The New York Times, ABC News, Reuters media coverage of the findings of Rusesabaginas guilt has infuriated me and many other friends of Rwanda. What I found lacking in the New York Times, Reuters and other media outlets coverage of Rusesabaginas issues was that none of these agencies appeared to do their research and seemed to allow a twenty-year-old movie to cloud their coverage. First, if the United States, Great Britain or our allies capture a known and identified terrorist, everyone shouts BRAVO! Yet, when Rwanda captures a proven terrorist and provocateur, the western press cry unfair, fowl and claims that something illegal is going on. Why the double standard? I was honored to spend over five years working in Rwanda. First as a guest clinician with the International Choir of Kigali then as the Director of the Rwandan Teacher Education Program -partnering with Mineduc. It was during this time that I met many survivors of the Hotel des Mille Collines and heard their story. Each survivor explained in great detail what they experienced and what they witnessed firsthand. Each survivor showed me the scars and explained to me the criminality of Rusesabaginas actions, very different than the story he tells. Survivor testimony, as used by so many international research organizations, captures first-hand accounts of what each individual experienced and when so many recount the same story then we can safely say their testimony is true. What I heard from these survivors was that the selfless Paul Rusesabagina did not exist but rather a greed-inspired hotel manager was whom they dealt with on a daily basis. When Rusesabagina came to the United States, his press people did a wonderful job of pushing the contrived story of his heroic version. Yes, I must admit that the movie did bring focus on the tragedy of 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi to the worlds notice but so did the BBC film Shooting Dogs or Beyond the Gates, to name but a few of the subsequent and more true to life films. No one person was sensationalized in these other films. In retrospect, with all the press, it seemed that Rusesabagina was to use a tragedy as a money maker and then hope that he would be named president of the republic by acclamation while doing nothing more than a story he created with the character starring in a Hollywood movie. Rwanda is on the move upward not because of Rusesabagina and while the real stars of the story are the past and current Rwandan governments. The true heroes are those who stopped the genocide and now are responsible for building success in Rwanda. I am witness to Rwandas success and must speak on this point. On two occasions I attended Rusesabaginas speeches in the United States. Every time a member of the audience questioned him about their relatives experience with him or his selfish and convoluted actions during this terrible time, Rusesabagina would not allow the question. As an American and as a devoted friend of Rwanda, I would implore the western media to cover Rwanda with less flagrant sensational focus and accurately cover what has happened to end the genocide, to secure Rwanda as a leader in Africa, to make Rwanda a strong partner in peach keeping and the Rwanda that I have witnessed, focusing on social and economic development for a stronger society. Western media, stop the double standard.
