Thursday, October 27, 2011

Paul Rusesabagina, Hotel Manager

Paul Rusesabagina was the general manager of the luxury hotel Mille Collines in Kigali at the inception of the Rwandan Genocide.  His story, about how he turned the hotel into a refugee camp saving over 1,200 lives, has been dramatized in the Hollywood film, Hotel Rwanda.  He received the Wallenberg Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The story goes deeper though.  Rusesabagina has accused current Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, then leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), of participating in the genocide as well, killing Hutus ("Double Genocide Theory").  Not only that, he is trying to tell people the conflict is still going on, with Rwanda (under Kagame) exploiting "conflict minerals" in eastern D.R. Congo and fueling a war that is still costing millions of lives. 

“What you may not know,” he says in a video on his foundation’s website, “is that the ethnic conflict which led to this genocide has still not been resolved. The ethnic conflict has spread to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 5 million people have died. The exploitation of the Congo’s ‘conflict minerals’ by Rwanda is fueling this horrible war. Poverty, inequality, discrimination and political repression are on the rise in Rwanda. We have a moral responsibility to change this.”  (Source)

In other words, the genocide never truly ended.  It took a break and got turned into a "war" which people can go on ignoring, costing 5 million additional lives.  Rusesabagina's continuing heroism is speaking this truth to expose the sham despite the risk to his life.

Wikipedia

National Geographic article

CNN article

Washington Post article, "Smearing a Hero" by Hotel Rwanda director Terry George

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