Since his voluntary arrival in Kigali, much dizzying noise has been made about Rusesabagina’s apprehension. Much of it, if not all, should be ignored. It is not only baseless but sheer nonsensical chatter by Rusesabagina’s defenders who are bent on ignoring the evidence of Rusesabagina’s terrorist activities.
I simply ask, where the hell were they in 1994 when we were dying by the hundreds, daily? What gives them the right to bark, now?
Rusesabagina was not apprehended for being a “hero” (and that is laughable), but for his alleged terrorist activities against innocent, un-armed civilians near the border with Burundi — a charge he has admitted in open court, and in his many speeches (on video, for evidence) — and apologized for.
Attacking defenseless, un-armed innocent civilians makes Rusesabagina a terrorist. A real man would have taken on the RDF, but I know he is not suicidal.
There is the Rusesabagina of pre-1994: a nobody, but a mere lowly hotel employee. He calls himself “an ordinary man” in a book of the same title that was written for him.
A decade ago, Rusesabagina’s fellow accomplice, FaustinTwagiramungu, is reported to have dismissed Rusesabagina’s political ambitions, admonishing him to stick to cooking where he excels. Go figure.
Then there is the Rusesabagina of 1994: conniving, sleazy, openly fraternizing with the planners and architects of the genocide against Tutsi. Later on he was to be called upon as a character witness for Bagosora and Bizimungu and the entire cabal. Show me your friends, I will tell you what manner of man you are.
In open court in Arusha, when asked whether he knew George Rutaganda, the VP of INTERAHAMWE, Rusesabagina said, “I knew George Rutaganda. I grew up with him. We were friends.”
“Did you see him in April-June, 1994?” Rusesabagina was asked. “Yes, …I saw him 2 or 3 times perhaps.”
Fast forward to 2004 and the making of the movie HOTEL RWANDA. Rusesabagina, the greedy con man he is, an impostor, now turned terrorist saw a chance to make tons of money at the misfortune and tragedy that befell fellow Rwandans. The so-called ordinary man has amassed a fortune, driving a Mercedes Benz CI-Class (Vin # WDDDJ72X68413260) living in a $670,430 6 bedroom house (315 Pleasant Knl., San Antonio, TX 78260) next to his friend and fellow Rwanda basher and former Texas Sen Kruger in a suburb of the City of San Antonio. He reportedly has other properties in Belgium and Zambia.
Rusesabagina personally admits the movie Hotel Rwanda is not a documentary, but fiction embellished to sell. That being the case then, all his claims of having saved people are nothing but fiction.
In the words of Gen Romeo Dallaire the film is revisionist “junk.”
He goes on to say, “When people use the term Hollywood in a pejorative way, it’s because they produce junk like that.”
“It is not worth looking at. I would like you to acknowledge the role played by those UNAMIR troops who stayed in Rwanda, including the troops from Congo-Brazzaville who were the ones who saved the people at the Hotel Mille Collines — not the hotel manager, Paul Rusesabagina”, Dallaire stated.
Another U.N. peacekeeper, Captain Amadou Deme said in his memoir, “I can testify that I personally was not able to watch the movie beyond a point as I found it so repulsive for its untruthfulness.”
The charges against Rusesabagina cannot be “wished” away by the so-called international community, whoever they are. Rwanda, like all countries takes its security seriously and has every right to bring those who wish to destabilize the country to book.
Calls to monitor Rusesabagina’s trial should be ignored. Rwanda’s justice system has withstood the test of time and those patronizing calls by the likes of actor George Clooney and the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights to ensure PR gets a fair trial should be treated with scorn. What have they done about the hundreds of thousands of black men unjustly imprisoned across America?
I have said it before, and I say it again: Rusesabagina is presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Let the evidence determine what price he pays, or whether he walks a free man.
My faith in our justice system is intact, and un-shakeable.
