Latest ‘disappearance’ in Rwanda is met with muted reaction from Trudeau government. Rwanda’s swoop across international borders to arrest a Hollywood-lionized hero, an action that human-rights groups have criticized as an illegal “enforced disappearance,” has failed to dent the broad wall of support that the Rwandan government has built up over decades from Western leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Paul Rusesabagina, lauded in the film Hotel Rwanda for saving the lives of more than 1,200 people during the 1994 genocide by sheltering them in a luxury hotel, is by far the best-known opponent to be caught by President Paul Kagame’s relentless strategy of pursuing his foes across the world. But the reaction from Western governments, including Canada, has been muted so far.
Hotel Rwanda hero is unlikely to get a fair trial
Human Rights Watch said the arrest of Mr. Rusesabagina “amounted to an enforced disappearance, a serious violation of international law.” Amnesty International has raised the same concerns.
Mr. Rusesabagina, a Belgian citizen who was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and later became a vocal critic of Mr. Kagame, was reportedly tricked into boarding a Rwandan-chartered jet in Dubai on Aug. 27.
He has said that he thought he was flying to Burundi at the invitation of a pastor. Instead he found himself landing at an airport in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, where he was jailed and charged with terrorism. His family says the incident was essentially a kidnapping.
“Rwanda has an established track record of using unlawful, cloak-and-dagger methods to target those it perceives to be a threat to the ruling party,” Lewis Mudge of Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
“The fact that Rwanda did not pursue Rusesabagina through lawful extradition proceedings suggests the authorities do not believe their evidence or fair-trial guarantees would stand up to scrutiny before an independent tribunal, and so opted to circumvent the rule of law.”
While a handful of politicians in Europe and Canada have criticized the arrest, governments have stayed largely silent. The Trudeau government has not issued any statement on its usual channels. In response to questions from The Globe and Mail, the Global Affairs department declined to comment on the “enforced disappearance” allegation by the human-rights groups.
“We are aware that Mr. Paul Rusesabagina has been arrested and we are monitoring the situation closely,” said Christelle Chartrand, a departmental spokesperson.
“We expect that Mr. Rusesabagina will be provided a fair and transparent legal process by the relevant authorities,” she said in an e-mailed response.
This echoed an earlier statement by Tibor Nagy, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, who said the United States “expects the Rwandan government to provide humane treatment, adhere to the rule of law, and provide a fair and transparent legal process for Rusesabagina.”
For decades, many of Mr. Kagame’s political opponents have suffered imprisonment, exile or death, while he has won election after election by margins of up to 99 per cent. He has cultivated support from Western governments and aid donors throughout his rule, after taking power by leading a rebel army to victory in 1994 during the genocide.
One of his biggest allies has been Mr. Trudeau, who has held a number of meetings and phone conversations with Mr. Kagame over the past several years.
Since 1994, Canada has provided more than $500-million in development aid to Rwanda, including $28.4-million in 2017-18, the most recent year listed on a Global Affairs website. Mr. Trudeau has declared that Canada has a “strong friendship” with Rwanda, and he has promised to attend the Commonwealth summit in Kigali, originally scheduled for this June but now postponed to next year.
Analysts say the Western support for Mr. Kagame’s government, despite the evidence of its human-rights abuses, has emboldened his actions against his opponents. They say the support is based on several factors: guilt over the lack of Western intervention during the 1994 genocide; donor apathy on human-rights issues; lack of attention to Africa compared with other regions of the world; and a desire for political stability in a volatile region of the world.
“People don’t have Rwanda on their agenda any more – it has fallen off the radar,” said Susan Thomson, a professor of peace and conflict studies at Colgate University in New York State, who has written extensively on Rwanda.
“I expect Rwanda to continue to trade on state sovereignty and to continue to get a free pass,” she told The Globe in an interview.
“I’m unsurprised by the lack of international response. Donors are interested in spending money. They don’t have any interest in human rights.”
Jeffrey Smith, founding director of Vanguard Africa, a U.S.-based democracy advocacy group, said the Rusesabagina case is a prime example of Rwanda’s habit of targeting its opponents in foreign countries.
“Western leaders are hesitant to speak out,” Mr. Smith said. “They’re desperate for a development success story – something they can sell to their citizens as to why their taxpayer dollars are going abroad – even when cases like this one point to a darker, more sinister reality on the ground. And Paul Kagame and his ruling party know how to play off the collective guilt from the lack of response to the 1994 genocide.”
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