Lantos Foundation an advocate for terrorism Kingpin

The verdict against Paul Rusesabagina, former hotelier, and his 20 co-accused who were found guilty for terrorism in Rwanda is a thing of the past now. But what continues to reverberate is the motive of those who supported him in his sinister endeavour.

One area of major interest would be to examine why well-established human rights organisations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and well-known academics strived to have Rusesabagina released despite the 13 charges including terrorism, financing terrorism, recruiting child soldiers, arson, and forming terrorist groups.

One of the organisations which has been in the trenches for this terrorism convict is the New Hampshire-based Lantos Foundation. The latter prides itself as an organisation seeking “to advance human rights globally”. It also says that, in the words of its founder, Congressman Tom Lantos, it focuses on carrying “the noble banner of human rights to every corner of the world.”

But when it comes to Rusesabagina, the Lantos Foundation erred from the above-mentioned laudable objectives and threw its support behind Rusesabagina. He is in big trouble because he created a terrorist outfit, the MRCD/FLN. The latter launched armed incursions into southwest Rwanda in which innocent civilians were killed and lots of property were damaged.

The relationships between Rusesabagina and the Lantos Foundation dates back to 2011 when it decided to bestow upon him the Lantos Human Rights Prize despite protests from genocide survivor’s groups such as Ibuka (Remember). Ibuka is an umbrella of several genocide survivors’ organisations who wrote to the Lantos Foundation telling it that he does not deserve the award. The Foundation kept a deaf ear.

That prize was awarded to Rusesabagina for allegedly saving more than 1,200 Tutsi refugees who were hiding at the Hotel des Mille Collines from marauding Hutu extremist Interahamwe militias. But genocide survivors objected because he did not save anyone.

Rusesabgina’s shot to fame earnestly begun in May 2005 when he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President Georges W Bush for his purported heroic act of protecting hundreds of refugees at the Hotel Mille Collines during the genocide. In choosing armed insurrection, Rusesabagina made a wrong choice.

When the trial of Rusesabagina and his co-accused began, his family, a motley of individual lobbyists, organisations like Human Rights Watch and the Lantos Foundation waged a sustained malicious campaign to whitewash his crimes. They alleged that he was being targeted for being a dissident and a vocal critic of President Paul Kagame.

At the same time, they threw mud at Rwanda’s judiciary claiming that Rusesabagina is subjected to a “sham trial”.  They wrote numerous letters to different international institutions including the Belgian Parliament, the European Parliament, and the US Congress, asking them to put pressure on President Kagame to release him. But they know very well that President Kagame cannot bow under any pressure, and that if he did, he would be preventing the course of justice.

The Lantos Foundation has become more militant and used its profile to call for sanctions against the Rwandan government, mainly the application of the Magnitsky Act which targets gross violators of human rights.  On June 7, this foundation wrote a letter to the US Department of State and the US Department of Treasury recommending the global Magnitsky sanctions against Rwandan Justice Minister Johnston Busingye and head of the Rwandan Investigation Bureau (RIB), Colonel Jeannot Ruhunga for their alleged role in human rights violations against Rusesabagina. It cited what it called alleged rendition and kidnapping in August 2020.

But looked at closely, this was just a red herring. What actually happened to Rusesabagina is no different from what the US and other so-called civilised nations do to track and bring to book criminals.

Luring Rusesabagina into boarding a private jet from Dubai to Rwanda to answer for his crimes was not illegal. But for the Lantos Foundation no one should be concerned about the double standards. The US government did not give a favourable response to the Lantos Foundation’s ill-placed bid.

But, in another surprising stunt, on September 9, the Lantos Foundation had another go and requested the UK Foreign Minister, Dominic Raab, to apply the Magnitsky Act and reject the credentials of the newly appointed Rwandan Ambassador to the UK. This is a futile exercise.

The trial of Rusesabagina has exposed the double standards which are the cornerstone of the so-called human rights organisations. It is as if the ill-gotten celebrity status of the former hotelier is a card that makes him immune to any prosecution against the serious terrorism crimes he is accused off. Nowhere do they mention the plight of his co-accused.

It is also extremely callous for all those who have been fighting for Rusesabagina’s release to completely ignore the harm done to a dozen victims who also wanted justice.