AMSTERDAM (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2021) The Rwandan ambassador to the Netherlands, Olivier Nduhungirehe, has criticized the European Parliament's attack on the eastern African nation's government for convicting Hollywood movie hero Paul Rusesabagina on terror charges, saying European lawmakers ignored a bulk of evidence against him because of his celebrity status.
Rusesabagina was the main protagonist of an Oscar-nominated movie, Hotel Rwanda, portraying his efforts as a hotel manager to save ethnic Tutsi guests from massacre by Hutu extremists during the 1994 genocide. A Belgian citizen and a US resident, the 67-year-old was flown back to Rwanda in 2020 and sentenced to 25 years in prison in September over his links to a violent Rwandese militant group.
The European Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority in early October to condemn what it called a politically motivated trial, illegal arrest and conviction of a human rights defender and demanded his immediate release and repatriation to Belgium.
"The reaction of the European parliament on the Paul Rusesabagina case is disingenuous and a bit condescending because they are requesting for the release of Paul Rusesabagina for mainly two reasons: first they say that he is a Belgian citizen and therefore a European citizen and that he should be released, and secondly they say that he is a hero," Nduhungirehe told Sputnik.
The diplomat argued that Rusesabagina was a dual citizen, having never renounced his Rwandese nationality, and, regardless of his citizenship, he should in any case be held accountable for the crimes committed on Rwandan soil against Rwandan civilians. As for his heroics, Nduhungirehe said this was refuted by the very people who took refuge at the Hotel des Mille Collines, which inspired the Hollywood movie, but stressed that his acts during the genocide were not on trial anyway.
"What is very difficult for us is that in this whole story, the victims are completely ignored. Nobody knows them, they are not Hollywood celebrities... But we have MEPs who don't even know about the real nature of Rusesabagina and his forces, who are just urging us to release Paul Rusesabagina, and this is unacceptable from Rwandans' perspective, because the lives of our citizens matter," the diplomat said.
He pointed to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said in October that the EU's executive body was aware of concerns about due process in Rusesabagina's trial but urged the European Parliament not to lose sight of the serious allegations against the man and the body of evidence presented by the Rwandan prosecution, the most important of them being collected with the support of security and judicial authorities of Belgium, an EU member State.
Rwandan prosecutors argued that Rusesabagina went on to lead an opposition coalition in exile in 2009, whose armed wing, the National Liberation Front, carried out attacks on civilians in 2018 and 2019, killing nine people, including two teenagers of 13 and 17. Rusesabagina made public calls in support of the group and reportedly admitted sending it money.
