Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
2 January 2008
Kigali — Controversial 'hero' of Hollywood theatrical 'Hotel Rwanda' Mr. Paul Rusesabagina is planning to lobby US presidential hopeful Mrs. Hillary Clinton to support establishment of a 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Rwanda', RNA reports.
"I will reach out to Senator Clinton and would like to talk with her about the need for an internationally sanctioned Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Rwanda", said Mr. Rusesabagina. "Only with a TRC can Rwandans around the globe break the cycle of violence and move forward together, in peace."
Mrs. Clinton - who is vying to occupy the US White House after being their as First Lady for 8 years has been in the news allegedly for having put pressure on her husband to intervene in Rwanda during the Genocide. President Bill Clinton made the revelation to an audience on her campaign trail last month.
Now, Mr. Rusesabagina says he has been "heartened" to know that the former First Lady demanded that her husband send in US troops to end the 100-day bloodshed. Documents declassified in 2004 indicate that President Bill Clinton's administration knew Rwanda was being engulfed by Genocide but silenced any discussion about the information to justify its inaction.
I agree with the Senator that U.S. intervention, and intervention of the international community, could have saved the lives of Rwandans during those dark and dangerous times, Mr. Rusesabagina says in a statement.
Depending on whom you talk to in Rwanda or outside, Mr. Rusesabagina remains a controversial and divisive figure. His supporters claim he saved the lives of nearly 1,300 people who he sheltered at the Mille Collines Hotel in Kigali during the Genocide.
But critics including some of the survivors from the Hotel accuse Mr. Rusesabagina - a recipient of several top U.S government honors - of using the suffering and mayhem to get rich. Some have described him as a Hollywood hero not a Rwandan one because he was barely known until the film Hotel Rwanda came to light.
He has also launched a Foundation purportedly to help the victims of the Genocide but critics say he has used it to make personal gains. In the recent times, he has now moved up with campaigns for the establishment of what he calls the 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Rwanda' to look into the effects of the wars the ravaged the country.
There is already a National Unity and Reconciliation Commission that was set up to do exactly what Mr. Rusesabagina and other exiled opposition groups are proposing - but the present commission in Rwanda leaves a lot to be desired.
I will urge her to exert her (Mrs. Clinton) leadership globally on behalf of Rwanda now, when the Rwandan people still need it, said Rusesabagina.
In addition to bitter responses to the film from the affected public, its producer has came out strongly saying if he knew the movie would come to that - then he would have thought twice about the idea.
Questionable role
On an ABC TV show December 30, 2007, Senator Hillary Clinton said that she had wanted the U.S. to take more action than it had during the Genocide.
However, her role in influencing some of her husband's foreign policy decisions, according to The New York Times, remains suspicious because various former White House officials interviewed said they doubted she had any influential role.
Could it be that her campaign team is bringing up such debate to back their tool portraying her as experienced in foreign policy and passionate - is what observers are asking?
She did not assert herself on the crises in Somalia, Haiti and Rwanda, The New York Times journalist Patrick Healy writes in the lengthy article published December 24. "Nor was Mrs. Clinton a memorable player on Rwanda".
Former White House officials, according to the paper, say that no one - not the national security team, not the president, not the first lady - was seriously pushing for American military intervention to stop or slow the unfolding genocide there; the administration's focus was on confronting the ethnic bloodshed in the Balkans.
In an interview with her for the same article, Mrs. Clinton responded to other accusations but declined to comment on Rwanda.
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Normally, Tutsis people are some how psycho. the way they don't recognize Rusesabagina as their hero is surprising!
There is a guy called Cristian who was at the University of Manitoba in Canada.This boy was saved by Rusesabagina and he started campaining in Canada that there is no Hutu who saved Tutsi.
Later on those who used to listen for him discovered who he is and now he is lost.
Tutsi have to lear how to appreciate other wise, it is not cool.
Guys what's wrong with you someone who saved your life ,you are starting accusing him that he wants to get rich by using this event, see you just want to say that he didn't save you guys? then If you insist you denie that the genocide did not exist ,why you never said the truth ,if you refuse that Rusesabagina is not a hero whoelse is your hero? Do you want say kagome ?No he is not your hero because If he wasn't Rusesabagina the time when the fpr came was too late for you to be alive ,the man risked his life if those Intera could find you why are so cruels you people with such ingratitude, so that's why tutsis you are inhumains, because I can't just reject the truth and the thing which happened for real , now if you saiy so ,how the world will continue to believe and trust you think first before acting like stupid,you won all support in the world now ,you want to change the version, even your president kagome did not like the way Rusesabagina was brought up as hero ,what kind of selfishness why you just want you tutsis only you is very ridiculous, he deserve that that category of honor that's.Sa y think God the guy saved our life and now your thanks is to deny him his honorand give him a kickboxing and a teak.