Captain Mbaye Diagne
By Dr BIZIMANA Jean Damascène*
Kigali: Since April 1994, Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali had become a refuge for people from everywhere including mostly Tutsi and Hutu dissidents to the criminal government. Based on the achievements of the ongoing negotiations between the so-called Government of saviours and the RPF-INKOTANYI forces to relocate the refugees who had taken refuge at Hotel des Mille Collines and deport them to the desired areas, the operation took place from 27 May 1994 to 31 may 1994.
However, the genocidal government forces did not comply with the agreement because the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi continued to set up roadblocks at various locations in Kigali City, controlled by the criminal government forces, they removed the Tutsi from UNAMIR trucks and killed them.
Captain Mbaye Diagne tried to block the way for Interahamwe with the aim of preventing them from taking the Tutsi out of UNAMIR trucks to kill them, and was shot dead at the roadblock while protecting Tutsi from Interahamwe who wanted to kill them. Captain Mbaye Diagne died at the age of 36.
On July 4, 2010, His Excellency the President of the Republic awarded Captain Mbaye Diagne a Medal of Guardian of pact for his extraordinary bravery in saving lives during the Genocide against the Tutsi. If all UNAMIR soldiers had acted like Captain Mbaye Diagne, they would have stopped the Genocide, and many more would have survived.
PAUL RUSESABAGINA’S LIE ABOUT RESCUING TUTSI AND HUTU IN HOTEL DES MILLE COLLINES
In the aftermath of the Genocide against the Tutsi, Paul Rusesabagina launched a greedy program by falsely claiming that he was the one who rescued the refugees, mostly Tutsi who had taken refuge in the Hotel des Mille Collines. Paul Rusesabagina took it as a pretext to mobilise white people so that they can help him in casting a movie best known as Hotel Rwanda. However, Paul Rusesabagina had no role in rescuing them, instead, he looted their belongings and betrayed some of them as he worked closely with the investigation authorities of the criminal government.
1. Paul RUSESABAGINA WAS A SPY OF HABYARIMANA’S REGIME
Paul RUSESABAGINA served as the spy for the genocidal government in the hunt and persecution of Tutsi since October 1990 when the RPF-INKOTANYI launched the liberation war. One of the evidences to this is a document dated 29/11/1990 by an investigation officer in the City of Kigali to the Director General of the Central Intelligence services informing him about the report submitted by Rusesabagina.
The official told his leader that Paul Rusesabagina, the deputy manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines, had reported that a Burundian Tutsi diplomat called Habonimana Leonidas had told a Tutsi woman working at the Hotel des Mille Collines reception that the Hutu would kill Tutsi that night.
He went on to say that the diplomat also told the news to other Tutsi business women called Jeannette and Helene, urging them to flee to the Burundian Embassy in Rwanda. The Kigali City based investigation official, considering the information provided by Paul Rusesabagina, concluded by requesting the Director General of the central intelligence services that the Tutsi Burundian diplomat be expelled from Rwanda.
If Paul Rusesabagina had started betraying the Tutsi in 1990 as a spy of the government which planned the genocide, how could he be transformed in the middle of the genocide and rescue the Tutsi whom he has been betraying for all the years since 1990?
2. Paul RUSESABAGINA’S ACTIONS ARE BUILT ON HIGH LEVEL GENOCIDE IDEOLOGY
Paul RUSESABAGINA could not have saved Tutsi from the genocide and then become a high level genocide denier in a wink as he is now. He would not even save the Tutsi and then become a major FDLR member who supports them in every way possible.
In his interchanges that he delivers around the world, Paul RUSESABAGINA deliberately ignores the truth and confirms that there was double genocide in Rwanda. Paul RUSESABAGINA deliberately distorts the history and says that Tutsi fled the country in 1959 because they worked with the Colonialists. Rusesabagina has nothing to say about the massacre of Tutsi which took place between 1959-1966, and yet the massacres were first called genocide in the history of Rwanda in 1963. In his lectures, Paul RUSESABAGINA says that more than 50% of the perpetrators of the genocide who had been convicted by Rwandan courts and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) were unfairly convicted based on the fact that they are Hutu.
Paul RUSESABAGINA ignores that the Genocide against the Tutsi was approved by the United Nations and the decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and other courts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, Norway, the United States of America, Germany and France.
Some genocide perpetrators have pleaded guilty like the case of the former Prime Minister Jean Kambanda [The guilty plea of Jean Kambanda: The Prosecutor versus Jean Kambanda, case No ICTR 97-23-s; appeal chamber Case No. ICTR 97-23-A, October 2000], and many others were convicted of genocide crime under the ICTR. The tribunal also ruled in favour of the international principle which confirms that the Genocide against the Tutsi had taken place in Rwanda and that it is undisputable. [Judicial notice on the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Appeals Chamber of the ICTR, 16 June 2006, a judicial notice (ICTR-98-44-AR73 ©]
There is also the United Nations Resolution 58/234 establishing the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda [Resolution adopted by the General Assembly 58/234. International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda.4. UN Security Council].
3. PAUL RUSESABAGINA IS AN FDLR MEMBER AND SPONSOR
Testimony of dissidents of FDLR including those who were in its military leadership such as Major Vital UWUMUREMYI, Lieutenant Colonel Tharcisse NDITURENDE and others, confirms that Paul RUSESABAGINA is raising funds across countries and send them to FDLR members in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo to destabilize Rwanda.
Various international organizations such as the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, have all approved that the FDLR is considered as a terrorist group. Since November 1, 2005, among many resolutions such as Resolutions 1596 and 1896, the United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions on FDLR leaders.
In the Resolution 2150 (2014) signed on 16/4/2014, the United Nations Security Council recalled that leaders and other members of the FDLR were among the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It further reminds that FDLR members are in a militia group sanctioned by UN, continue to commit ethnic-based killings, as well as other killings in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also reminds that it is necessary to prevent FDLR gang from continuing such activities as provided for in Resolution 2098 (2013).
While punishing the two FDLR leaders, Germany had implemented the Resolution 2150 (2014) calling on all UN member states to investigate and prosecute all those accused of the Genocide against the Tutsi living on their territories without forgetting the FDLR leaders. On September 28, 2015, Germany sentenced two political leaders, Ignace MURWANASHYAKA and Straton MUSONI to thirteen (13) years and eight (8) years in prison respectively.
CONCLUSION
Paul RUSESABAGINA had no role in rescuing Tutsi in 1994. Instead, when he arrived at Hotel Mille Collines, he held a staff meeting and urged the staff to expel all room occupants who did not have payment and let them sleep in corridors. Whoever was not able to pay, Paul RUSESABAGINA forced them to sign a collateral check. During his stay as the deputy manager of the Hotel, Paul RUSESABAGINA has also been known to collaborate with senior Interahamwe leaders and ex-FAR military leaders at the forefront of the Genocide. This partnership between Paul RUSESABAGINA and higher officials of the Rwandan government that had designed and implemented by the Genocide against the Tutsi also shows who he was. (End).
* Dr BIZIMANA Jean Damascène, Executive Secretary National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide (CNLG)