The name Rusesabagina means “a warrior who disperses his enemies.” This has powerful significance for the international hero, Paul Rusesabagina, and his wife, Taciana.
The Academy Award-nominated movie “Hotel Rwanda” chronicled their courage during 100 days of Rwandan genocide from April 1994 through mid-July of that year. Rueseabagina saved more than 1,200 people by sheltering them in the Belgian-owned Hotel Des Mille Collines, a luxury hotel in Kigali, Rwanda where Rusesabagina was the manager.
Rusesabagina and his wife visited the Herald-Zeitung on Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Herald-Zeitung: What is most important for us to know about Rwanda?
Rusesabagina: Its past and present are both complicated. Although genocide comes and goes within a finite time period, the seeds are sown over time by terrorism, revenge, reprisals and civil war. These are the triggering events. Yesterday’s victims become today’s oppressors. The dancers may change, but the music’s the same.
People like to look for someone to blame, but the Belgian colonial government just accepted the existing relationship between the Tutsis and Hutus. Slavery preceded colonialism, with the Tutsis as the ruling class. One of our Roman Catholic bishops even said, “The Hutus were never created to lead.” But actually my wife and I are a truly mixed couple. I’m Hutu because of my father, and she’s Tutsi.
For now, Rwanda is like a silent volcano waiting to explode again. The United Nations Resolution 955 established an international tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. Still, both parties had been warring since 1990. That’s why it looks like war criminals and terrorists are the “winners” and those who participated in the 100 days of genocidal massacre are the “losers.” Justice has failed, and the tribunal has spent around $26 billion dollars to convict about 30 people. Amnesty International’s annual reports describe these injustices and more.
For me, the most important thing in the U.N. resolution was their requirement that the tribunal establish a reconciliation commission to heal a wounded nation. When you have a history of endless revenge, only reconciliation can stop the killing. As a man in Belfast, Ireland said to me recently, “We’ve made huge steps. We can now look someone in the eye and say we hate them, but we don’t have to kill ‘em. We have to live together.”
South Africa’s commission is the most widely known successful one, but many nations have adapted this kind of thing to their own cultural problems. The primary focus of the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation is to “engage in a campaign to educate the world about the need for an internationally sanctioned Truth, Equal Justice, Equal Rights, and Reconciliation Commission for the Great Lakes Region of Africa, which includes Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.” http://hrrfoundation.org
HZ: How accurately does the film “Hotel Rwanda” tell your family’s story?
R: I worked with the filmmakers and the actors from the beginning until the final screening. I met for extended periods with Don Cheadle, who played me. I told the whole story to the director Terry George and his writers and was on the set during filming. I was offered an earlier film deal with a big firm, but I refused to do it. They seemed to want to focus on the killings and on what would sell. An independent filmmaker like Terry George did such a fine film because he had artistic freedom.
I wanted the message to be, “Do justice,” so that we could prevent these conflicts. The movie shows the worst in people, but also shows the best.
With the PG-13 rating, I knew the younger generation could see it, especially my own children. The film’s title gave a memorable name to the foundation. This is my legacy.
H-Z: Are you a hero?
R: I’m asked this all the time. People become heroes when they listen to their own conscience. The majority isn’t always right, but you know right from wrong. Listen to yourself.
At the hotel, I had done lots of favors for people. I never underestimated these connections. Really, they owed me more than I owed them and they remembered me. When the time came for me to save people, I just called in all my stockpile of favors.
Later, at the end of July 1994, Taciana and I made the decision to fight, but not with killing, even though I was tempted. We left the capital of Kigali to drive south to Taciana’s family home. We saw no living things except dogs and flies. The land was devastated and covered with dead bodies.
We found her older brother still alive and sheltering her sister, family members, neighbors and many children. Nearby homes had been burned to the ground. At her mother’s house, six grandchildren, a daughter-in-law, and her mother had been killed and dropped into a pit. Surviving family members were at another sister’s house. Small children, especially the frequently targeted young boys, were hidden. Yes, we cried and I just wanted to kill people, but since I was one of the few men alive, I had a duty to the living. We loaded up the brother’s car and ours and drove back to Kigali. Our home there became a crowded shelter for family and friends.
H-Z: Are you personally safe today?
R: I am a most wanted man. The first thing we did was send our children to boarding school in the United States. There are evidently people in Belgium who don’t like me. We have been living in Brussels for the last 15 years. My guardian angels had to work overtime there. Also, a big car with strong airbags helped when I was run off the road sandwiched between an 18-wheeler and a mysterious car.
Our home in Brussels was ransacked three times by “professional” invaders clearly hunting for documents about my whereabouts and that of others. My lawyers invested lots of time “disturbing the Belgian government” for protection.
The last invasion was this past March when I left home early to meet Taciana in Boston. It was then and there we decided to relocate to the United States. Since the current Rwandan government is supported by the U.S., we believe our attackers “will hold back.” We’ve moved to Texas. We believe we are safe here.
H-Z: We are honored by your presence here today and by your appearance on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Bob Krueger Public Service Award Dinner.
R: Thank you. Just remember we will not give up and we will win. Believe this.
