International
The travesty of Ian Birrell’s attacks on Andrew Mitchell, British MP, friend of Rwanda
In
the global north media, journalists like Ian Birrell wrongly believe that
mud-slinging Rwandan President Paul Kagame is a steppingstone to fame.
Birrell's recent article: “Andrew
Mitchell’s friends in Rwanda,” should be seen in the same light as a series
of his coverage of Rwanda. His goal is character assassination.
His
latest article published - by a shadowy British online tabloid called Unherd
- on December 2 is an attempt at sanitising terror kingpin Paul
Rusesabagina and vilifying Kagame, and a great friend of Rwanda, Andrew
Mitchell, a member of the UK Parliament for Sutton Coldfield whom he wrongly
accuses of being in the pockets of the Rwandan government.
Birrell
has made a career publishing vile articles on Kagame. So, his latest article
didn’t surprise at all. He’s a distinguished hater, a man who repeatedly throws
around allegations against the Rwandan leader.
On
the other side, Birrell seems to be the latest victim, having been ‘conned’ by
the Rusesabagina family and its army of lobbyists who move around the world
hoodwinking gullible people including Baroness Kennedy that he is an innocent
man, whose sole crime was to be a fierce critic off Kagame.
It’s
interesting how some Western writers start by recanting Rusesabagina’s heroics,
as “a real-life hero of the film Hotel Rwanda”, “a recipient of the
presidential Medal of Freedom” but show total amnesia about his other, real,
side: a terrorist financier and mastermind.
For
the victims of the vicious attacks by Rusesabagina’s armed FLN militias in
Nyabimata and Kigeme sectors in the Southwest of Rwanda, describing
Rusesabagina as a rights campaigner is rubbing salt in their wounds.
Rusesabagina
may have collected all those accolades but this does not erase the fact that he
was found guilty of funding and condoning acts of terror against Rwanda and its
people.
I
find it strange that Birrell would suggest that after investigating the charges
of terrorism levelled against Rusesabagina, Baroness Kennedy, the Labour peer
and rights lawyer, “concluded there were serious concerns over the rendition
and the trial.”
This
is the same propaganda pushed by Rusesabagina’s family and supporters with the
aim of whitewashing his crimes. How come
that this honourable Lady, who is also director of the International Bar
Association Human Rights Institute preferred to ignore evidence against
Rusesabagina provided by FBI and the Belgian Prosecution, proving beyond any
doubt that he was involved in funding terrorist activities? This is very
worrying.
During
his trial which was open to the public, it was proven that Rusesabagina transferred
huge sums of money to terror groups in the Great Lakes Region. How could she
ignore the lives of people who were killed by his armed militias, the MRCD/FLN,
and the loss of property?
Note
that under the UK counter-terrorism law, it is a crime to provide financial
support to any terror entity.
I
would like to remind the honourable lady the case of a couple in Oxford, Jack
Letts and Sally Lane, who were given suspended jail sentences after being found
guilty of sending money to their son while living under the Islamic State. They
had sent him a mere £223. Compare that to the thousands of Euros sent by
Rusesababagina, our so-called “human rights campaigner,” to different terror
groups in the region, including the FDLR which was involved in the 1994
genocide against the Tutsi.
The
tired claim of “rendition”, “kidnapping” of Rusesabagina often claimed by
Rusesabagina’s stepdaughters and other so-called human rights organisations
smacks of total hypocrisy. Are Birrell and Baroness Kennedy annoyed by the fact
Rwanda did what the West does: luring a wanted criminal into a situation where
he can face justice?
Rwanda
did what Belgium did when, in 2014, it carried out a sting operation to arrest
a Somali pirate called Mohamed Hassan. Under cover agents had persuaded him and
an associate that they wanted to make a documentary about their pirate
exploits. He accepted the invitation, or bait, and boarded a plane from
Nairobi, Kenya, to Brussels where he was arrested upon landing.
It's
interesting to see how Birrell and another diehard Rwanda government hater and
begot, Michela Wrong quote each other to discredit both Mitchell and the
distinguished Donald Kaberuka, a man renown worldwide for his professionalism
and integrity in the world of international banking and financial businesses.
In
attacking Kaberuka, Birrell is surely barking to the wrong tree. It’s also not
dignifying to use a woman who published an anti-Kagame book to avenge her
former lover and chief spy, Patrick Karegeya. She threw a lot of mud around and
none did stick. Birrell is trying too.
Mitchell
was the first British politician to denounce the campaign to maliciously clear
Rusesabagina of his crimes. He said that if Rusesabagina did a tenth of what he
did in Rwanda in Britain, he would be behind bars. But because the attacks on
Kagame by the global north media didn’t yield the expected results, Birrell and
his ilk have resorted to attack friends of Rwanda.
Like
all Rwanda’s detractors, in his article Birrell sought to validate his
criticism of Mitchell by quoting another discredited character, David Himbara,
a mouthpiece for the terrorist group, Rwanda National Congress. This does show to
what extent these Western journalists will go to validate their groundless
attacks, and their connection with anti-Kagame groups.
Opportunists
like Birrell, Wrong and their cabal of Rwanda government haters will go on
misleading public opinion about Rusesabagina’s evil deeds.
But
no matter how much noise they make, it won’t change anything. Rusesabagina was
tried and sentenced for 25 years in prison, a verdict the Prosecution appealed.
Unless there is Presidential clemency,
which I doubt given the gravity of his crimes, Rusesabagina will remain behind
bars for a long time.
As
the French saying goes, the dogs bark but the caravan passes.