International
Rusesabagina’s backer wants course of justice derailed
Since
the arrest and trial of Paul Rusesabagina, the former hotelier accused of
terrorism, his backers resorted to all sorts of pressure to have him released
before the verdict in his case and 20 co-accused is pronounced. Rusesabagina faces
13 terrorism-related charges. Prosecutors requested a life sentence for him.
One
of his staunchest allies, Tom Zoellner, publishes Op-Eds in The Washington Post
vilifying the Rwandan government, and President Paul Kagame. Zoellner is a Professor
at Wilkinson College of Arts, CA, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Department
of English and co-author of Rusesabagina’s biography An Ordinary Man.
His
latest bid to have his man released shows a troubling level of condescension
and arrogance. He is also indifferent and cares less about the plight of the
victims of the terrorist attacks Rusesabagina stands accused of masterminding.
In
an Op-Ed titled “Why the Biden administration should help the hero of ‘Hotel
Rwanda” published in The Washington Post on August 18, he does his best to
paint his friend in a glossy and spotless light - as “a hero” who “had shielded
at least 1,268 people from near-certain death during the Rwandan genocide.”
This
Hollywood version of what happened at the Mille Collines Hotel was disputed.
Genocide survivors who were there contest that Rusesabagina saved them. They
tell the story of callous man, who was cosying up with architects of the
genocide, including Col Theoneste Bagosora and Gen Augustin Bizimungu. Rusesabagina
who allegedly saved more than 1,000 Tutsi during the genocide went to Arusha,
Tanzania, to be a defence witness for the same genocidaires he used to wine and
dine with in 1994.
Yet
Zoellner incessantly lauds his man, and attacks Rwanda’s judiciary and the
whole court process calling it “sham”. Another lie advanced by Zoellner is that
“the judiciary in Rwanda is a servant to the will of Rwandan President Paul
Kagame, who has nursed animosity for years against Rusesabagina.”
The
assertation about President Kagame influencing the courts and that his
leadership is threatened by the fame of Rusesabagina should be treated with the
contempt it deserves.
For
Zoellner, the Biden administration should use more than $100 billion in the aid
given to Rwanda annually, for five years, to force Kigali to free the man the
US once lauded and bestowed a Medal of Freedom.
He
pushes for Rusesabagina to be set free on humanitarian grounds, alleging that “Rusesabagina
is now 67, a cancer survivor with high blood pressure, and his time in solitary confinement — illegal by global justice
standards — has taken a grave physical toll.”
Nowhere
in the article does Zoellner show any empathy to the widows, orphans and other
victims of the attacks carried out by Rusesabagina’s militias regrouped into
the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD) – National Front for
Liberation (FLN). People who care now know the harrowing stories of the survivors
of the terror attacks on vehicles in the outskirts of Nyungwe Forest; those of
the attacks in Nyabimata sector, and those in Kitabi sector in southwestern
Rwanda.
Zoellner
brushes aside the testimonies of his friend’s co-accused, notably Callixte Nsabimana,
calling them “shadowy figures that Rusesabagina had never met.” As for funding
armed militias as Rusesabagina is accused, Zoellner prefers to ignore the
records provided by the FBI and the Belgian Prosecution and calls them “small
and ordinary disbursements to friends and family back home.”
Zoellner
also willingly ignored the damning testimony of Dr Michelle Martin, a professor
at California State University,
Fullerton in the Department of Social Work, who worked as a
volunteer at Rusesabagina Hotel Rwanda Foundation. This professor gave more than
two hours of testimony about how she found out that Rusesabagina’s foundation
had nothing humanitarian in its activities. It was a front for activities
supporting Hutu Power ideologues and genocide denial.
In
his desperate attempt to appear more credible, Zoellner cites another pro-Rusesabagina
campaigner, Brian Endless, a political science professor at Loyola University
Chicago. Zoellner’s plea for the Biden administration to prevent the course of
justice is nothing new.
Almost
one month away from the pronouncement of the verdict, there is panic in the
ranks of Rusesabagina’s backers. They have
resorted to lies aimed at painting this alleged terror mastermind in a very
good light, and to talk down Rwanda’s legal system.