The Free Rusesabagina campaign, roadshow goes to Rome

We had not heard from Carine Kanimba, daughter of convicted terror kingpin Paul Rusesabagina, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison by Rwanda’s High Court last September, for a while. But to rekindle the fledgling campaign to free him from jail, together with her father’s Belgian lawyer, Vincent Lurquin, she decided to try her chances in Rome, Italy, last week.

Previously, Rusesabagina’s family, in coordination with his powerful lobbies in the US had contacted President Joe Biden, the US Congress, the Belgian government, the EU Parliament, and various international human rights organisations to pressure President Paul Kagame to release him. However, as anticipated, their efforts came to nothing because, despite too much noise about the case, Rusesabagina is still in prison. Rwanda finds it hard to release a man convicted of terrorism acts which claimed many lives and damaged a lot of property.

The aim of this new move is to perpetuate the same lies and falsehoods about the man they claim is a hero who was allegedly kidnapped by the Rwandan government and didn’t get a fair trial.

This campaign to free Rusesabagina is the brainchild of Kitty Kurth and her PR machine, Kurth Lampe Worldwide, and all the people who catapulted him to the Hollywood fame. It has also received the backing of some of the most influential publications in the global north media like the Washington Post, and the New York Times which have been publishing those lies. Kurth is a close confident of Rusesabagina and an advisor to his foundation, the Hotel Rwanda Rusebagina Foundation (HRRF).

This is the script that Kurth uses to fool people. Its aim is to whitewash the terror convict of his crimes and to make the Rwandan government the one at fault. Ahead of the trip to Rome, she wrote: “Paul Rusesabagina, 67-year-old Rwandan businessman and Belgian citizen, despite being of Hutu ethnicity, saved more than a thousand Tutsis from massacre during the genocide of 1994. He gave them refuge in the Hôtel des Mille Collines, of which he was director, and in so doing, saved the lives of 1268 people. The account was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film with Don Cheadle as lead actor.”

It's preposterous for Kurth and Rusesabagina’s family to allege that Rusesabagina’s trial was "a political trial" for his activities criticizing the authoritarian government of the current president of Rwanda Paul Kagame, and to allege that it was “conducted in defiance of the rules of a fair trial.”

These are diversionary tactics by Rusesabagina’s lobbyists who believe they can sweep away all the evidence provided by the prosecution to the court, including information obtained from reputed western organisations like the FBI and the Belgian Prosecution, as well as testimonies of his co-accused. The latter corroborated the evidence that Rusesabagina is not a humanitarian, but someone who was all along involved in funding terrorist groups for many years.

According to the testimony by Dr Michelle Martin, an American social worker who worked with Rusesabagina, his foundation did not fulfil its purported mission to promote charitable causes like supporting widows and orphans. As revealed, his was a cunning plan to siphon money from gullible American taxpayers with the aim of funding his political ambitions.

Unfortunately, many unsuspecting people and organisations have fallen for the lies and falsehoods perpetuated by Carine Kanimba, and her father’s lobbyists, like The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights which stated: “Paul Rusesabagina’s detainment is indeed a grave injustice, both to him and to leaders everywhere who speak out against authoritarianism, inequality, and abuses of human rights. Make no mistake: his activism and bravery seeking peace for Rwandans and all of humanity is the only reason he has been seized.”

But these people should go tell this absurdity to the residents of Nyabihu and Nyabimata sectors, in south western Rwanda whose lives were turned upside down by the vicious attacks of Rusesabagina’s armed outfit the MRCD/FLN rebels in 2019. The terrorists attacked public transports, killing passengers, and shooting dead residents in their homes.

Surely the above crimes should be enough to discredit this campaign aimed at painting Rusesabagina as a victim and not a villain. Surprisingly, Rusesabagina’s PR campaign, especially her daughter, still believe that their man will be released, thanks to the pressure exerted on Rwandan authorities. That’s why they didn’t even appeal his sentence because they believe Rwanda will cave in and free him.

After her trip to Rome on November 18 – 19, Kanimba tweeted: “The Consiglio Nazionale Forense adopted a resolution calling for my father, Paul #Rusesabagina’s release & for the respect of his human rights. I also had the honor of addressing the Italian Parliament that has agreed to help save my father’s life.” So, this lady and his father’s PR machine appear to live in a parallel word.

For them, Rusesabagina’s human rights matter more than the lost lives of Rwandans who do not feature anywhere in their propaganda. If the US government, the Belgian government, the EU Parliament did not heed her call to have his father released, who told her that the Italians this time around will succeed?