The man who inspired the award-winning film “Hotel Rwanda” led local Rwandans and others in a protest Saturday of Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s visit to Chicago for a conference.
More than 100 Rwandan, Congolese and American protesters gathered at the Hyatt Regency Chicago to voice their anger over human rights violations committed by Kagame, including the killing of tens of thousands of Rwandans since he came to power in 1994 after the Rwandan genocide, according to a 2010 United Nations war crimes report. Leading the protest was Paul Rusesabagina, whose brave actions during the genocide were the basis for the movie “Hotel Rwanda.”
Though Kagame is given much of the credit for stopping the genocide, reports from the UN, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have all detailed violent abuses in the years during his regime.
In Rwanda we say that the dancers have changed, but the music is the same,” Rusesabagina said. “I’m very much worried as I was [in the lead up to the 1994 genocide] because nothing has changed.”
Rusesabinga is well-known for his actions during the genocide when he saved 1,268 Rwandans from death by hiding them in the hotel that he was managing.
He has since made the transition from hotelier to activist.
“Today we have all gathered to tell the world that a dictator who has shed blood in Africa is now visiting the homeland of President Obama,” Rusesabagina said. “We preach equal rights and then reconciliation.”
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| Hundreds of Rwandans and African-American citizen To protest against the presence of The Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame |
According to many of the protestors, the event was held to raise awareness among Americans, and Chicagoans in particular, of the ongoing struggles facing the Congo and Rwanda. They said Kagame’s presence in the United States is an effort to legitimize his actions, which, according to United Nations Security Council, include driving a deadly proxy war for Congolese minerals.
Congolese protestors also denounced the rapes of more than 400,000 female soldiers from 2006 to 2007, as detailed in a report in the American Journal of Public Health, that they say were committed by Kagame’s troops with impunity.
“This is not a political party, this is a civil society,” said Patrick Ntula, 38, a Congolese-born resident of Chicago. “These are people expressing themselves to say enough is enough.”
Meanwhile, a counter-protest took place across the street as attendees of the Rwanda Day conference that Kagame attended came out to defend their president.Rwandan, but separated by allegiance, the two groups echoed a plea for unity while disagreeing over fundamentals.
“I support Rwandans,” said 34-year-old Francis T., a Rwandan businessman, “But this protest is nonsense.”
African SurViVors International (ASI) is an international nonpartisan charity organization devoted to defending human rights. It’s an organization working to promote democracy and national reconciliation, inside countries of the African Great lakes Region.
ASI centers its work on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries;
ASI’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. ASI does not support nor condone violence.
The Truth can be buried and stomped into the ground where none can see, yet eventually it will, like a seed, break through the surface once again far more potent than ever, and Nothing can stop it. Truth can be suppressed for a “time”, yet It cannot be destroyed. ==> Wolverine
