dissident and political opposition.”

 

The term “transnational repression” is a new paradigm invented by the global north to besmirch what they call “regimes” in the south that don’t toe their ideological line.

 

The family of Rusesabagina and its lobbies, and supportive organisations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Lantos Foundation, as well believed that Blinken would arm-twist Rwandan President Paul Kagame to release the terror kingpin.

 

Tom Zoellner, a confident of Rusesabagina tweeted: “Please, @SecBlinken ask Kagame to let Rusesabagina hitch a ride back with you and make it a condition of further US help.”

 

Zoellner co-edited Rusesabagina’s biography “An ordinary man.” Zoellner is a staunch denier of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Rusesabagina’s stepdaughters, Carine and Anaise Kanimba, were in ebullient mood because they thought the Rwandan government would cave in and release their father.

 

Anaise tweeted to express her hope that Rusesabagina would be freed. She wrote: “After advocating tirelessly for more than 700 days, we are grateful that #FreeRusesasabagina case is receiving attention at the highest level. If the US-Rwanda relations are a strong enough trusted cooperation, then it is strong enough to secure my father release.”

Others who thought that Blinken would succeed in having Rusesabagina released include HRW and the Lantos Foundation.

 

What do all these people and organisations calling for the freeing of Rusesabagina have in common? They show no sympathy to the victims and survivors of his MRCD/FLN terror attacks.

 

But those who were clamouring for Blinken to exert pressure on Kagame got a quick response before they even met. On Twitter, Kagame reassured Rwandans.

 

His tweet read: “No worries…there are things that don’t work like that here.”

 

During a joint press conference with Blinken, Rwandan Foreign Minister, Dr Vincent Biruta, didn’t mince words as regards his position on Rwanda’s sovereignty and integrity.

 

“As far as the government of Rwanda is concerned, Paul Rusesabagina is a Rwandan citizen. He was arrested, he was tried with 20 other accomplices for serious crimes they committed against Rwandan citizens …(he committed) them while residing in the United States.”

 

“This was done lawfully, under both Rwandan and international laws,” Biruta told reporters. “Therefore, Rwanda will continue to abide by our rules and the decisions made by our judiciary, and we would request our partners to respect Rwanda’s sovereignty and its laws, its institutions.”

 

Just like former Rwandan Prosecutor General, Martin Ngoga, recently revealed, Rusesabagina’s case and the way it ended was a product of many years of judicial cooperation among several countries including the US and Belgium, and was “not simply a single incident” that happened and led to the conviction, contrary to what is being portrayed out there.

 

Ngoga detailed events including knowledge of, back in 2010, transfer of funds that Rusesabagina effected from San Antonio in Texas.

 

Ngoga who travelled to Washington and sought the services of an international law firm to help him secure an appointment with senior officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – whom he met and shared the evidence he had – was surprised to find out that the FBI actually had more evidence pinning Rusesabagina.

 

Blinken knows that too.

 

So, before his trip, when it was reported that Blinken’s agenda in Kigali would be the conflict in the DRC and a meeting where he would “press” the Rwandan President to release Rusesabagina, Washington’s long-term sinister agenda had actually come to light.

 

Let no one be fooled. The FBI will not divulge what it knows about Rusesabagina’s terrorism. The masters of the FBI have long held another important plan. It started when they propped Rusesabagina up. Everything was planned well ahead of time.

 

Problem is, Rwanda will not take it. The US will mount pressure for its ‘hero’ to be set free. But Rwandan law does not condone terrorism.