IBIHWIHWISWA: Sait-on pourquoi Paul Kagame persécute Paul Rusesabagina?
Polycarpe Kirahutera
The Monitor (Kampala)
May 26, 2006
Posted to the web May 26, 2006
Muhereza Kyamutetera
Rwanda says that the portrayal of Paul Rusesabagina as a hero in the Hotel Rwanda movie is a "falsehood."
Paul Rusesabagina is a Rwandan national currently living in Brussels. Rusesabagina has been made famous by the film Hotel Rwanda, that portrays him as a hero who helped save lives of people who had taken refuge at the Hotel des Mille des Collines during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Rusesabagina was born in 1954 to Mr Thomas Rupfure and Mrs Kezia Nyirampara at Kabagari in the former Murama Commune in Nkomero Sector. He has been married twice first to the late Esther Bamurage daughter to Pastuer Sembeba. Rusesabagina's first marriage ended in separation because of adultery. They produced four children together. Later he remarried Ms Tatiana Mukangamije. They live in Brussels at Baron Albert d'Huart , 124.
He went to school at Gitwe Adventist College after which he went to study theology in Cameroon. In Cameroon he was dismissed from the Theology school due to his adulterous tendencies. He returned to Rwanda and went to study Hotel Management Catering and Tourism at the Utalii College in Kenya.
In 1994 before the Rwandan Genocide he was working at the Hotel des Diplomates which was under the same Sabena management as Hotel Mille Colline.
At the beginning of the 1994 Genocide Rusesabagina in the company of his wife and close relatives went to Hotel des Mille Colline to also seek refugee. On arrival at the hotel he met the hotel manager who was departing and the hotel manager instructed Rusesabagina to take over the management of the hotel.
He started charging money from whoever was in hotel apart from his friends and close associates. Whoever did not pay or issue a guarantee of payment was expelled from the hotel rooms. Examples of those expelled from the hotel rooms include;
i. Jean Pierre Muligo who was a journalist.
ii. Chantal Mugabushaka currently working with contact radio in Kigali.
iii. Mr Isaac Mulindahabi who was working with Rwandatel at the time.
iv. A one M. Passat a son to the late Prof. Muswahili. Mr Passat was an employee who had been handed over the keys of the hotel by Mr Bick the hotel Manager. Mr Bick sent Mr Passat a fax authorising him to hand over the keys to Paul Rusesabagina. In his film Hotel Rwanda there is where it implicates one employee who was disobeying his orders. This is because Mr Passat was rejecting Rusesabagina's orders of charging everyone for food.
A witness Mr. Christopher Shamukiga said that on the April 30, 1994 while at the Hotel Mille Colline he discovered large stocks of food and drinks in the Hotel basement. He started distributing this food to the hungry refugees. When Rusesabagina learnt of it he summoned him to his office and charged him 500,000 Rwandan francs.
The family of the Late Anselme Sakumi (who died during the genocide), spent over two hours outside the hotel pleading with Rusesabagina to be allowed into the Hotel. He refused them entry until a one Muvunyi gave him a cheque as a guarantee of payment. He also got cheques from different people, which cheques he would withdraw from Banque de Kigali - Gitarama branch as testified by Louis Kigerinyange who used to work with the bank.
On May 18, 1994, Mr Michel Houtart, the President CA Savena hotels instructed Rusesabagina to avoid rejecting those who could not afford payment. He however refused and instead hosted those who could afford to pay. The rest were chased away to the fate of the Interahamwe.
George Rutaganda who is currently detained at the ICTR in Arusha for crimes of genocide testified that Rusesabagina managed to get foodstuffs on credit from his place as a way of doing business in anticipation of being paid back.
Rusesabagina did not do anything special to save the lives of people at the Hotel to deserve heroism. Hotel Mille Colline was a UN protected site at the time and the focus of the UN forces in Rwanda. He instead was fulfilling his business interests.
Kagame's quotes on Rusesabagina
Rusesabagina's acts as portrayed in the movie were not true reflections of what happened in the hotel but a mere "false hood' that should not make him a hero as the movie suggests.
If I wanted to talk about heroismâ-oe I wouldn't have picked whoever was picked to symbolise the heroism as acted in the film. Some of the things attributed to this person (Rusesabagina) are not true. Even the things that are true do not merit the level of highlight. There could have been other cases
My humble opinion is that the issue of Rusesabagina distorts our history
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They (refugees) did not survive because of Rusesabagina. Actually negotiations were going on between the XFAR and RPF. Demands were sent through the UN. We were communicating for a long time because there were people we had in our hands and the XFAR were saying give them to us and we save the Mille Colline people.
Infact at one time, Rusesabagina and his people tried to flee the hotel but they were caught up at the road block, beaten very badly and taken back.
He (Rusesabagina) should try his talents elsewhere and not climb on the falsehood of being a hero because its totally false whether it is being said by Americans, Europeans or anybody else.
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AllAfrica.com - May 23 9:07 AMHaving been criticized by Rwandans at home, in the US and Canada, for his claims that he saved countless lives during the 1994 Genocide, Paul Rusesabagina who was featured as a hero in the Hotel Rwanda film has again come under intense criticism from Rwandans in England ahead of his week-long tour to launch his new book 'An Ordinary Man'.
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Rwanda: Country Disowns Hotel Rwanda Movie Hero
AllAfrica.com - May 26 9:49 AMRwanda says that the portrayal of Paul Rusesabagina as a hero in the Hotel Rwanda movie is a "falsehood." -
Rwanda: Genocide Ghost Haunting Hotel Rwanda 'Hero'
AllAfrica.com - May 22 8:02 AMPaul Rusesabagina's self-acclaimed heroism is no doubt questionable and it's continuing to choke him. Senator Odette Nyiramirimo started off the week once again with directing her verbal missiles to the Hotel Rwanda 'hero'.
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'He had every intention of coming home that night'
The St. Charles Sun - May 24 1:52 AMStacy Berger tried awfully hard. So did the two attorneys who went with her to the coroner's inquest earlier this month.
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Rwanda: Why Rwanda is Uneasy About Genocide Movies
AllAfrica.com - May 22 7:32 AMTo appreciate the complexities of the Rwanda Genocide, there is still a debate on what to call the genocide. IBUKA, the influential lobby group that brings together all genocide survivors, insists that it should be called the Genocide of the Tutsi
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Cable movie listings May 21-27
Fort Worth Star-Telegram - May 22 7:57 AMAbove the Law – '88 'R' Steven Seagal, Henry Silva. A CIA-sponsored drug cartel is uncovered by a Chicago cop. (L, V) 99m MAX Thu. 7:20 p.m . The Accidental Spy – '01 'PG-13' Jackie Chan, Eric Tsang. A Hong Kong salesman gains possession of a deadly microbe. (S, N, V) 87m ENCORE Fri. 10:45 p.m.
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A Rwandan tells his extraordinary story
The Plain Dealer - May 20 9:12 PMUsually, the book comes out before the movie. But Paul Rusesabagi na's inspiring story was first told in the acclaimed 2004 film "Hotel Rwanda."
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Rwanda: Senator Castigates Rusesabagina
AllAfrica.com - May 15 11:30 AMSenator Odette Nyiramirimo has once again criticised Paul Rusesabagina, the man who claims to have saved people at the Hotel des Milles Collines during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and whose role was acted by Don Cheadle in the Hotel Rwanda film, saying he had hijacked heroism at the expense of those who suffered during the 1994 genocide.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Smearing a Hero: Sad Revisionism Over 'Hotel Rwanda'
By Terry GeorgeWednesday, May 10, 2006; Page A25
Paul Rusesabagina, the real-life hero of the movie "Hotel Rwanda," is being denounced by some in his country as a traitor and a criminal. Perhaps he helped bring some of this abuse on himself, but none of it is deserved. As director and producer of the film, I'd like to explain.
To make a film of a true story you must compress timelines, create composite characters and dramatize emotions. When it came to making "Hotel Rwanda" -- the story of how Paul Rusesabagina saved the lives of hundreds of people who took shelter from the 1994 genocide in the hotel he managed -- I was obsessed with getting it right. The Rwandan episode was a slaughter of unimaginable horror and magnitude, yet I firmly believed I had found a story that showed that even in the midst of such horror the human capacity for good can triumph.
When the film was released, Rusesabagina was acknowledged as a hero not just by ordinary people across the United States and Europe but also by diplomats, politicians, journalists and Rwandan officials in diplomatic posts here. Rwandan expatriates gave testimony to the veracity of the film, as did people who had been in the hotel and who tearfully acknowledged Rusesabagina's role.
Last May I had the chance to meet Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Rwanda. I sat beside him as he and his wife and most of Rwanda's parliament watched the movie. Afterward he leaned over to me and said the film had done much good around the world in exposing the horrors of the genocide. The next evening, I screened the film at Amahoro Stadium for some 10,000 people. It was the most emotional screening I have ever been at. I spent close to an hour afterward accepting thanks and congratulations.
But there was one empty seat at both screenings -- the one reserved for Paul Rusesabagina. Two days before, as I waited for him to join me at the boarding gate in Brussels for the flight to Kigali, he called to say he had decided not to travel to Rwanda. On his speaking tours around the United States and Europe, he had begun to criticize Kagame's government, saying that the last election in Rwanda, in which Kagame received 90.5 percent of the vote, was not democratic and that true peace would come to Rwanda only when it had an inclusive government. Because of his criticism, Rusesabagina said, he had been advised that it would not be safe for him. I could not persuade him to come.
Last fall his fears were borne out when Rwandan journalists and politicians began a smear campaign against him. On Oct. 28 a reporter for the Rwandan daily newspaper the New Times ran a long story on the "true nature" of Rusesabagina, which quoted a former receptionist at the hotel as saying that he had saved only his few friends, and that he had charged people to stay in the rooms (a fact we had highlighted and explained in the film). Buried at the end of the piece was probably the true fear of the Rwandan authorities: that Rusesabagina planned to form a political party.
The newspaper attacks on Rusesabagina have steadily escalated. In November he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush. Six days later a New Times editorial said he would "go down in the annals of history as a man who sold the soul of the Rwandan Genocide to amass medals."
In February Kagame joined the campaign -- cryptically at first. In a speech at Amahoro Stadium to mark National Heroes Day, Kagame said Rwanda's heroes are not made in America, Europe or in Asia; cinema or film stars have no place on the list of national heroes. He went on to make several veiled comments about "a manufactured hero."
A few days later Rwandan Radio ran a two-hour live talk show about Rusesabagina. The speakers included genocide survivors and, sadly, some old friends of Rusesabagina's. Francois Xavier Ngarambe, the president of Ibuka, the umbrella body of genocide survivors' associations, ended the show by claiming: "He has hijacked heroism. He is trading with the genocide. He should be charged."
I called Rusesabagina in Brussels to discuss what was going on. He said he saw the smear campaign as confirmation of his previous fears and of his reservations about the Kagame regime. His new autobiography, "An Ordinary Man," will only make things worse, as in his last chapter he writes, "Rwanda is today a nation governed by and for the benefit of a small group of elite Tutsis. . . . Those few Hutus who have been elevated to high-ranking posts are usually empty suits without any real authority of their own. They are known locally as Hutus de service or Hutus for hire."
On April 6, the 12th anniversary of the genocide, Kagame launched his first attack on Rusesabagina, saying, "He should try his talents elsewhere and not climb on the falsehood of being a hero, because it's totally false." I pray that this situation can be resolved. The millions who saw "Hotel Rwanda" and received its message of hope ought to know that they were not duped.
I understand Paul Rusesabagina's desire to foster inclusiveness in Rwanda. I understand, as well, Kagame's legitimate fear that the country has suffered too much, too recently, to allow divisions to be fostered. There are many politicians here and abroad who could mediate this clash. "Hotel Rwanda 2" is a sequel I never want to make.
Terry George was co-writer, director and producer of the film "Hotel Rwanda."
Something's rotten in the kingdom of Gihanga.
"Les nations, disait Mao Zedong, pourrissent comme les poissons, par la tête".
C'est bien là le mal rwandais (ce mal d'Etat, ce pourrissement par la tête, si évident, si avancé).
Abatabizi bicwa no kutabimenya.
Nikozitambirwa.
© RWANDANET 2006
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"L'homme, à mon avis, se perfectionne par la confiance. Par la confiance
seulement. Jamais le contraire." (Mustafaj)
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posted by Nikozitambirwa
Ne demandez pas de geste absolument gratuit. Psychologiquement,
c'est irréalisable. Il y a au moins le plaisir de faire plaisir.