Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda”, found guilty of terrorism by Rwandan justice

Published on : 09/20/2021 – 12:34

Hero for Hollywood, “terrorist” for Kigali. Paul Rusesabagina, whose story inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda”, was sentenced Monday, September 30 by the Rwandan justice. Become one of the most famous opponents of President Paul Kagame, the Rwandan regime accuses him of being responsible for deadly attacks carried out by a rebel group.

Tried on nine charges that he disputed, including that of “terrorism”, the former director of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali faces life imprisonment.

The story of this moderate Hutu inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda”, released in 2004, which recounts his rescue of more than 1,000 people during the 1994 genocide which left 800,000 dead, mainly Tutsi.

Embodied on screen by Don Cheadle as a soft-spoken altruist, Paul Rusesabagina is also one of the fiercest critics of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Now aged 67, he reappeared in Rwanda, in August 2020, after nearly twenty-five years in exile, in a pink prisoner’s uniform, handcuffs, after what he denounced as a “kidnapping. “.

Rwandan justice accuses him of being the mastermind of attacks carried out by the National Liberation Front (FLN), a rebel group considered terrorist by Kigali. He and his family refute. His relatives say he has always been the courageous, calm and determined man featured in the Hollywood blockbuster and denounce a “political” trial aimed at silencing an opponent.

Paul Kagame accused of authoritarianism

Born in 1954 into a farming family in central Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina briefly studied theology, then hospitality, in Kenya and Switzerland. Back in Rwanda in 1984, he was hired as deputy general manager of the most prestigious hotel in the capital Kigali, the Hôtel des Mille Collines.

When the genocide began in April 1994, hundreds of people, mainly Tutsi, took refuge there. A moderate Hutu married to a Tutsi, Paul Rusesabagina argues with the killers, appeases them with beers, uses his connections to obtain food, while his “guests” drink the water from the swimming pool. He will send SOS to European governments and US President Bill Clinton with the hotel fax.

The American journalist Philip Gourevich, who met him, describes him as “a man of gentle manners, solidly built and rather ordinary in appearance”. “This is how he seemed to see himself, an ordinary person who did nothing extraordinary by refusing to give in to the whirlwind of madness that surrounded him,” he writes in his book “We have it. pleasure to inform you that, tomorrow, we will be killed with our families – Chroniques rwandaises ”, published in 1998.

Paul Rusesabagina is disappointed by the new Tutsi-dominated power, which overthrew the extremist Hutu regime and put an end to the genocide. He accuses the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and its leader Paul Kagame of authoritarianism and of fueling anti-Hutu sentiment. He left the country in 1996 with wife and children for Belgium and the United States.

Notoriety and reviews

The release of “Hotel Rwanda” in 2004 gave him sudden fame: he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the United States, gave lectures around the world … He was however criticized by survivors of the Thousand Hills, who accuse him of taking advantage of their misfortune and embellishing his role.

“He took advantage of the refugees [qui] paid for their rooms and for food, “one of them, Edouard Kayihura, told AFP:” A hero is someone who puts his life in danger to save others. I don’t see anyone who did this to save us. “

With his new notoriety, Paul Rusesabagina is also more virulent against Paul Kagame, which earned him attacks from supporters of the regime. “As he was attacked he was pushed into more extreme positions,” said Timothy Longman, a professor at Boston University, who first met him in the mid-1990s. .

Linked to the opposition groups in exile, Paul Rusesabagina participated in 2017 in the creation of the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), of which the FLN is considered to be the armed wing.

In 2018, in a video, he declared: “the moment [est] It has come for us to use all possible means to bring about change in Rwanda, because all political means have been tried and failed. ”But he has always denied any involvement in the attacks for which he was tried.

With AFP