During one of his rare interviews these last six months, President Paul Kagame talked about a lot of things but there is only one thing I was interested in hearing from him. It was about the kidnapping of Paul Rusesabagina from Dubai.
First of all, I’m not going to get into the issue raised by a lot of people that he might be so sick where he is unable to do his job effectively. He needs to start proving to Rwandans that he is doing his job regularly by letting national TV or other media outlets to attain his pictures or videos because that will show to Rwandans that he is working for them everyday.
Releasing old pictures and lying to Rwandans that he is doing the job he was elected to do, that is not cutting it. It’s going to keep fueling the rumors that he has tried to refute unconvincingly in his interview today.
Back to his answer about the kidnapping of Paul Rusesabagina, he said on live TV that he fooled and tricked Paul Rusesabagina into getting on the private jet that took him to Rwanda unwillingly. Afterwards, he got paraded and arrested on fabricated charges.
Allow me to use an example of young girls who disappear after being abducted. What Kagame did is no different than a tactic used by kidnappers when they fool their victims into getting in a car with them. As soon as they get in the car, they are taken against their will. That is a kidnapping and it’s the same thing Kagame did to Paul Rusesabagina.
In this video below, I would like you to listen to what Kagame said when a journalist asked him to clarify what exactly happened to Paul Rusesabagina. Back to our example earlier about the kidnapping unwillingly of young girls, Kagame is pretty much accusing his victim Paul Rusesabagina. It is like when a kidnapper is in court and says that they did not force their victim to get in the car claiming that they went in willingly. To me, that is what I took from Kagame’s response.
The scary part from Kagame’s interview was when he alluded that Paul Rusesabagina himself is going to come out and echo his explanation that him being in Rwanda is his responsibility. Since they are denying him to chose his own lawyers, we can say for sure that Kagame is trying to extract from Paul Rusesabagina statements that can be used against him. Don’t be surprised if Paul Rusesabagina comes out and says things that might undermine his reputation because we do not know what has happened to him these 10-12 days under Kagame’s custody.
I urge the US and Belgian governments to not fall for what Kagame said during his interview. They need to not trust the justice system in Rwanda and the musk ask for full access to Paul Rusesabagina. Also, Paul Rusesabagina is innocent until proven guilty and the next time he appears in Kagame’s kangaroo court during the bail hearing, he should be released from custody while awaiting his trial. US and Belgian governments should guarantee to Rwanda that Paul Rusesabagina will not be going anywhere so there will be no need for Kagame to keep him in his dungeon.