Shameless Paul Rusesabagina at it again

On the 20th October 2008, the Dutch United Nations Student Association (DUNSA) or Studentenvereningen Internationale Betrekkingen (SIB in Dutch) organized a symposium aiming at celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Universal declaration of human rights. The association invited among other speakers of that day Paul Rusesabagina who was invited by this association because of the movie Hotel Rwanda he helped produce. We again hear that “the man who single-handedly prevented the slaughter of more than 1200 refugees at the Mille Collines Hotel for 100 days during the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda from April-July 1994 (this is his new false self-praising qualification!) is going to Lake Superior State University on October 30 where he is supposed to discuss a topic on “The Real Effects of Discrimination and Public Complacency.” Interestingly however, the same so called humanitarian is seen discriminating against an ethnic group which he claims he saved during the 1994 genocide, one case in point is the conference held in Brussels in which as we did inform you then all those suspected to be Tustis were locked out of the conference yet it ironically was laying foundation for the so-called inter-Rwandese Dialogue. Let the LSSU’s Student Organization for Diversity, Issues and Intellect sponsoring this program be forewarned that the man, Paul Rusesabagina is a now well known megalomaniac liar dubbed a genocide negationist who rides on the tragic and catastrophic events of the 1994 genocide for selfish financial and political purposes. Just a few examples from his past and recent diatribes against the current Rwandan leadership’s achievements should illustrate this stated fact. And indeed, at the aforementioned symposium Paul Rusesabagina who was supposed to discuss about the importance of human rights, said nothing about that topic but chose rather to completely narrate a distorted Rwandan history. According to an eyewitness present at the event, “he started by saying that the current Rwandan government has rewritten the Rwandan history while blaming the colonizers for having been the root of all divisions and hatred between Hutus and Tutsis. He said that “Colonizers are not to be blamed for having promoted divisions among Rwandans. Tutsis are the one to be blamed because they enslaved Hutus for many years before and during the colonization”. He added that when Hutus got tired of this slavery, they opted for the social revolution of 1959, which was therefore necessary because it enabled them to free themselves from this slavery. In his lengthy political speech, however, he never mentioned a single word on the mass killings against the Tutsis, which occurred during and after this so-called revolution climaxing in the 1994 Tutsi genocide and which he unfortunately has continued to thrive on both financially and for his political ambitions. Paul Rusesabagina also recently wrote that: “Pre-colonial Rwanda was a society where Tutsis, though a minority, ruled over the majority Hutus through a stringent serfdom system. After arrival, our colonial masters added to existing frustrations by favoring the minority Tutsi ruling class over the majority Hutus. Subsequently the masters aligned themselves with the Hutu masses and helped end the much reviled Tutsi monarchy rule…Kagame uses the label “genocide to oppress the majority Hutus, who are 85% of the population…” One of the prominent colonizers he absolves of having distorted the Rwandan history, Pierre Ryckmans, governor of Rwanda-Urundi from 1934 to 1946 wrote: “The Batutsi were made for ruling, their very imposing bearing gives them considerable prestige over inferior races around them… It is not surprising that the poor Bahutu, less cunning, simpler, more spontaneous and more trusting, were enslaved without trying anything like revolt.” (Ryckmans, 1931:26) No wonder Paul Rusesabagina is just reciting the evangelical truth he learnt from those who learned it from their former masters such as governor Ryckmans. This thinking pre-supposes that all Tutsis were members of the monarchy and that monarchs were only peculiar to the then Rwanda yet we still even see it in some countries around the world. This ethnic ideology that Rusesabagina is regurgitating was indeed the foundation of the divide and rule policy of the Rwandan colonial masters and later the cornerstone of the 1994 Tutsi genocide. Thus, in order to put the facts strait for those who innocently listen and may believe his distorted stories, which might be unfortunately the case for R. Kirk Mauldin PhD, associate professor of sociology and faculty advisor for the LSSU Student Organization for Diversity who has high expectations that “Mr. Rusesabagina will provide students and community members alike with an unparalleled opportunity to understand the mechanisms through which these tragedies (the continued unrest and displacement in various African states and the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan) have and continue to occur,” let us put in its real context this ethnic illusion introduced by the colonialists and perpetuated by PARMEHUTU ideologists. In Rwanda, the process of breaking up of the social bond is rooted into the colonial interpretation of society. Indeed, it is from this interpretation that arose “the historical manipulation of myths concerning Hutu and Tutsi categories as well as the political manipulation of social divides existing in pre-colonial society” (KALISKY, 2004:419). It clearly appears that the link between this interpretation and the Rwandan tragedy was designed and implemented by intellectuals, or more generally, by those who received modern education. As Claudine Vidal (1995:25) noted, “such an ideological coherence could only be structured by people who have undergone modern training, since it contained a conception of racial purity that is radically alien to traditional culture.” And indeed, this ethnographic interpretation guided the building of an ideology that crystallized Hutu-Tutsi categories into antagonistic “ethnic” groups. We have however to stress here that the phrase “ethnic group” does not fit the Rwandan context since according to the definition of the concept, Rwandans make up only one ethnic group. Indeed, members of the same ethnic group are those in a community who speak the same language, share the same culture, live on the same territory and consider themselves as belonging to the same group. In his various speeches and presentations these last years, Rusesabagina has launched a campaign of negation of the Tutsi genocide preferring to use such ambiguous terms as, “war crimes”, “terrible massacres…”; a characteristic typical of many genocide sympathizers and perpetrators such as the infamous Pierre Pean. He has gone on to misrepresent the Rwandan Tusti genocide and history; yet he is fully aware of the systematic plans of extermination directed against the Tutsis from 1959-1966, 1973, culminating into the 1994 holocaust. It clearly does not square with logic that the “hero” who saved, I mean by Hollywood, innocent lives has of late turned into the official mouthpiece and spokesperson for the ideology of negation, blackmail and malicious propaganda. That he should use his underserved fame to spread misinformation and incite sentiments of divisionism and hate among Rwandans is only heart breaking. Now that it appears that the self-proclaimed hero is to address this undeserved audience, we can only appeal to the LSSU students to, as did those who attended the event in the Netherlands, challenge his allegations and history distortions, challenge him about what he did with the money he fundraised supposedly to help orphans, widows and other survivors of the 1994 genocide, about his acquaintances with genocide masterminds such as Théoneste Bagosora and Augustin Bizimungu now in detention at ICTR in Arusha, Tanzania. They should also be aware that, to divert attention from his falsehoods and the increasing doubts on his credibility, Rusesabagina always pulls another masterstroke, claiming witch hunt and persecution by the Kigali establishment and tries to misrepresent the growing displeasure by a significant number of genocide survivors as the work of the leadership in Kigali while many genocide survivors, some of whom were at the hotel see it as unfair and completely unacceptable that he should continue to ride on the tragic and catastrophic events of the 1994 genocide for selfish financial and political benefits. As a specialist in the law of the jungle principle however, Rusesabagina believes in the end justifying the means thus his two tongues with regard to the message in his Hotel Rwanda and his latest rhetoric with regard to the 1994 Tutsi genocide. May all the peace lovers say Never Again to the likes of Paul Rusesabagina, by denying him the platform to continue spreading the gospel of genocide among the unsuspecting audiences around the world. Contact: muhetofe@gmail.com