Paul Rusesabagina
Paul Rusesabagina (born June 15,1954 in Murama-Gitarama, Rwanda) was the assistant manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines, and later the manager of the Hôtel des Diplomates, both in Kigali, Rwanda. During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Rusesabagina used his influence and connections as temporary manager of the Mille Collines to shelter over 1,260 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from being slaughtered by the Interahamwe militia. He became more wellknown when his deed was made into a film: Hotel Rwanda (2004). He is an ethnic hutu.
Birth and career
Rusesabagina was born in Murama-Gitarama in the Central-South region of Rwanda. He graduated from Utalii College in Nairobi, Kenya in its Hotel Management program, which included a trip to Switzerland. When he returned from Switzerland, he was employed in their Mille Collines Hotel from October 1984 until November 1993, upon which he was promoted to general manager of the company's Diplomate Hotel in Kigali. Rusesabagina claimed he left because of the continuous threats he received from Hutus. They wanted to shoot him at one o' clock in the afternoon in the company of his daughters and had already blocked the street with vehicles. When they approached him from two sides with guns, people in the neighbourhood threw stones at them and screamed for help. This way he survived one of many death threats. His wife was intimidated too and the Hutus knew everything about them. The Rusesabaginas fled towards Brussels, Belgium, but returned back to Kigali in March 1994. It was obvious that there was trouble in the air, but still they returned because they considered it their moral duty. Also, the peace treaties of Arusha were signed and many UN troops had arrived in the country. One of the UN generals was general Dallaire. Currently Paul resides in Belgium with his children and their adopted nieces.
Genocide
The Rwandan genocide started on April 6, 1994 as the Hutu-led Interahamwe began to slaughter the Tutsi population. Though Rusesabagina was of mixed heritage — his father was Hutu and his mother Tutsi — he was relatively safe from the Interahamwe due to his previous work as a diplomat and business connections with important Hutu military leaders. Despite his personal situation, his wife Tatiana was a Tutsi, and their children were considered mixed, therefore he could not escape the war zone with his family without outside help. However, no foreign aid came from the United Nations or its more powerful Western member states until over 900,000 Rwandans had been murdered.
When the violence broke out, Rusesabagina brought his family to the Mille Collines for safety. As other managers departed, Rusesabagina phoned Sabena and secured a letter appointing him as the acting general manager of the Mille Collines. Despite some difficulty in getting the staff to accept his authority, he was able to use his position to shelter the orphans and other refugees who came to the hotel. Even his neighbours had moved in his house out of safety reasons, though Rusesabagina didn't even own a gun. To be safe for bombs and grenades they put matresses straight up against the windows. He described the hardships they faced during a speech at Principia College in Illinois, which included having to drink the water in the hotel's swimming pool. Murderous Hutu militions threatened to enter the Mille Collines and Rusesabagina made sure his wife and children could flee in a truck past the road blocks put up by the Hutu militions. This truck would drive to the airport of Kigali so they could flee to another country. He himself remained in the hotel because the refugees needed him. Rusesabagina and his wife discussed hours about this decision, because he promised her he would never leave her in this situation. Rusesabagina wanted to stay however, because otherwise the remaining refugees would be killed by the Hutu militions and he would never forgive himself when this would happen.
The truck never reached the airport. It was forced to turn around and drive back to the hotel. Everybody in the truck, including Tatiana and the children, were beaten. Tatiana was a specific target for beatings because she was the wife of the owner of the Mille Collines. The Hutu militions knew she and her children were in the truck due to the continuous hateful radio messages sent out by radio presentator Georges Ruggiu on Radio Mille Collines. Riggiu was a Belgian who together with other presentators on the station stirred up hate in the Hutu population to kill all the Tutsis. Riggiu called Rusesabagina's family "cockroaches who were fleeing, but would return later to kill all the Hutus". Rusesabagina was seen as a protector of people who, in the eyes of murderous Hutus, should be killed and not protected. Therefore he became a number one enemy for them.
Tatiana's father died in the genocide. He paid to be executed so he would not die a more painful death:
"We all knew we would die, no question. The only question was: how? Would they chop us in pieces? With their machetes they would cut your left hand off. Then they would dissappear and reappear a few hours later to cut off your right hand. A little later they would return for your left leg, etcetera- they went on till you died. They wanted to make you suffer as long as possible. There was one alternative: you could pay soldiers so they would just shoot you. That's what her (Tatiana's) father did."
(Paul Rusesabagina in Humo,nr. 3365, March,1, 2005)
Even general Dallaire and the UN troops had to withdraw. Dallaire knew where the Hutu militions hid their weapons, but didn't take those due to orders from the UN headquarters in New York. All the white civilians in Rwanda could flee to Europe and the US and Dallaire was forced to do so. When he and the UN troops went away they didn't take any of the thousands of refugees who had sought protection by them in the churches and schools.
Rusesabagina, his wife, children and the refugees eventually managed to escape to another country, thanks to the FPR. Rusesabagina moved to Belgium and has been living there since 1996. General Dallaire suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and tried two suicide attempts out of guilt.
Paul Rusesabagina received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 9, 2005 [1].
Legacy
His work is dramatized in the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda, in which he is played by Don Cheadle. A few differences with the actual story are:
- Tatiana Rusesabagina wasn't really angry about Paul putting her and her children on a truck to escape the Mille Collines hotel, but was more or less sad about the decision which she accepted due to the circumstances.
- The discussion between Rusesabagina and the Hutu soldiers who try to force him to kill all the refugees in his hotel, including his own family, took two hours instead of two minutes.
Timeline
- 1984: Begins work at the Mille Collines Hotel in October
- 1993: Begins work at the Diplomate Hotel in November
- 1994: Massacre begins on April 7th
- 1994: Returns to work at Diplomate Hotel in July
- 1996: Emigrates to Belgium with family in September
- 2000: Rusesabagina receives Immortal Chaplains Prize for Humanity
- 2005: Rusesabagina receives National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award
- 2005: Rusesabagina receives Presidential Medal of Freedom
Notes
^ 2005 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.
Sources:
Interview with Paul and Tatiana Rusesabagina in the Belgian magazine Humo, nr. 3365, March 1, 2005.