Rusesabagina’s ill-conceived agenda

Paul Rusesabagina has a self promotion agenda while distorting Rwanda’s history and spreading negative propaganda against the current government. He is mobilizing support with various audiences and positioning himself as the only saviour and alternative to the current leadership in Rwanda. In his outrageous assertions and dirty campaigns, Rusesabagina goes as far as alleging that a “genocide is going on in Rwanda now.” It is inconceivable that in the global village we live in today, a person can make such wild and laughable allegations. Today, we would like to dig deeper into one of Rusesabagina’s speeches to once again show his true colours, those of an identity ideologist preaching revisionism and negationism about the Tutsi Genocide. Once, he shamelessly stated, “…Hutu Presidents Habyarimana of Rwanda and Ntaryamira of Burundi were killed by the Tutsi army rebels. When these Presidents were killed, the angry Rwandans turned against each other, Hutus and Tutsis turned against each other, each and every one took machetes and killed one another.” Rusesabagina’s current talk is in total contradiction of the message he gave in the movie, Hotel Rwanda, which correctly paints what happened in Rwanda as Genocide against the Tutsis. His role as a movie character is obviously contrary to the truth. Now that he achieved the wealth he has through impersonation in the form of the role he was given in the movie, he turns around and changes the message, forgetting that he got where he is because of the fraudulent way he expressed himself in the movie. For sometime now, Rusesabagina has taken on the role of spokesperson for Rwanda’s opponents and that of a revisionist. Rusesabagina, who until the movie was unheard of and a taxi driver on the streets of Brussels, was thrust into the limelight when he was rather incorrectly portrayed as a hero who saved over one thousand lives during the 100 days of madness that gripped Rwanda throughout the 1994 Genocide. He has now launched an unrelenting attack on the Kigali establishment at all fora he has had the opportunity to address. He has maintained a hateful and unimpressive propaganda full of falsehoods and misinformation directed against the government. He has raised all sorts of allegations, and fabrications aimed at creating unnecessary animosity against the government of Rwanda. He alleges from the blue that the intellectual Hutus, businessmen Hutus, the elite with or without reason are thrown into prison because of the name genocide. Amidst all these terrible and unfounded allegations he has levelled against the Kigali establishment, Rusesabagina is himself not an Angel like some people are lured to think. Rusesabagina has on various occasions accused the Rwanda establishment of corruption despite facts on ground showing Rwanda as a model among other African countries regarding the fight against corrupt. Rusesabagina himself has no moral authority to condemn anyone of corruption. In fact, he is the least qualified person to accuse anyone of corruption given that corruption is an evil that is enshrined deep in his own veins. He exposed his corrupt tendencies when as manager of the Hotel Milles Collines, charged hefty amounts of money to those seeking protection at the Hotel during the Genocide. He did not hesitate to chase away the poor fellows who could not afford his high charges, thus directly sending them to their deaths. He was fully aware that blood thirsty Hutu extremists were out there ready to hack them to death. A bribe to Rusesabagina was the only guarantee for safety at the Hotel during the 1994 Genocide. He decided to make quick money from the desperate masses that thronged the hotel in total contradiction of the basic principles of humanitarianism. How ironical and awful that Rusesabagina turns out today, gratifying himself as a humanitarian. It is indeed characteristic of the man and it is no wonder that he has now even changed the message that was given in the move. Recent outbursts by Rusesabagina cannot be separated from negation and denial of the Genocide, a crime itself equivalent to genocide. The constant misrepresentation of Rwanda’s history in the various forums that Rusesabagina has addressed is just pathetic. However, this is all a very fruitless and unproductive venture, since Rwandans and more and more foreigners can no longer be taken for a ride by the likes of Rusesabagina. Rwandans experienced the disaster as result of hateful propaganda like the one promoted by Rusesabagina, and are determined to forge ahead, in peace, unity democracy and economic development as one people. The current leadership in Rwanda is doing all it can to give Rwandans a new meaning to life, a life that is prosperous, peaceful and successful. Rwandans are determined not to give the likes of Rusesabagina an opportunity to destroy the enormous strides achieved so far. Rusesabagina should know that he could thrive on lies and corruption for sometime but certainly not all the time.Ends

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Rusesabagina’s ill-conceived agenda