Comments

This incident involving Rusesabagina is part of a much larger campaign by the Kagame administration in Rwanda to silence a loud and persistent critic. It's not the portrayal of Rusesabagina in the film Hotel Rwanda that irks Kagame; it's Rusesabagina's criticism of where Kagame is taking the country.

Here is an article I wrote for a Canadian newspaper, the Guelph, Ontario, Mercury, on this subject.

http://www.guelphmercury.com/pdfs/2007Jul3/A09.PDF

Apologies.

You can find a copy of that article on Rusesabagina on my blog, entitled "Watch Your Back", here:

http://claudeadams.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=3

Mr. Adams,

We've seen your incendiary reports on Rwanda, after a short stint at the university of Butare. Rwanda is a complex phenomenon, and don't take it for the plain country that Canada is, and which you can so simply explain academically.

Reports like yours were in great part responsible for our country's shameful history. I am sure you don't want to be counted among the primitive genocidaires of Rwanda! It is mainly thanks to President Kagame's level-headed leadership that we were not plunged into collective suicide. Today, Rwanda is an oasis of stability in a region on fire.

We Rwandans invited you as Canadians in the 'Rwanda Initiative'as partners in capacity building in the media. If we had wanted an accomplice in putting us on the road back to self-destruction, we wouldn't have had to go far for that: there are many genocidaires roaming the jungles of the D. R. Congo.

Pleaee, give us a break. We need all our energy and attention concentrated on building our country and maintaining it among the community of sane nations.

Ingina

"Reports like yours were in great part responsible for our country's shameful history ... Today, Rwanda is an oasis of stability ..."

Wherever the truth lies, Paul Rusesabagina's experience of it and his views must not be subject to political pressure brought to bear by President Kagame through Archbishop Kolini. Here in the USA, freedom of speach is a guaranteed civil right enshrined in our Constitution. Because of that fact alone, Rusesabagina must be allowed to speak and be heard.

Americans and Canadians will come to their own conclusions about Rusesabagina's experience and what is going on in Rwanda. Attempts to manipulate or silence Paul Rusesabagina will surely be conterproductive in terms of any view of Rwanda as an

"... oasis of stability ..."

As it is said: "be careful what you wish for, it may come back to bite you". Rev. Johnson has now been bitten. But the real bad biters, the genocidiares are free to do what they will, some of them hiding among the North Americans. Paul Rusesabagina should be inhibited from talking. I prefer to hear him than Mr. Kagame.

Once again we are witnessing an act of cowardice by splinter Anglicans here in the United States. They do not have the courage to support and affirm LGBT men and woman of faith nor do they have the courage to stand up for the United States Constitution in the face of these ungodly ( and I mean ungodly ) African bishops. These cowardly people are going to find that when you dance with the devil you reap a terrible reward. Shame on them. Brad Ryden

Mr Rusesibagina has called for the UN International Criminal Tribunal to prosecute Rwandan President Kagame and his victorious Rwandan Patriotic Front soldiers who ended the genocide and ushered stability into the new Rwanda. He is extremely controversial, with many Rwandans here in the country claiming his portrayal in "Hotel Rwanda" is far from the truth.

I can not write to address the politics and ongoing conflicts of Rwanda, a country that I have spiritual connections to but have not yet seen or experienced firsthand. I can, however, address what I feel to be a false and unfounded attack on a congregation that Mr. Ryden has clearly not experienced firsthand himself. I'm guessing he has not stood face to face, arm and arm, with the godly men and women of All Souls' whom I have come to love deeply for their decidedly UNcowardly faith, and their active hearts for their own community as well as the global community. As far as I know, falsely accusing your brothers is also a sin. A wise man recently said that words are the most effective weapons - especially if they result in actual dialog. A wiser man once wrote that "no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing...these things ought not to be this way." (James 3:8-10) It is easy to write terrible things against people you don't know from the safety of your computer screen. The shame it seems, should rest with you as well.

"Rwandan Politics Intrudes on American Church"

Actually, the church to which this article refers is no longer an American church -- it is a Rwandan church. You make your bed -- you gotta lie in it...

Ingina, Mrs. Foster's comments relate to Mr. Ryden's post. However, in the talk the Mr. Rusesabagina gave Sunday evening, he wasn't saying that the genocide didn't occur, quite the contrary. I'm not qualified comment on what he's doing with his funding (although I'll look into it). He heard about the project All Souls' has been working on for over a year to raise money to build a school in Gashirabwoba and wanted to support our efforts. We are not contributing to his funding, nor he to ours. He came as an educational speaker to give his viewpoint on the situation in Rwanda.

To Mr. Ryden's statements, actually it takes courange NOT to affirm the LGBT stance these days. We as a parish seek to welcome and support anyone who walks through our doors, but there is a vast difference between support and affirmation. As a Christian who seeks to walk more closely with Jesus, the last thing I want is to have my sins affirmed. I want to be healed. Many of the people of All Souls' left Episcopal parishes precisely because we know that supporting people cannot be done by denying God and affirming sin.

Finally, please note that Mr. Rusesabagina did speak to a packed auditorium that evening. He was not denied his right to speak.

This is truly beyond belief. If the good people of All Souls had bothered to get to know the undemocratic country and church they were allying themselves to (any homophobic port in a storm, I guess) they would not be so surprised. What is becoming clearer as every day goes by is the extraordinary and perhaps willful ignorance with which the hypocrites and demagogues in the AMiA led congregations like All Souls away from a democratically-run church that would have tolerated their differences of opinion into an authoritarian church poisoned by its coziness with an antidemocratic political structure in a foreign country with an alien culture.

I think, Terry, that you misunderstand the process that churches like All Souls took to leave the Episcopal Church. It was not AMiA enticing them and baiting them, but instead a long and painful decision to part with a church that has abandoned the Bible as their authority.

Also, democracy is not how the Anglican Communion worldwide runs its churches. If a democratic church government was the end goal for All Souls I think they would have become nondenominational, or some other church structure which focuses more on the individual congregation. Instead they wanted to stay Anglican, and chose an authority that was theologically sound.

Now, whether the request to deny Mr. Rusesabagina to speak on Sunday morning was for legit reasons is certainly up for debate. I for one feel like if it would hurt the church in Rwanda somehow to have him speak, maybe I can forfeit some of my rights to keep them safer in their country. If, however, there is an unhealthy union between the church and government in Rwanda, then there is a problem. But in the end good theology will win my allegiance before good politics any day of the week.

Ms McCarthy,

Thank you very much for promising to find out the activities of Paul Rusesabagina. And, indeed, I am watching this page.

I am uncomfortable, however, with your proclamation of the freedom of speech for everyone, including Rusesabagina, when you actually do not allow my observations to be seen by your community on this site. Where is the piece that I posted?

Being Rwandan, a national of the same country from which Rusesabagina hails, I had given the reasons why Rusesabagina should not be allowed to mislead readers of the discussions here. I would have thought you'd have given your readers the freedom to draw their concludsions!

God bless your church and its community.

Ingina

Ingina,

I do not control what is on this page or this site, nor do I have any readers, as I am neither an author nor do I have my own blog. I merely posted in response to responses to this article as it references the church I attend. If you are concerned that your postings are not being allowed on a CT site, you need to contact CT. I thought I saw two postings from you and now I only see one, unless you are also posting on StandFirm or T19, and I'm remembering that.

That said, we do have freedom of speech here, it is one of the reasons that when the Presidency changes hands from Democrat to Republican and back again, no blood is spilled. Everyone gets to make their case and if one's viewpoint cannot stand up to criticism, then it doesn't deserve, and won't receive, support. That there was pressure from the Rwandan ambassador to not allow Mr. Rusesabagina to speak in Chicago over the weekend was disturbing to hear. It is my hope that Mr. Rusesabagina, and indeed all Rwandans, would have the right to air their views and opinions without fear. If they are wrong, they will be exposed. As normally happens, the truth generally comes out in the end. At least that is my optimistic, American viewpoint.

Ms McCarthy,

Much I would hate this to be a two-way stoning match, I must give my response to you to clear the confusion. And the confusion is on my part, because I actually thought that you were in charge of this site. Please accept my sincere apologies.

On the question of democracy, I'd say it is relative and is manifest in many different ways, depending on circumstances and societies. In Rwanda, we are in the process of nurturing our form of democracy. At any stage, we must protect our democracies from any threat, but especially at a budding stage like in our case.

What in USA you call agents of terrorism, in Rwanda we call agents of genocide. The zeal with which you as citizens of USA join your government in fighting the promoters of the 9-11 terrorism is the same zeal with wich we as citizens of Rwanda join our government to fight the promoters of the 1994 genocide. The whole world should join USA in such a noble fight, as it should join Rwanda.

No platform should be given to these agents of death anywhere in the world.

(It is that post explaining how Rusesabagina falls into this category that was removerd!)

Inginaa

Ingina,

Apologies accepted, and it is not my intent to stone anyone either.

Democracy, at least as I understand it, cannot exist or be nurtured in any permutation without freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of belief. Freedom of speech is the sunlight in which evil is exposed for what it is, and good is strengthened.

You are using freedom of speech to call Mr. Rusesabagina an agent of genocide. This is a very serious charge. If he were to be condoning or, worse yet, promoting, genocide, then what you would actually want is for him to speak publicly so as to expose those views and allow people to see him for what he is. I have not heard him, nor heard of him, expressing those views. He has not to my knowledge denied that the genocide was committed, and to my admittedly American understanding, the fact that he is expressing his concerns about the current government doesn't show that he is promoting genocide, but rather indicates his concern for his country.

Seeking to silence him (or denying him a platform) only serves to make people think that your government has something to hide. If you read the blog coverage about this, people are wondering why the government of Rwanda wants to silence him and that is a valid question.

We have people here whose views are truly horrifying. Take David Duke for example; the man actually believes that the Holocaust didn't happen. He is allowed to speak publicly, and when he does, people can hear that what he is promoting is hatred and racism and anti-semitism. And we can walk away from him and those like him who promote evil. He can spew his venom and be known for what he is. Were we to shut him up (as nice as it would be to not hear the lies he utters) he would become some sort of romantic hero whose voice is being silenced by the big bad brother. In America we have an educated populace (the point of free public education was to have population capable of reading and voting responsibly) and we trust that Americans can take information in and make up our minds based on such information. I would ask you to trust us to hear all sides of the debate - yours as well as his - so that we can be informed.

Ms McCarthy,

I was wishing somebody else'd intervene so we don't appear to monopolise opinion here, when I know that the discussion started with so many people in.

As for democracy, we can discuss it until cows come home -- (hoping they do, in your city!) Let's stick to our BONE of contention -- Rusesabagina!

As it is, he has been wrongly romanticised as a hero in USA, at the expense of true heroes of the 1994 genocide, many of who lost their lives in the process of saving others'. Happily, these true heroes have been recognised here at home.

A few facts:

---- Rusesabagina became manager of Mille Collines Hotel opportunistically, as he happened to be passing over in such of fuel to go to Gitarama with the fleeing genocidaire government of the day.

---- When Rusesabagina saw the Belgian hotel manager leaving a junior Tutsi worker in charge, he grabbed the keys from the worker because he calculated that he could make a buck or two.

---- Immediately, Rusesabagina started charging the stranded refugees (those already in, and those running to, the hotel)for accommodation and food, even if the Belgian manager had directed that they be not charged.

---- With immediate effect, he disconnected all the phone lines so that no one could call outside help, leaving only one line in his room that he monitored and charged (with the intention of handing over the refugees if help was forthcoming).

---- He could not bribe the killer government officials as he claims, because they had the power to take whatever they wanted in any part of Rwanda.

---- He does not tell the truth, which is that he was holding the refugees at ransom on behalf of the genocidaires, so that they could be exchanged for their prisoners of war, who were being held by RPA (the rebel army headed by Paul Kagame, and which ended the genocide).

---- His 'Rusesabagina Hotel Rwanda Charity' organisation has never helped a single genocide orphan, as I have stated before, and the money laundering that I've attributed to him, and his Zambian connections, are not hard to verify.

---- He is many times on record as saying "We have only changed the dancers, but the music remains the same". In short, the genocide of Rwanda is still going on, with Hutus now as targets. If you have an acquaintance who's been to Rwanda lately, you'll know what I mean by "genocide denial".

I could go on..... The bottom line: no one anywhere in the world should be given a platform to mislead and cheat innocent people in the name of democracy. Everything has its time. In this time and space, an agent of Hitler can blabber all he/she wants in any part of the USA, but I talk for many Americans when I say that an agent of Osama bin Laden should not be allowed to cross the immigration line at the JFK airport.

In the latter case, the danger is real. With her wounds still raw, Rwanda needs the support of all people of good will.

Ingina

Mr. Adams,

My name is Ingina y'IGIHANGA, a Rwandan teaching in Kigali, and a regular contributor to an amusement column in 'The Sunday Times' called 'RefleXions'(you'd've enjoyed it if you'd read it!) Please note that I am not an employee of 'The New Times'. I say this because I know what you think about it!

I also know what you think about the government of Rwanda and, especially, your negative opinion of Paul Kagame! I wish you had had a longer time at the university of Butare, and I wish you had had time to interact with all sorts of Rwandans, not only in the academia but also in the villages.

Please don't let all that cloud your judgement, and let's stick to the point at hand: Rusesabagina. I suggested one simple thing: Find out where he puts the funds that he collects in the names of the victims of the 1994 genocide. Visit the website and see the objectives of his 'Rusesabagina Hotel Rwanda Charity Organisation'.

That alone speaks volumes about the man.

Ingina

Sorry, the man calls it a 'foundation' and it says:

"The Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation (HRRF) provides support, care, and assistance to children orphaned by, and women abused during, the genocide in Rwanda. HRRF provides funding to reputable organizations to meet specific educational, vocational, mental health, medical and other social needs of identified orphans and women refugees."

There is a place to press and donate to the foundation. And yet, NO SINGLE CHILD OR WOMAN HAS BENEFITTED.

What do the funds thus raised go to do in Zambia?

Ingina:

Again, I ask, how do you know that "no single child or woman has benefited?" I assume that as a journalist and teacher, you can appreciate the need for evidence whan you make a statement of fact that impugns somebody's integrity.

I would be more than happy to change my opinion of the man if anyone could give me documentary proof of his dishonesty. I asked the same of another critic, Senator Odette, who knows him very well, and she never followed thru.

We really should continue this exchange by personal email, rather than through this website. I am at adams.claude@gmail.com

Claude Adams