Paul Rusesabagina, the Rwandan whose story is told in the Hollywood Movie “Hotel Rwanda,” went on trial for terrorism this week in Rwanda. KPFA’s Ann Garrison reports.
Rusesabagina is probably the most famous Rwandan in the country’s diaspora, due to his portrayal by Don Cheadle in the Hollywood film “Hotel Rwanda,” which tells the story of how he sheltered over 1000 Rwandan Tutsis from harm at the hands of genocidal militias during the final days of the 1990-1994 Rwandan Civil War. Rusesabagina is himself an ethnic Hutu married to an ethnic Tutsi who has advocated for ethnic reconciliation and democracy in Rwanda and against the totalitarian regime led by Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Last year Rusesabagina boarded a plane in Dubai, which he believed was bound for Burundi, a country neighboring Rwanda and sharing Rwanda’s ethnic composition. He soon found himself handcuffed in Rwanda instead, charged with advocating and sponsoring terrorism along with 20 codefendants charged with criminal violence as members of a rebel militia.
For nearly two decades after the outset of the 1990 to 1994 Rwandan Civil war, Rwandan General, then President Paul Kagame was a darling of Western media and officialdom, credited with stopping genocide and lifting the country from its ashes. Coverage of Rusesabagina’s trial evidences his fall from Western grace. The New York Times, Guardian, CNN, and even Voice of America have all published sympathetic reports of Rusesabagina’s case. A bipartisan coalition of 30 US Senators and Representatives wrote a letter urging President Kagame to release Rusesabagina and accusing Kagame of violating US deportation and extradition law by snatching him.
Source: https://soundcloud.com/pacificanetwork/us-senators-and-representatives-accuse-rwandas-kagame-of-violating-us-law-by-snatching-rusesabagina