Paul Rusesabagina: In his own words

By John Bailey
Rome News Tribune
Staff Writer
September 20, 2009

Paul Rusesabagina will be sharing his stories from the memoir “An Ordinary Man” as a part of the One Book Many Voices initiative at 7 p.m. September 29 at Berry College’s Cage Center.

Rusesabagina’s story was the basis for the film “Hotel Rwanda” and his book is an account of his incredible experiences. Rusesabagina recently spoke with Rome News-Tribune writer John Bailey. They spoke about history and politics as well as the dramatic events that changed a nation and changed Rusesabagina himself.

Despite arguments to the contrary, Paul Rusesabagina still maintains he is no hero.

In 1994 he was the manager of a four-star hotel in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, speaking with others over a drink and sorting out problems at the hotel.

During Rwanda’s genocide — when hundreds of thousands of people were killed over a four month period in 1994 — he used those same skills to protect 1,268 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from extremist Hutu militias.

The Tutsi and Hutu are two largely integrated groups that inhabit the central African region who speak the same language and share much of the same culture.

The Tutsis and Hutus are two of the three groups of people native to Central Africa.

“I never did anything special in 1994, just what I was doing before,” he said. “We were talking, using words, to try and help our fellow human beings being hacked to death.

“But words can be the best and worst weapons in a human being’s arsenal,” he said.

In Rwanda, radio means everything. People always have their transistors listening to news, listening to the words coming over the radio.

In the time of the genocide it meant even more. Militias combed the streets looking for enemies, goaded on by a radio station — RTLM. The station would give direction to the violence, encouraging the militias to help “fill the graves” calling on them to “do your job” — to kill.

“It became a job,” Rusesabagina said. “The more you kill the more you will get. If you kill someone you will get his car, you will take over his house and so on. You will take over his land.”

The radio station was using words to kill and Rusesabagina and others were using words to save.

A story has a beginning and an end, history does not

The events in Rusesabagina’s book “An Ordinary Man” and the film “Hotel Rwanda” took place over a four month period beginning in April 1994.

The genocide took place during a time of civil war between the Hutu-led Rwandan government and the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). When the RPF resumed hostilities at the onset of the genocide in April 1994 and took power months later, they were applauded for their efforts and credited with ending the genocide.

But that credit is a poor example of a savior, Rusesabagina said. The genocide was not an isolated incident and the mass killings weren’t limited to one side.

“People always think a genocide comes from nowhere and finds itself in a specific time and disappears, and this is it,” Rusesabagina said. “It always comes out from somewhere and it never ends for many years.”

He said the RPF committed many atrocities not only during the civil war prior to the genocide but as they took control of the country in 1994.

“When Tutsis took over after the genocide, there was nothing like a compromise. They took power, and again the whole of it, whereas the Hutus had the power before, and again the whole of it, ” he said.

“These two groups have never had anything like an opportunity to come and sit around a table, talk and then come up with a compromise,” Rusesabagina said. “You can never forgive someone who never came to you and say ‘I’m sorry’ honestly.”

He described the designations of Hutu and Tutsi as artificial, saying that on sight one could not identify someone being a member of either group.

“Those artificial boundaries meant everything — including death,” Rusesabagina said. “Tutsis were being hacked to death … were being butchered. Hutus were being butchered because they were Hutus.”

The strife continues to stretch beyond Rwanda and into the neighboring countries of the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

To the South lies Burundi. Rwanda and Burundi are sister countries, the people share the same languages and culture — including their Hutu and Tutsi population.

On the Eastern political border of Rwanda lies the Democratic Republic of Congo where a proxy war between Hutu and Tutsi militias has been waging since 1996 — with over five million people killed, he said.

The dancers change, the music stays the same

The leadership of Rwanda has changed since the genocide and has instituted policies they hope to stamp out the designations of Hutu and Tutsi. But the ruling elite-driven policies and lack of dialogue between warring parties which disregard the everyday people of Rwanda have not changed.

Some of those leaders, even Rwandan President Paul Kagame — a former RPF leader, have been indicted in foreign courts for war crimes.

“Rwandans change the dancers but the music stays the same,” Rusesabagina said. “Rwanda is ruled by people who can no longer travel from their country.”

Since the genocide the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda holds trials for some of the worst genocide suspects. However, he said, many accused of war crimes during the period of the genocide are not investigated.

“What the current (Rwandan) government would like the world to believe that only Tutsis were victims of the genocide,” Rusesabagina said.

But the genocide and ongoing civil strife has victimized the entire country, Tutsis and Hutus alike but from the government’s point of view, he said, all victims and all survivors are not afforded the same treatment.

“There are many others who don’t qualify as survivors…all the orphans made by the genocide do not have the same rights,” Rusesabagina said.

There are many Hutu orphans in the country who do not qualify for benefits given by the govermnment, but their predicament is no less dire. Many Hutus were victims alongside their Tutsi neighbors and a majority of Hutus did not take part in the killings, he said.

“Because they are from the winner’s side they are called survivors — there are others that do not receive this title,” Rusesabagina said.

In the film “Hotel Rwanda” children huddled alongside the other refugees, wondering if their loved ones, parents or neighbors has been massacred. But, because of their ties to Rusesabagina, to the current government of Rwanda these children are not provided with many of the benefits other orphans receive, he said.

“These kids are not entitled to (the rights of) survivors because they lived under my roof,” Rusesabagina said.

Giving “Never Again” meaning

In 2005, on the 60th commemoration of the Holocaust many world leaders gathered at the location of the death camp in Auchwitz in Poland.

At that time world leaders used the words “Never Again” as a call to arms for the world to unite and stamp out genocide as a whole. However, since that date several cases of what could easily be classified as genocide have taken place, most notably in Darfur.

Hundreds of thousands of people died and millions have been displaced from their homes since 2003 and Rusesabagina criticized the West for turning a blind eye.

“The world again has turned it’s back and closed its eyes,” he said. “This led me to the conclusion that never and again are the two most abused words.”

He traveled to the war torn Western region of Sudan that is Darfur to survey the damage.

“We needed to see Darfur with our own eyes,” Rusesabagina said. “I wanted to see how the world abandoned Rwanda and compare it with Darfur.”

In the refugee camps two thousand children gathered and demonstrated, pleading for an education and a place to live — to call their home.

On their placards were drawn, by a child’s hand, graphic pictures of government helicopters killing their people and mounted soldiers with guns killing their people.

“This became a shame to me and this became a shame to mankind,” he said.

“My message to all is that ‘Never Again’ should mean ‘Never Again’.”

Strong institutions not strongmen

With the election of a new U.S. President has come a measure of renewed hope.

Traditionally, Western nations have backed regional warlords or strongmen to gain access to resources in Africa and Rusesabagina said now President Barack Obama addressed the issue in a speech.

“For the first time I heard a U.S. President say that Africa does not need strongmen but strong institutions,” Rusesabagina said.

To back this speech up, in a recent visit to the region Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noteably did not visit Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda.

“This is a strong message to us,” Rusesabagina said.

And a welcome one, he said. This holds the meaning that the U.S. is not supportive of the regime in power — a regime controlled by indicted war criminals, he said.

In his memoirs, Rusesabagina was very critical of the United Nations peacekeeping forces inability to provide assistance even to those being butchered before their very eyes.

“Their mission, the way it is defined, does not give them the room to defend civilians, the way it is defined,” he said. “They’re supposed to stand there and watch people butchering people.”

The organization of peace keeping forces is not conducive to direct action, he said. When the UN does come to a conclusion it is after much verbal wrangling and the forces sent are a hodgepodge of soldiers with no experience working together.

“They do not speak the same language or have not trained together,” he said. “They do not have a clear leadership.”

He has called for the UN to rethink its peacekeeping philosophy and called for world governments to agree that the extinction of a people is a crime worth stopping at any cost.

He maintains that a small but mobile force could have easily stopped the Rwandan genocide without bloodshed.

Epilogue

Throughout the nightmare, Rusesabagina kept a level head but afterward and for a time later the pain of the ordeal took its toll.

“At that time, no one else realized I had a kind of trauma,” he said.

For a time he became bitter and angry about what had happened to his country, neighbors, family and himself but kept it inside. Just like during the genocide he kept going.

“You see, by nature I am not someone who gives up,” he said. “At that time I knew I was not going to change the world, that I was not going to do anything viable.”

It took some time, but eventually he decided to get involved, to share with others in carrying a heavy burden.

He now lives in the city of Brussels in Belguim. For a time he was a taxi driver and later created a trucking company.

Although Rusesabagina has been honored as a hero in the West, he still cannot safely travel to his native land. Since fleeing the country, he has only visited Rwanda one time taking his two youngest children to see their native land at least once.

“Maybe as time goes on they will be able to see their country again — but not today,” he said.

Building on the lessons learned from the Rwandan genocide, Rusesabagina began the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation in 2005. The organization was establish to provide the assistance for the victims of genocide, civil wars and AIDS in Africa.

“Initiating a true equal justice and equal rights is my message,” Rusesabagina said.

Related Materials:
War Crimes and Rwanda

The Grinding Machine: Terror and Genocide in Rwanda

Rwanda Today: When Foreign Aid Hurts More Than It Helps

Rusesabagina - Rwanda back to ethnic servitude system

Rwandan hero gets warm welcome at Holocaust Museum

Hotel Rwanda” Humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina, Ambassador Robert Krueger: Call for support of Truth and Reconciliation, International Inquest

HOTEL RWANDA: Hollywood and the Holocaust in Central Africa

Humanitarian Catastrophe in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Other Voices: Paul Rusesabagina says political, economic cruelty still rampant in Rwanda