Rwanda: from Hollywood hero to prisoner accused of terrorism, the fall of Paul Rusesabagina
Paul Rusesabagina, during his participation in the march “Save Darfur: rally to end the genocide”, April 30, 2006, in Washington.
Nancy Ostertag / Getty Images North America / AFP
Text by: Laure Broulard Follow
7 min
The trial of Paul Rusesabagina, opposing the regime of Paul Kagame whose story inspired the film Hotel Rwanda opens on Wednesday February 17.
The one who is known to have saved 1,200 people in the Hôtel des Mille Collines during the genocide of the Tutsis in 1994 is today accused of “terrorism” by the Rwandan justice system and his image as a hero increasingly controversial in Kigali.
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From our correspondent,
“
This is where the refugees came to drink the water.
In the pool
”, cowardly Pasa Mwenenganucye, former receptionist at the Mille Collines hotel.
Twenty-seven years later, this survivor of the Tutsi genocide ensures that almost nothing has changed in the establishment.
Even today, the hotel's trendy bar and its swimming pool in the heart of Kigali attract wealthy expatriates as well as Rwandan high society.
In 1994, however, the establishment welcomed, for a month and a half, more than a thousand refugees who were trying to escape the genocide that began on April 6, 1994 following the attack on the plane of former President Juvénal. Habyarimana.
A story that became famous after the international success of the film
Hotel Rwanda
, of which
Paul Rusesabagina
, then hotel manager, is the hero.
But this story is very controversial today in Kigali.
“
He had no role in our rescue.
He just did business.
This film is a fictional story, created to create a sensation at the expense of the survivors of the Tutsi genocide and the victims of the Hôtel des Mille Collines,
”says Pasa, bitterly.
He accuses Paul Rusesabagina of having made the survivors pay for the rooms and food in the hotel and of having cut off their water and telephone lines.
Yet for a long time Paul Rusesabagina was considered a hero by many.
"
I know him as a man who really helped us
", explains Hosea Niyibizi, also a survivor of the Thousand Hills and now living abroad.
“
Of course, in the hotel, there were a lot of people, people slept where they could, sometimes in the hallways.
It was a catastrophic situation.
But if we survived, it was because Paul Rusesabagina protected us.
When the soldiers of the genocidal regime came, he convinced them not to enter the hotel by giving them beer or other things,
”he says.
“
Most of the criticism of the film emerged after Paul Rusesabagina expressed his opposition to the policies of the Paul Kagame government.
When the film was screened in Kigali, I had positive feedback
, ”remembers Keir Pearson, scriptwriter of
Hotel Rwanda
.
“
What I found during my research at the time was that he was a man who, during the genocide, had acted when the rest of the world had done nothing
,” he says. .
Arrested in questionable circumstances
Paul Rusesabagina, who was in opposition to the Paul Kagame regime, is now behind bars in Kigali after being arrested in mysterious circumstances at the end of August while traveling in Dubai.
“
An abduction
”, according to his family
, from human rights organizations but also for European parliamentarians who recently called for the opening of an independent investigation into the conditions of his arrest.
He is targeted by nine charges for his alleged involvement in attacks by an armed group in southern Rwanda in 2018. For his relatives, it is the result of a cabal by the Rwandan government against an opponent.
"
Paul Rusesabagina is an ordinary citizen, become a criminal
", assures for his part the researcher Alfred Ndahiro, author of the book "
Hotel Rwanda or the genocide of the Tutsis seen by Hollywood
" and today adviser to President Paul Kagame.
“
What saved the refugees from the Thousand Hills was above all the presence of soldiers from the UN mission in front of the hotel, as well as the profile of the refugees: diplomats, NGO employees and members. Rwandan high society, journalists.
Him, he only relied on an image of a hero made by Hollywood to engage in other activities
, ”he explains.
These activities are politics.
In 2006, two years after the film's release, Paul Rusesabagina founded the Party for Democracy in Rwanda (PDR).
"
Our objective was to fight the one-party dictatorship of the Rwandan Patriotic Front of Paul Kagame and the atrocities he commits until today,
" explains Célestin Komeza, executive secretary of the party.
Muzzle the opposition, even abroad
At that time Paul Rusesabagina has been living in Belgium for ten years and quit his job as a taxi driver.
He quickly became internationally recognized as a defender of human rights, was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President George W Bush, launched the “Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina” Foundation and wrote a book, “
An Ordinary Man
”, in which he tells his story and criticizes the policy of the government of Paul Kagame.
“
After the film's release, he used his newfound international fame to shed light on human rights violations committed in Rwanda.
And that's when they started attacking him,
”says his adopted daughter, Carine Kanimba.
In 2010, when the opponent moved to Texas, Rwandan Attorney General Martin Ngoga announced that he had proof that Paul Rusesabagina was funding the FDLR, a Hutu armed group opposed to Paul Kagame initially formed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by d 'former genocidaires.
“
The Paul Kagame regime is extremely effective in silencing the opposition, even outside the country.
However, Paul Rusesabagina was one of the few who could speak,
”explains researcher Timothy Longman, who knew Paul Rusesabagina in the 1990s.“
At the time, he was very moderate.
But when he started to gain attention, when he wrote his book, they started a smear campaign against him.
The more he was attacked, the more critical he became.
It has become very virulent, and in 2018 it entered the MRCD platform
”.
It is its link with this opposition platform and its armed wing, the National Liberation Forces (FLN), which is today questioned by the Rwandan justice system.
In 2018, soon after its creation, the FLN claimed responsibility for several attacks in southern Rwanda.
According to the Rwandan authorities, they claimed a dozen victims.
Paul Rusesabagina's case was thus merged with that of some twenty other defendants, all suspected of being part of the FLN.
His family and his party ensure that the opponent was in charge of diplomacy within the MRCD and that he had no direct link with the FLN.
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