To many Rwandans Paul Rusesabagina, the man portrayed in the widely acclaimed genocide movie “Hotel Rwanda” is something of an enigma – feted abroad but vilified at home.
A captious critic of President Paul Kagame, Rusesabagina was the manager of the famous ‘Hotel des Mille Collines’ in Kigali during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
His role in reportedly protecting thousands of Tutsis from certain death not only inspired the Hollywood movie but won him international recognition and accolades including from then US president George W. Bush.
In later years, he channeled this fame into politics and became one of President Kagame’s most trenchant critics.
But what went wrong with Rusesabagina, warranting his arrest in Belgium and subsequent deportation and detention by the police in Kigali?
While it was clear that he was seen as a genocide hero in the eyes of the outside world, his image has always suffered at home.
Speaking to reporters shortly after he was paraded before jouralists dressed in a sharp suit and wearing a big smile, the acting spokesperson of the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), Thierry Murangira, declined to comment on the circumstances of Rusesabagina’s arrest, claiming it could compromise the investigation into his case.
The Rwandan authorities blame him for acts of terrorism, arson, kidnappings and murders, notably committed on Rwandan soil on two occasions, in June and December 2018.
The Belgian federal prosecutor knew that Rusesabagina was the target of an international arrest warrant and was informed by Rwandan justice officials about the reason for his arrest.
Since he fled the country shortly after the genocide in 1994, the former hotel manager became a fierce critic of the Rwandan government.
While in exile, he founded the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD) and continued to blame Kagame for muzzling the opposition.
Kagame’s administration accused his MRCD of acts of terrorism.
Born in June 1954 in Ruhango, a rural district in southern Rwanda, where attended primary and secondary schools in neighbouring Gitwe, Rusesabagina moved to Kigali where he got employed at ‘Hotel des Diplomates’ before being promoted to the position of manager until the genocide was sparked by the death of then President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994.
The then Belgian airline Sabena owned another hotel des ‘Mille Collines’ at the time of the genocide and when the European managers were evacuated Rusesabagina, manager of the smaller Hôtel des Diplomates at the time, was made manager.
During the 1000-day genocide (April to July 1994), the four star hotel continued to operate with 112 rooms, a bar/café, three conference rooms, a restaurant, and the now famous swimming pool where Rusesabagina was alleged to have bribed genocidaire militia and senior officers of the defeated Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR) with money and alcohol to keep them from killing Tutsis seeking refuge in the hotel.
After ‘Hotel Rwanda’ had shot him to international fame, some genocide survivors disputed Rusesabagina’s account of rescuing them from imminent slaughter.
Some still claimed he only saved them because they had managed to bribe him.
Tom Ndahiro, a genocide scholar based in Kigali says news of Rusesabagine’s arrest has been welcomed in some quarters in Rwanda.
“This should be a warnin to his deputies and cheerleaders that their time will soon be up” he adds.
Ndahiro takes his accusation even further.
He claims Rusesabagina openly supported genocidaires and other terror outfits who infiltrated Rwanda territory and killed innocent civilians for a long time.
In 2015, those who survived the 1994 genocide and experts, said a book by Edouard Kayihura is a major contribution in the campaign to unravel Rusesabagina’s so-called lies about saving many Tutsis from extermination.
The book, “Inside Hotel Rwanda: The Surprising True Story…and Why It Matters Today,” written by Kayihura, a genocide survivor, tells a different story of what happened during the killings.
In it the author slams the 2004 Hollywood movie for “inaccurately portraying” Rusesabagina as a hero.
CU/abj/APA