HRRF Reports
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
The HRRF helps celebrate “Join Me on the Bridge,” sponsored by Women for Women International.
Friday, August 7th, 2009
The Cork Independent reports:
The man who inspired the hit movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’ will visit Kinsale at the beginning of September. Paul Rusesabagina, who has been commended by US President Barack Obama, was the manager of a hotel in Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide of 2004. He helped save the lives of over 1,200 people by protecting them and feeding them while outside his Hotel Des Mille over 800,000 people were massacred.
He will be in Kinsale on Wednesday, 2 and Thursday 3 September to tell his amazing story. Paul will meet Kinsale Peace Project members, Pádraig Fitzgerald and Gerard Timmons who will bring him to visit Summercove National School and Kinsale Community Secondary School.
The Irish Examiner also reports:
THE man who saved more than 1,200 people during one of the world’s worst genocides will visit Ireland for the first time next month.
Paul Rusesabagina, 55, was working in the hotel industry in Rwanda during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
He was the assistant manager of the Sabena Hôtel des Mille Collines before he became the manager of the Hôtel des Diplomates, in Kigali.
During the genocide, he used his influence and connections as temporary manager of the Mille Collines to shelter and feed 1,268 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from being slaughtered by a force of marauding militia. Up to 80,000 were killed in the slaughter.
His efforts inspired the Academy Award-nominated movie, Hotel Rwanda, released in 2004, in which he was played by Don Cheadle.
Mr Rusesabagina will arrive in Ireland in early September following an invite by members of the Kinsale Peace Project.
“We are delighted Mr Rusesabagina agreed to accept our invitation in this, the 15th anniversary year of the genocide,” peace project member Padraig Fitzgerald said.
Mr Rusesabagina will arrive in Ireland on September 2 and will visit Dublin, where he will meet politicians, before visiting Belfast to meet peace groups from across the community.
Then he will return to Kinsale where he will talk about his life and his charity which cares for Rwandan orphans, at a free lecture at the Friary Centre at Kinsale’s Carmelite College at 8pm on September 2.
Mr Fitzgerald and fellow peace project member Gerard Timmons will then bring him to visit Summercove National School and Kinsale Community School the following day where he will talk to schoolchildren.
Mr Rusesabagina has been internationally honoured for saving a total of 1,268 lives during the genocide.
He was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by the former president of the United States, George W Bush in 2005. It is one of the highest civilian awards in the US.
Mr Rusesabagina lives in Belgium with his wife, children, and two adopted nieces.
Friday, February 20th, 2009
We have recently posted a report commemorating the life of Alison Des Forges.
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
Today Hotel Rwanda humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina sent an open letter to President Barack Obama about the humanitarian catastrophe in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rusesabagina asked President Obama to stave off the next chapter of the worsening situation in the Congo and to take action, in coordination with the international community, to save the lives of innocent people. (more…)
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
For Immediate Release Contact: Kitty Kurth
January 17, 2009 Phone: (312) 617-7288
. Email: kitty@kurthlampe.com
Last night in Minneapolis, Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation’s Paul Rusesabagina, the humanitarian whose story was featured in the movie Hotel Rwanda, warned of the ever more dangerous situation in the Congo. Rusesabagina praised the governments of Sweden and the Netherlands for cutting aid to Rwanda because the Rwandan government is supporting rebel forces in the Congo.
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Paul Rusesabagina said, “This situation in the Congo is growing worse daily, and the international community needs to act to try to prevent the violence from growing. After the Rwandan genocide, the world said never again, but I fear that the war in the Congo is getting worse not better. I commend the actions of Sweden and the Netherlands and urge the other countries of the EU and the United States to follow their lead.”
Sweden and the Netherlands took their actions after last month’s Security Council report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (S/2008/773) which provided concrete evidence of what has been common knowledge for many years – that Rwanda is fighting a proxy war in the neighboring Congo.
Rwanda’s support of Laurent Nkunda and his rebel group, the National Congress for Defense of the People (CNDP) has been known for some time by those who focus on Rwanda and Congo. This new report is particularly important for its timing though. Recent estimates suggest that more than 250,000 people have been killed or displaced in the fighting along the Rwanda border in eastern Congo.
Last month, Rusesabagina had visited governmental officials and NGO’s in Sweden and Norway to talk about the situation in the Congo and the African Great Lakes region. During that trip, Rusesabagina emphasized the need for dialogue through an internationally sanctioned Truth and Reconciliation Commission to try to build a sustainable peace in Rwanda, Burundi, the Congo and the Great Lakes region; and applauded the Security Council’s report. Shortly after his visit, Sweden and the Netherlands rescinded their support of the Rwandan government.
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Background
Nkunda, who fought side-by-side with Rwandan President Paul Kagame in 1994, stands accused of war crimes by the international community. The report states that Rwandan authorities “have been complicit in the recruitment of soldiers, including children, have facilitated the supply of military equipment and have sent officers and units” to help Nkunda. CNDP rebel forces use Rwanda as “a rear base for fundraising meetings and bank accounts,” the report said.
Rwandan involvement in the Congo is driven by two causes: power and money. What is also now becoming clear to the international community is that this is a proxy war over resources. This area in the Congo is home to incredible resource wealth, including some of the world’s largest deposit of cobalt and coltan, used in cell phones and other hi-tech equipment. The fight is in large part of control of these minerals, valued in the millions of dollars each year. Rebels ship these minerals out through Rwanda, thus financing both the war and the Rwandan government.
Also, for Kagame, the refugees living in and around the conflict area in eastern Congo are a potential source of opposition to his regime that cannot be tolerated. Unfortunately, killings and atrocities are acceptable means of stopping potential future opposition in Rwanda, and the CNDP is used as a proxy for this cause.
This is another example of the actions of the undemocratic government of Rwanda. Not only is opposition suppressed in the country, but the government will take whatever actions it deems necessary to eliminate potential future sources of opposition, even when it greatly contributes to regional instability and bloodshed.
Facts like these have been reported to the Council three times before starting in 2001.
Rusesabagina said, “Perhaps now that the bloodshed has increased again, the world will listen.”
“Rwandan history has been a dance of Hutus killing Tutsis and then Tutsis killing Hutus that has now spread in to the Congo. A regional Truth and Reconciliation Commission is needed now to break this cycle of violence and to create a sustainable peace for all of people in the African Great Lakes region,” according to Rusesabagina.
The Rwandan government, as expected, rejected the panel’s critiques out of hand. Kagames’s government denies all responsibility for their own actions in the Congo conflict. They portray any criticism as something between “lies” and “dangerous inaccuracies,” while suggesting that the critics are obviously biased against Rwanda. This flies in the face of the numerous credible sources cited by the expert UN panel, including former combatants and officers of the CNDP, members of the business community, regional intelligence officers and local eyewitnesses.
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Link to the UN Report:
http://www.humansecuritygateway.info/documents/UN_S2008773_DRCGroupOfExperts_FinalReport.pdf
Link to the Belgian International Radio Television channel (RTBF) story: http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/de-jeunes-hutu-joignent-les-fdlr-pour-fuir-loppression-de-kigali-60789
Link to an AP story:
UN report says Rwanda and Congo fighting proxy war
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gtkUAo1XvfmB3rBCjTlq5DvibzAgD951H4D01
Link to a Voice of America story:
UN Report Finds Evidence of Rwandan Aid to DRC Rebels
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-12-13-voa3.cfm
Link to a Bloomberg.com story:
Rwanda Backing Nkunda’s Rebel Army in Eastern Congo, UN Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=arQEaPf6axss&refer=africa