When Western media, rights groups colluded to defend a terrorist

Since the trial and conviction of Paul Rusesabagina for terrorism, the global north media and the so-called rights groups teamed up to defend their Hollywood-made hero, and to relentlessly mud-sling President Paul Kagame, and Rwanda’s judicial system.

Rusesabagina, the head of FLN, a terror group that orchestrated murders in south-western Rwanda between 2018 and 2019, was on September 20, convicted to crimes of creating and committing acts of terrorism, and handed a 25-year sentence. During the aforementioned attacks, nine people – all civilians – were killed while scores were injured and lots of property looted, and destroyed.

Is it a coincidence that, for the last days of September, we saw publications like The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Economist publish articles whose purpose was to attack President Kagame? At the same time, rights groups like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and The Lantos Foundation bashed Rusesabagina’s trial calling it “sham trial.” HRW went a step further and published fabricated reports.

Western news outlets, social media, rights groups, and commentators consistently referred to him as “Hotel Rwanda hero” without going beyond that label created by a fictional movie and so conveniently without mentioning the real reason of his arrest and trial.

As a work of art, the movie was effective but the characterization of Rusesabagina as a hero is condemned. Genocide survivors who were at the hotel during the Genocide against the Tutsi told the story of what really happened – describing Rusesabagina as an opportunist who charged money from those who sought refuge at the hotel or required a signed check as a guarantee of future payment.

Worse still, he used the fame gained from the movie to raise funds for his terrorist activities and rewrite the history of the Genocide against the Tutsi by promoting the ideology of double genocide, a form of genocide denial punishable by law in a number of countries, including Germany, France, Belgium, and Rwanda.

In early 2019, in a video online, Rusesabagina reconfirmed his allegiance to his criminal group, declared war against Rwanda, and called for recruitment and mobilization

In the video, Rusesabagina states: "Since the beginning of July 2018, the FLN launched a military struggle to liberate the Rwandan people until today in 2019. It is imperative that we speed up the Liberation struggle.

"The time has come for us to use any means possible to bring about change in Rwanda. As all political means have been tried and failed, it is time to attempt our last resort."

Western media outlets completely swept away the overwhelming evidence against Rusesabagina. The High Court found him to be a terrorist kingpin. Nevertheless, The Economist magazine peddled claims that “his real crime, however, was to oppose President Paul Kagame.” Soon after Rusesabagina’s arrest, one British lawmaker said that if he did a tenth of what he did in the UK, this man would be behind bar.

Evidence and witnesses’ testimonies, including from several of his co-accused, revealed that Rusesabagina, funnelled money to terrorist groups like the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), and to his own terror group, the MRCD – FLN (Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change – National Front for Liberation).

Who condemned the proceedings as a travesty? It is the same global north media, who relayed Rusesabagina’s family, his lawyers, and a wide network of lobbyists. To prove evidence of Kagame’s brutality, The Economist cites its darling Michela Wrong’s widely “Do not Disturb.”

What is more infuriating is this global north media arrogates itself the right to define who are our heroes. In this sense, The Economist elevates him to a saint, a superhero, who “courageously saved hundred lives during the Rwandan genocide… (and) received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush in 2005”.

This is outrageous. Rusesabagina saving lives in the fiction movie, “Hotel Rwanda”, does not mean that he actually saved lives. He himself told reporters that this film was fiction. It looks like most Western media have difficulty in separating truth from reality. But for Rwandans, especially the victims of Rusesabagina’s investment in acts of terrorism, his heroism is hollow.

These outlets are obsessed by the cult of personality of this Hollywood ‘hero’. They have no time for  the plight of his victims and the lasting consequences on their lives. Like The Economist, The Washington Post also published another piece exculpating Rusesabagina of his terrorism crimes, and pillorying Rwanda’s leadership and Rwanda’s judicial system.

The Washington Post on September 20, quoted Rusesabagina’s lawyers who argued that “there is no credible evidence showing that the National Liberation Front killed civilians or that the group was under the control of Rusesabagina.”

One wonders why those lawyers and The Washington Post, seem to be oblivious of the evidence provided by the FBI, and additional material handed over by the Belgian Prosecution.

Additionally, the man himself has boasted about the courageous acts of his militias which he applauded for engaging in what he called a liberation struggle.

Western media outlets and the likes of HRW, if they really cared about the rights of innocent people, should focus on Rusesabagina’s crimes instead of the ‘sideshows’ attached to the deceitful heroics attributed to him in “Hotel Rwanda”, a fiction movie on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, in Rwanda