Regional
Rusesabagina’s family believes more lies could free him from jail
Since the arrest and trial of Paul Rusesabagina for
terrorism-related crimes, his family embarked on a campaign to pressure Rwanda
to release him. One most active family member so far has been his stepdaughter
Carine Kanimba who has been throwing lies around, with the help of gullible and
friendly global media. Her goal has always been to whitewash her father of the
crimes he is accused of. At the same time, she wants everybody to believe that
he is the victim of a witch-hunt by what she calls a regime that does not
tolerate dissent.
But this is the biggest con. Rusesabagina faces 13 charges
including terrorism, recruiting child soldiers, kidnapping, and arson. Despite
the overwhelming evidence against him, notably testimonies in court and his own declaration of war against Rwanda,
the family remains in denial.
Maybe after realising that the youngest daughter’s campaign
and lobbying did not bear fruit, the eldest sister, Anaise Kanimba, decided to jump into the
fray. She used The Washington Post to rehash the same tired lies and
distortions about her father’s current predicament.
On June 26, she wrote an op-ed titled: “Rwanda kidnapped my father. Here’s why the world should work for his
release,” as if it is the world that instigated him to invest himself in
terrorism against Rwanda.
Like Carine, Anaise carefully crafted deceit aimed at
reminding people about her father’s 'heroics' during the 1994 genocide against
the Tutsi. She lied to the world that he was targeted because he was a vocal
critic of President Paul Kagame. It is not surprising that The Washington Post
run this story with Rusesabagina’s picture at The White House receiving the
Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush
in 2005.
“My father, Paul Rusesabagina, saved more than 1,200
innocent people during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. His act was later
dramatized in the Oscar-nominated film.” While lauding her father’s 'heroism',
she does not realise that this sounds hollow in Rwanda where victims are still
reeling from the consequences of the terrorist attacks of his militia.
She then continues to frame her father’s arrest as a case of
someone who was abducted by Rwandan intelligence agents. But those who have been closely following the
trial in the High Court differ. Rusesabagina was lured to Rwanda by his friend,
Bishop Constantin Niyomwungeri, who was concerned by his terrorist activities.
The daughters' plan is to portray Rusesabagina in a very
positive light, and at the same time depict President Kagame as a villain,
over-shadowed by their father’s heroism. “Ever since the movie, which depicts my
father’s heroic actions during the Rwanda genocide, he has been falsely accused
of series of crimes, absurdly including arson and terrorism. This how Rwandan
President Paul Kagame tries to silence his critics.”
Why would President Kagame envy a Hollywood-made hero, whose
fame is only recognised by his promoters in the West and the global north
media? Even if he was a hero, his heroism died the day he started funding acts
of terrorism against his country. To
create more drama, Kanimba linked her father’s alleged “kidnapping” to the
recent controversial accusations that Rwanda used the Israeli high-tech Pegasus
Sypaware to spy on her sister Carine.
Another big lie peddled by Kanimba is that “in 2010, Rwanda tried to get Belgium and the United States to
cooperate with their campaign of false accusations against my father. (My
father holds Belgian citizenship and is a permanent resident of the United
States.) Both nations refused because the allegations had no merit, and the
Rwandan government was unable to produce any evidence to support them.”
During trial, Prosecution revealed that part of the
evidence proving the man’s involvement in acts of funding terrorism was
obtained from Belgian Prosecution authorities and the FBI. This includes wire
transfers of funds to armed groups.
Allegations of torture in a so-called “slaughterhouse”,
denial of food, water, and medicine, as well as international lawyers have
already been debunked. Like her sister, she urged the world to implement the
request by the Lantos Foundation to the US to apply the Magnitsky Act on
Rwanda.
This is no coincidence as it is the same Lantos
Foundation which catapulted Rusesabagina to global fame by awarding him a
prize, despite a protest from genocide survivors. In
the end, one wonders what his daughters think they can achieve by repeating the
same lies. They should wait for
the finale of the trial on August 20 when the Court is slated to issue the
verdict.