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Paul Rusesabagina is perhaps one of the most famous Rwandans in the world. His actions during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi were made famous in the 2004 Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda.
The film was inspired by what happened at the Hotel des Mille Collines in the capital, Kigali. Here, 1,268 Rwandans, both Tutsi and Hutu, were rescued from genocidal forces waiting beyond its walls.
The film portrays Rusesabagina – who left Rwanda in 1996 – as the hero who saved those lives. Following the film’s release, Rusesabagina received several humanitarian awards, including the 2005 US Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President George W. Bush. He eventually became a US resident and a Belgian citizen.
However, on August 27, 2020, Rwandan officials arrested Rusesabagina. Human Rights Watch accused the Rwandan government of deliberately misleading him on a flight to Kigali.
The government accused Rusesabagina of supporting anti-Rwanda groups. He was charged with terrorism, arson, kidnapping and murder for two attacks in 2018 that killed nine Rwandans. On September 20, 2021, Rusesabagina was convicted of these charges. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Since his conviction, Rwanda has rejected mounting international pressure to release Rusesabagina.
In August 2022, during a visit to Kigali, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called on the government to release Rusesabagina. In Hollywood, actors and actresses highlighted the issue with a “Free Rusesabagina” clothing campaign.
Read more: US and Rwanda: How relations have evolved since the 1994 genocide
In my last research article, I focused on the Rusesabagina case. Based on interviews with Rwandans, I conclude that Hollywood’s interpretation of historical events differs significantly from those who lived in the hotel during the genocide.
Hotel Rwanda is a double-edged sword for the country.
On the one hand, it introduced the horrific genocide of 1994 to a world that knew little about what happened in the small African nation. Over 100 days between April 6 and July 19, Rwanda witnessed the deaths of up to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
On the other hand, the historical inaccuracies in the film built Rusesabagina’s profile. Based on what I discovered during the interviews I conducted, I argue that he used his fame to promote his version of Rwandan history and his desire for political power. My research findings echo those of others, including Rwandan scholars, who have explored narrative disparity.
Many in the Global North, whose primary knowledge of Rwanda consisted of the film, tended to attribute their history, goals and desires to Rusesabagina rather than to Rwandans. This narrative was largely dictated by human rights groups that were highly critical of the country’s human rights record.
Different stories
Between 2008 and 2018, more than 100 survivors of the Hotel des Mille Collines discussed with me their historical experiences and the belief that Rusesabagina is not the reason they are still alive. I conducted most of these interviews at the hotel and the Genocide Memorial in Kigali, which houses the remains of more than 250,000 victims of the genocide. My research also used existing networks within the Rwandan government and civil society organizations.
Survivors who were in the hotel said Rusesabagina ran the hotel as a personal profit-making enterprise.
If someone couldn’t pay him, they would be kicked out of the hotel grounds, which meant certain death. One survivor said:
If you could pay, you would stay in a room. If you can’t pay for a room, you can pay to stay in the corridor. If you can’t pay that, you can pay to stay by the pool. If you can’t pay that, he (Rusesabagina) will make you leave.
A hotel worker told me this:
He (Rusesabagina) didn’t care about any of us (workers). I was begging him to let them (my family) stay as I was working there (at the hotel) for a long time. He didn’t care and demanded that I pay him money or he would throw them out to be killed.
Several other survivor stories suggest a different narrative than the film. In Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina is portrayed as raising money only to pay off the perpetrators of genocide.
Rusesabagina during the genocide
Before the genocide, Rusesabagina worked at the neighboring Hotel des Diplomates. He took over the Hotel des Mille Collines after discovering that its European manager, Bick Cornelis, had been evacuated. A former hotel worker told me:
…a few days after the murders, Rusesabagina came in one day and saw the old manager (Cornelis) being taken away with the other Europeans. He called (the hotel owners) and told them to … work only with him. They had no idea what was going on and probably hadn’t talked to Cornelis yet, so they agreed.
While the film credits Rusesabagina with creating an oasis during the conflict, he is not the reason the hotel – one of the few areas offering refuge at the time – survived the attacks by those behind the genocide.
Not shown in the film are the seven to ten United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) soldiers who were permanently stationed outside the facility.
In his book, Romeo Dallaire, former commander of this UN mission, says he stationed troops at the hotel’s only entrance as a symbolic sign that it was under UN protection. Dallaire spoke out against Hotel Rwanda as historical revisionism.
In addition, the Interahamwe, the main Hutu death squads responsible for the genocidal killings, were ordered to stay outside the hotel walls. They allowed people to run into him, but threatened or killed those who tried to leave.
One former Interahamwe, who was stationed about 20 meters from the hotel entrance, told me that he had been instructed by his regional commander to “just stay by the hotel and let the Tutsi and others have access.” The hotel was also used for a prisoner exchange “and it would be the last place for us to purge (kill Tutsis) after defeating the RPF (Rwanda Patriotic Front)”.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame, took control of the country in July, ending the genocide. The horrors of the 100-day period led to Rwanda’s focus on forming a new unified ethnic identity: “Rwandan”.
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