Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
22 April 2008
interview
Kigali — Early this year RNA Board Deputy Chairman Privat Rutazibwa and Senior Presidential aide Dr. Alfred Ndahiro released a much publicized book 'Hotel Rwanda or the Tutsi Genocide as seen by Hollywood' attacking Mr. Paul Rusesabagina.
Recently, he also swiftly responded in a lengthy statement. RNA put to Mr. Privat Rutazibwa the issues raised by Mr. Rusesabagina. Read the exepts below in an email interview:
What do you think about this new response from Mr. Rusesabagina rebuking the book to which you are co-author?
I have just read the April 6th ten-page response of Paul Rusesabagina to our book Hotel Rwanda or the Tutsi Genocide as seen by Hollywood. My general comment is that the so-called response does not at all address or refute any of the issues and challenges put to him by the book. It instead engages in violent attacks against President Paul Kagame and more than thirty individuals and civil society organisations in Rwanda and abroad, most of whom have no clear relationship with our book. It is just amazing.
Mr. Rusesabagina puts to doubt the witnesses that you based on to write the book claiming that they were bribed, threatened and at time coerced into giving testimony against him. Don't you think that puts into question the methodology used to collect the information and ultimately the entire book?
Those who have read both our book and his response can crystal-clearly see that this argument is just an easy shortcut for Rusesabagina to escape serious issues raised about him in the book. Our working methodology was clear and no one can put it into question as regard to professional research standards.
We first of all used the interview with an open questionnaire to more than one hundred survivors of Hotel des Mille collines ; which represents almost ten per cent of the total 1268 people who sought refuge there during the 1994 Tutsi Genocide. Their written responses were statistically analysed and the most significant figures are mentioned in our book. The entire part of the statistical study of these testimonies was published by the scientific review of ULK university, as our publisher could not put all of it in the book for practical reasons. (ED - ULK is Université Libre de Kigali)
We also made lengthy interviews with specific survivors of Hotel des Mille Collines including employees, members of the Crisis Committee of Refugees in that hotel during the Genocide, and some others for their inside knowledge of the subject under study. Around 29 of these witnesses are quoted in our book, as well as two Genocide suspects or convicts who knew well Paul Rusesabagina, namely Valérie Bemeriki, the infamous RTLM hate journalist and George Rutaganda, who was personal friend to Rusesabagina and also second vice-president of the infamous Interahamwe militia.
Apart from interviews, we naturally used a wide documentation including the movie Hotel Rwanda itself, Rusesabagina's autobiography An ordinary Man, his various declarations to the media, his statements in many conferences he held in USA, Canada, Belgium or Tokyo after the release of the film; and considerable commentaries and information from other independent sources. Our 103 pages book includes at the end a four-page index indicating references for our main findings.
Part of our book is also some unpublished documents of great importance, including correspondence from the Crisis Committee of Refugees and the SABENA group which owned the Hotel at that time. The originals of these documents, especially those reproduced on pages 31, 35 and 37 of our book confirm various testimonies indicating that Rusesabagina, the interim manager of the Hotel, was putting pressure on totally destitute refugees to pay for their accommodation and meals in the hotel, either by cash, cheque or written pledges. Another document on page 67 is a correspondence from the head of the Central Intelligence Services to the then President Habyarimana's office, showing that Paul Rusesabagina was an informer to the intelligence apparatus of the genocidal regime.
These are the characteristics of our methodology as well as our main sources. They are transparent in that interested people can crosscheck if they wish. Rusesabagina does not bother giving a single source for his ten-page response completely made of insulting allegations to various people and organisations. Is that a credible method of arguing? At least not acceptable for sound minds.
Do you think Mr. Rusesabagina addresses the issues raised in the book?
Not at all, as I mentioned earlier. Contrary to the general belief created by the movie Hotel Rwanda in which Paul Rusesabagina is painted as the hero who had saved the 1268 people seeking refuge from genocide in « his » hotel, the book reveals a different reality.
· People did not come to seek refuge in Hotel des Mille Collines thanks to or because of Rusesabagina. Apart from 2 or 3 family friends he helped to rescue, others came because they thought the place was secure (with the presence of UNAMIR and many expatriates) and the most suitable for further evacuations to Europe.
· Rusesabagina arrived at Hotel des Milles Collines a week after the genocide had started. There were already a considerable number of refugees. He was heading to Gitarama along with the interim government he had hosted for a while in Hotel des Diplomates and he made a call to Mille Collines in search for fuel. When he discovered that the Dutch manager of the hotel had left leaving the keys to an inexperienced employee, he immediately decided to stay and maneuvered to take control of the hotel as interim manager. His motivation was not compassion to help refugees, but rather an opportunistic move.
· It is not Rusesabagina who protected the refugees from the genocidal killing machinery. They were saved thanks to a number of factors including diplomatic pressure from western countries, negotiations by UNAMIR to exchange hostages and other willing people between RPF and government controlled zones, Sabena interests, the presence of the French telecommunication system on the fifth floor of the hotel, commercial interests between George Rutaganda and Paul Rusesabagina for the hotel supplies, as well as the need of Rwandan army senior officers for a safe and comfortable place to relax after the killings.
· It is not Rusesabagina who struggled for their survival and welfare during their stay in the hotel. This was done by the Crisis Committee of Refugees headed by Tatien Ndolimana Miheto and whose members did not include Paul Rusesabagina. Many survivors also mention a certain Victor Munyarugerero, a decent Hutu who showed heroism, kindness and humanity going out to look for food and drive-back hiding people to the hotel, and paying guarantee money for them.
· In June 1994, Rusesabagina was evacuated with many other refugees to Kabuga in the RPF controlled zone. Some survivors consider he was a refugee like them and had no particular powers to protect them during their stay in Mille Collines.
The book further reveals a more disturbing situation: not only did Rusesabagina not help to save the refugees, but he was also perceived as a danger to many.
· Rusesabagina broke the morale of destitute refugees asking them to pay for accommodation, meals and telephone calls. He prevented some refugees who had no money or no one to pledge to pay for them, from entering the hotel.
· Rusesabagina was interested in making money at a time no one was keeping the books at the hotel. He was not happy to see the Red Cross bring food to the refugees, because he wanted them to buy at the stock of the hotel.
· Rusesabagina had very strong ties with the architects of the Tutsi Genocide, including General Augustin Bizimungu. Credible testimonies and a document from the Habyarimana Central Intelligence Services prove that he secretly revealed names and lists of some refugees to the RTLM hate radio and to the genocidal army high command.
People may wonder how such a person has been portrayed as a hero by the movie Hotel Rwanda. The response is simple. Rusesabagina served as special consultant to United Artists and Lions's Gate Films, the two American studios that produced the film. He therefore had the opportunity to shape the story to suit his purposes. His former colleagues describe him as an ambitious and opportunistic character, with a great sense of manipulation.
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