International
Rusesabagina, a paradoxical opportunist
Thanks
to his Western backers, Paul Rusesabagina rose to fame as a ‘Hollywood hero’
due to the fictional film Hotel Rwanda.
But
his opportunism is traced back in 1994 when the staff of Sabena, the group that
owned the Hôtel des Mille Collines,
fled the country and Rusesabagina became the hotel manager.
As a
hotel manager, Rusesabagina turned into a business master during the Genocide
against the Tutsi. He commenced with charging for phone calls, eliminating the
provision of food and water to the Tutsi who sought refuge at the hotel, and establishing
a monetary charge for individuals seeking sanctuary inside the hotel. In those
very difficult times when the Tutsi were targeted for extermination, he
threatened to throw out those who failed to pay.
Contrary
to what really happened at Hôtel des
Mille Collines, Rusesabagina fooled Westerners and they believed – as portrayed
in the fiction movie Hotel Rwanda – that he saved more than 1,000 Tutsi in the
hotel.
That
is where the naïve ambition to portray him as an exceptional man began. Fiction
is fiction. And it is normal in movies. But riding on it to make the world
believe that what is portrayed in the movie is the real thing is what irks the
people who were in the hotel during the Genocide and those who actually know
Rusesabagina and his Western backers’ calculations.
Apart
from being deceitful for personal gains, he founded and used a terror group,
FLN, claiming that he aims at ‘liberating’ Rwandans. These terrorists plotted
attacks in southwestern Rwanda which claimed innocent people’s lives between
2018 and 2019.
Rusesabagina
confessed, among other things, that he provided Euros 20,000 to the FLN. So, how
would this ‘Hollywood hero’ liberate Rwandans while killing them, burning
public transport buses and looting people’s properties?
Before
he was pardoned and allowed to return to the US, earlier during his trial,
Rusesabagina denied his Rwandan citizenship. Rwandans were shocked when he
declared that he is ‘a Belgian orphan.’ He
still continues to distance himself – preferring to be considered a Belgian or
an American resident – from Rwandan citizenship yet wants to be seen as a man
who has Rwanda and its people at heart.
How
he plots to ‘change leadership’ in Rwanda while claiming not to be Rwandan
citizen often remains a puzzle.
The
69-year-old was convicted of terrorist crimes and sentenced to 25 years in
jail. He was released on presidential clemency on March 25 after he promised to
abandon his political shenanigans.
Unsurprisingly,
he later contradicted his parole terms. In an interview with the New York Times
on July 1, 2023, he said: “I know pressure worked. It is not because of
kindness that I am out.”
Despite
overwhelming evidence presented by Rwandan prosecution in the trial which was
streamed live online for everyone to follow and understand, Rusesabagina told the
New York Times that he fought for ‘human rights’ and especially of Rwandans and
‘democracy in the country’.
No
Rwandan can imagine that killings and terror attacks will establish ‘democracy’
in any country, especially theirs.
In a
statement made during his release, the Rwandan government explained that
despite the presidential pardon, Rusesabagina’s release does not absolve him
from the previously imposed penalty and that it can still be reinstated if he
commits similar offenses again.
Rusesabagina
is behaving carelessly but, unfortunately for him, he is being used by
Westerners.