If the story told in the 2004 film, Hotel Rwanda, is true, then Paul Rusesabagina is a real hero of the Rwandan genocide. The Rwandan Genocide is a dark part of Rwandan history that claimed the lives of between 800,000 and 1 million people in just 100 days.
Paul Rusesabagina is said to have made his way back when the militias ramped up to protect the families who had taken shelter at the five-star Mille Collines hotel in Kigali. Lately there have been inconsistencies in the reports as to what exactly happened and whether Paul Rusesabagina should actually be considered a hero, but let’s look at the happy ending version of events first.
Paul Rusesabagina’s biography
Paul Rusesabagina was born on June 15, 1954 to a Hutu father and Tutsi mother. His parents sent him to a town near Gitwe that belonged to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. By the age of 13, Paul could speak fluent English and French.
After marrying his first wife, Esther Sembeba, on September 8, 1967, they both moved to Cameroon, where he resumed his studies at a seminary.
genocide in Rwanda
The Hotel des Mille Collines was owned by the Belgian company, at the time Sabena. Paul Rusesabagina had been working as a concierge at the time, hiding and protecting 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees from the Interahamwe militia during the Rwanda genocide.
The soldiers of the then Hutu-led government and allies of ethnic militias orchestrated the genocide. In the genocide, which lasted 100 days, anywhere from 800,000 to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered, hacked to death with machetes, burned alive or shot.
Paul reportedly saved the lives of 1,268 Hutus and Tutsis as none of them were injured or killed in the attacks.
The Other Story of Paul Rusesabagina and Hotel Des Mille Collines
According to the conflicting accounts of the The reason why the spared hotel had nothing to do with Rusesabagina’s bravery was that the hotel had become the darling of the ex-patriots and thus a focus of attention for the western international press. The prime minister of the interim government, Jean Kambanda, reportedly described to his cabinet how unfortunate it was that the hotel was “in full view”.
Jean Kambanda had apparently received a telegram from the US government asking for protection for the people housed there. The hotel was therefore spared to avoid unwanted international attention.
All of this happened in the second week of April in1994 and at the end of April an agreement was reached between the interim government and the Mayor of Kigali, Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho, not to carry out any major massacres in or near the capital for the time being.
Allegedly, Rusesabagina was blackmailed. The hotel guests’ money for the rooms and the checks he accepted for rent were cashed in Gitarama, where the interim government had set up its premises.
It has also been alleged that Paul Rusesabagina overcharged guests for scrap, even though hotel management in Brussels faxed requests that all groceries be free for the more than 1,000 people trapped between life and death in no man’s land.
There were also allegations that many days before the genocide began, he was working elsewhere in Kigali at the diplomat’s hotel, which was close to the barracks and had become the favorite lodging of military and Hutu leaders.
Many of his supporters claim that such defamatory allegations are part of a campaign by President Kagame’s regime in Rwanda to smear him, especially as Rusesabinga has accused Kagame of human rights abuses.
Regardless of who is actually right, whether Paul Rusesabinga is a hero or a villain, he has received numerous awards for his perceived role in the Rwandan genocide. He has received the Lantos Human Rights Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former US President George Bush.
He currently resides in the United States and runs the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation (HRRF) to provide financial assistance to the women and children affected by the genocides in Rwanda and other African nations. He has been compared to Oskar Schindler and Gandhi and receives high fees as a speaker. For these reasons, we hope that the more altruistic version of events is true.
wife, children, family
Paul married his first wife, Esther Sembeba, on September 8, 1967. The couple were together for nearly 14 years before legally separating in 1981.
In 1987 he met Tatiana, a Tutsi nurse, in Ruhengeri. They married two years later and she adopted his children, then the couple later had a son together. It’s easy to see why Paul Rusesabagina is an approachable hero. His ancestry is a mixture of Hutu and Tutsi and he married a Tutsi woman, but as we have already mentioned, not many people agree with the version of events that characterizes Rusesabagina as a hero.