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Paul Rusesabagina (born 15 June 1954) is a Rwandan humanitarian known for hiding and protecting 1,268 refugees during the Rwandan Genocide, none of those refugees were hurt or killed during the attacks. He was the assistant manager of the Sabena Hôtel des Mille Collines before he became the manager of the Hôtel des Diplomates, both in Kigali, Rwanda. During the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, Rusesabagina used his influence and connections as temporary manager of the 'Mille Collines' to shelter 1,268 Tutsis and Hutus from being slaughtered by the Interahamwe militia.

Rusesabagina's efforts were the basis of the Academy Award nominated film Hotel Rwanda (2004). He currently lives in Brussels, Belgium with his wife, four children, and two adopted nieces.

Birth and career
Rusesabagina was born on July 15, 1954 to his Hutu father and Tutsi mother in Murama, Rwanda. He had eight other siblings and was neither the oldest nor the youngest. It was common for there to be mixed families despite the conflicts between Hutu and Tutsi; but like other families, Paul and his family did not care of their supposed differences.

As a cultural tradition he did not have the same surname as his father; his father gave him the surname Rusesabagina, which means ‘warrior that disperses the enemies’ in his native language, Kinyarwanda. At the age of thirteen at the time of his baptism on September 13, 1967, he was able to new first name for himself, another aspect of traditional Rwanda culture. He chose the name ‘Paul,’ which was after the “communicator of the New Testament.”

His parents sent him to school in a town near Gitwe; a school that was run by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. By the age of eight, he could read and speak French and by thirteen he could speak and read English. Paul’s developed the nature of protecting others as a child when his family gave shelter to refugees during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s that was developing between the Hutu and Tutsi. By the end of his teenage years, Rusesabagina wanted to pursue his interest in the church to go to seminary to become a minister. He became interested in the daughter of the African pastor if Seventh-day Adventist Church, Reverend Sembeba. Her name was Esther, and on September 8, 1967 they married and he began attending the Faculty of Theology in the nation of Cameroon to become a minister. This dream was short-lived, for he always wanted to be able to live in the large city of Kigali, and he was worried he would be stuck as a priest in a small village without the ability to get to preach in the prestigious ministry positioning in Kigali. So in December 1978, he, his wife, and two children moved to Kigali.

When in Kigali, a childhood friend of the name Isaac Mulihano told Rusesabagina to work with him at the Milles Collines for they happened to have an opening. It was then that Rusesabagina found his true calling, and he used his languages and hard work to work up to general managaer and was given a free scholarship to the hospitality program in Nairobi. There he learned the differences in fine foods and wines. He later was sent to Switzerland and Brussels where he learned more about food, wine, bookkeeping, providing courtesies, payroll management, how to plan institutional goals, and how to hire and fire workers. However, his constant work separated him and his wife Esther in 1981 but was allowed to have complete custody of their three children: Diane, Lys, and Roger.

In 1987, he was invited to a wedding and found himself staring at the maid of honor whose name was Tatiana and she was working as a nurse in Ruhengeri. She was a Tutsi but Paul did not care and wanted to help her escape the prejudices from her workplace. He pulled some strings and obtained a favor from a frequent customer of the Milles Collines. He asked the minister of health and was able to get Tatiana a transfer to Central Hospital in Kigali. Tatiana and Paul married two years later and she adopted his children and then they had their own, named Tresor.

In 1992 He was promoted to assistant general manager of the sister hotel of Milles Collines named the Diplomates Hotel; these hotels were owned by the Swiss-Belgian Sabena conglomerate. At these hotels he networked with important capital guests. He would instead of staying in his office during the day, would go and talk with officials and get to know them, making beneficial contacts.

Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 was not the first account of conflict between the two ethnic groups; Hutu and Tutsi. In Rwanda the Hutu were considered the traditional farmers and the Tutsi were the considered the ruling class of Rwanda.

During the Berlin Conference, Germany obtained Burundi and Rwanda between 1884 and 1885; the Tutsi remained the highest power because they already had power and they had lighter skin like other Europeans. It took a total of thirteen years to generate an administrative office for Rwanda.

After World War I Belgium gained Rwanda as a territory. The Belgium’s fueled to the Hutu and Tutsi conflict when they took measurements of the noses of Rwandan citizens in 1933; this was to verify between Hutu and Tutsi. Tutsi were permitted to an independent self-government by 1959, which was frowned upon by some Hutu because they were afraid that the Tutsi would try to further control after the Belgians left. Rumors arose that the Belgians assassinated the king in 1959 from Hutu civilians due to their disgruntled opinion of the separation of power; this was further considered the Hutu revolution. Various expressions of extreme dislike for the Tutsi occurred after the Hutu Revolution of 1959.

Problems between these ethnic groups have started in the 1950's and around 1959 thousands of Tutsi where pushed out to other countries from the generation of the Hutu social revolution that overthrew the royal Tutsi government during that time. In the 1960’s the Tutsi guerilla warfare continued and after that ended in the mid 1960’s, anti-Tutsi programs were enforced in Rwanda and caused Tutsi people to flee in 1963 and 1964.In the 1960’s the Tutsi guerilla warfare continued and after that ended in the mid 1960’s, anti-Tutsi programs were enforced in Rwanda and caused Tutsi people to flee in 1963 and 1964.

Due to reoccurring rapes and killings, Tutsi civilians fled to Uganda and then Paul Kagame developed the Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1985 for Tutsi rights. This posed most controversial to Hutu government and caused further civil war. By October 1, 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front began a civil war that consisted of the Tutsi refugees invading Rwanda from Uganda, which later resulted in hundreds of Tutsi arrests. In April 1991, the National Republican Movement of Democracy and Development] approved a multiparty system and in Novmeber that same year it generated a youth wing known as Interahamwe, which developed into a milita group. In March 1992, 300 Tutsi were massacred outside Kigali; but in 1993, Arrusha Accords were signed, which deducted Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana’s powers. Hutu nationalism increased due to these conflicts in October 1993, UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda) was generated. However conflict arose again in October 21, 1993 when Tutsi solders assassinated the first Hutu president and this resulted in violence, death, and a non-functioning/corrupt government.

In Rwanda, while Paul was receiving his extra education in Nairobi, Switzerland, and Brussels, the Hutu-dominated government of President Juvenal Habyarimana faced prejudices and pressure from a Tutsi-led rebel force as they tried to maintain their power. Machetes were ordered and brought to the capital and given to the Interahamwe; while Tutsi were being discriminated against and a rumor brought on by a radio station RTLM explained that the Tutsi wanted to kill all the Hutus.

On April 6, 1994, President Habyarimana’s (Hutu Burundian president) plane was shot down by missiles going into Kigali; with him was Rwandan army chief of staff and head of presidential security. The Rwandan Genocide started on April 6, 1994. On April 7, 1994 the Presidential guard assassinated Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana along with many Hutu ministers, others from the democratic opposition, and ten Belgian peacekeepers. Interhamwe hunted down Tutsi and began killing them start of genocide. Rusesabagina was Hutu – his mother was a Tutsi and father was a Hutu. His wife Tatiana was a Tutsi, from this their children were considered mixed. Due to this, he was unable to escape the war zone with his family without outside help. On April 11 Belgium withdrew peacekeepers and by April 15 the UN security withdrew international forces and it went from 2500 troops to 270 troops. No foreign aid came from the United Nations or its more powerful Western member states, the United States of America until after over 800,000 Rwandans had been murdered.By July 4 Rwandan Patriotic Front seized control of the capital and by July 17 Rwandan armed forces were defeated.

When the violence broke out, Rusesabagina brought his family to the Hôtel des Mille Collines for safety. As other managers departed, Rusesabagina phoned the hotel's corporate owners, Sabena, and secured a letter appointing him the acting general manager of the Mille Collines. Despite some difficulty in getting the staff to accept his authority, he was able to use his position to shelter orphans and other refugees who came to the hotel. His neighbours had moved into his house for safety, though Rusesabagina did not even own a gun. For protection against bullets and grenades they put mattresses against the windows. He described the hardships they faced, which included having to drink the water from the hotel's swimming pool.

When a murderous Hutu militia threatened to enter the Mille Collines, Rusesabagina ensured that his wife and children fled safely in a truck past the militia's roadblocks. The truck set out for Kigali airport so they could flee to another country. He himself remained in the hotel because the refugees needed him. Rusesabagina and his wife discussed this decision for hours, because he had promised her he would never leave her in this situation. Rusesabagina wanted to stay, fearing the remaining refugees would be killed and feeling that he would never be able to forgive himself.

Tatiana was a specific target for the brutal attack because she was the wife of the manager of the Mille Collines, who was hiding and trying to protect the over 1,200 people; the Hutu militia knew she and her children were in the truck owing to radio messages sent out by presenter Georges Ruggiu. Ruggiu was an Italian-Belgian who was part of the radio station conspiracy to incite ethnic tension and encourage the Hutu population to kill all the Tutsis. Ruggiu called Rusesabagina's family "cockroaches who were fleeing, but would return later to kill all the Hutus".

Tatiana's family faced extreme tragedy. Her mother, and 4 nieces and nephews, died in the genocide and her brother and sister-in-law are missing. Her father paid Hutu militia to be executed so he would not die a more painful death:

"We all knew we would die, no question. The only question was how. Would they chop us in pieces? With their machetes they would cut your left hand off. Then they would disappear and reappear a few hours later to cut off your right hand. A little later they would return for your left leg etc. They went on till you died. They wanted to make you suffer as long as possible. There was one alternative: you could pay soldiers so they would just shoot you. That's what her [Tatiana's] father did."

- Paul Rusesabagina in Humo, nr. 3365, March 1, 2005

The Interhamwe left nearly 1 million corpses behind. Tutsi rebels pushed the Hutus into the Congo in July 1994, after over half of the Tutsis in Rwanda had been murdered. Rusesabagina took orphans from the camp behind Tutsi rebel lines with him to Tanzania, to keep them safe and away from Rwanda. By the end of the massacre, four of his eight siblings remained alive. He comments in his autobiography that “For a Rwandan family, this is a comparatively lucky outcome”

Rusesabagina, his wife and children, and the refugees eventually managed to escape to Tanzania, thanks to the Rwandan Patriotic Front. After staying in Rwanda for two more years, Rusesabagina applied for asylum in Belgium and moved to Brussels in 1996 after receiving credible threats on his life. He moved to Brussels, Belgium with his wife, children, and his two nieces.

Rusesabagina's Acts
During the Genocide, Paul made countless acts for trying to protect his refugees and family. When milita captains would come to decree an want for the Tutsi refugees, Paul would slip away and come back to them with money, the finest alcohols, and cigars to persuade them to leave. Most of those persuasions were also aided by copious phone calls to city heads that Rusesabagina had developed tight contacts with, during their stays at the hotels that he managed; those city heads he would call would aid in his hotel's protection from massacre, but only for a short time, for the militia was persistent.

He smuggled his family and 32 neighbors in the beginning of the attacks to save them from brutal massacre; Paul recounts when he woke up one morning to see neighbors dead and some neighbors holding machetes covered in blood. For those 1,268 refugees he made calls to smuggle in food and when the water supply was taken away, Paul gave his guests water from the pool so that they wouldn't dehydrate and die. He stayed awake until late the next morning, even stay to 5am using the only phone line the militia didn't cut and sent faxes and pleas to important heads, including Bill Clinton and King of Belgium.[3]

Paul's number one priority was to help his guests where he constantly said that he was simply doing his job as a hotel manager.

Rusesabagina and his immediate family remained in Rwanda for just over two years following the genocide. In 1996, they moved to Belgium, where he applied for political asylum. While in Brussels he bought a cab and was later able to buy several more and develop his own cab company. Soon he bought a trucking company in Zambia. He uses his trucking company to deliver necessities and goofs to rural villages in Zambia.

In his autobiography, Rusesabagina explains that “We may have left Rwanda, but Rwanda will never leave us.” This showing that the genocide will forever haunt him, his family, and those other victims of the genocide.

Timeline of Rwandan Genocide Events

 * April 6, 1994 – President Habyarimana’s (Hutu Burundian president) plane was shot down by missiles going into Kigali along with the Rwandan army chief of staff and head of presidential security
 * April 7 – Presidential guard assassinated Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. Interhamwe hunted down Tutsi and began killing them: start of genocide
 * April 9 - The Rwandan Army arrives at Rusesabagina’s house, and demands that Paul come and opens the Diplomates, since he is the manager. Paul brings 32 ‘’family members’’ with him, but eventually the Army general catches on to his ploy. Rusesabagina ultimately negotiates a price to pay for them all (one million French francs) in order so that they aren’t killed and end up safe inside the Diplomates.
 * April 11 – Belgium withdrew peacekeepers
 * April 12 - Rusesabagina is then named official interim manager of the Mille Collines in order that he can retrieve the master keys to the hotel
 * April 15 – UN security withdrew international forces; went from 2500 troops to 270 troops. Rusesabagina ordered for hotel protection in an interview with a Belgian newspaper at the Mille Collines luxury hotel where he was hotel manager of  Rwandan authorities provided National Police at the hotel
 * April 16 - Rusesabagina requests for security from the UN General Romeo Dallaire but it failed
 * April 23 - Department of Military Intelligence, named Iyakamuremye, ordered for a half hour for Rusesabagina to turn out everyone. The hotel surrounded by military and militia so he called influential persons abroad. The calls were relayed to representatives of Sabena. One of the foreign authorities called from the hotel was the Director General of the French Foreign Ministry; a colonel from the National Police arrived and made the lieutenant leave.
 * May 13 - a captain arrived in the morning and warned there would be an attack on the hotel would occur later the afternoon but the attack never took place.
 * May 3 - The UN attempts to evacuate the Mille Collines as a part of the deal with the Hutu government and only those with invitations from people abroad could leave the hotel in the UN trucks. Rusesabagina compiles a list of those specific people, which included his own family but he decides to stay at the hotel to protect the refugees. The UN envoy is attacked shortly after leaving the hotel but they succeed in getting back to the hotel.
 * May 13 - Rwandan Army Intelligence Agent meets with Rusesabagina and is told that later that afternoon there will be an attack on the hotel. Rusesabagina frantically made calls and later that night there was a rocket that shot through the hotel just above the second floor; no one was injured.
 * May 26 - A second attempt at an evacuation of select refugees is made, but instead of going to the airport, the destination, this time around, is a hill behind RPF lines. It is a more organized effort than the first, and ultimately is successful. Paul’s family, this time, does not leaves with the convoy, because Paul does not trust the UN or the rebels to protect them after the first botched attempt.
 * June 17 - Rusesabagina leaves the hotel to meet with General Bizimungu; he is a commander of the National Police at the Diplomates hotel. They receive news the Rwandan militia and Interahamwe had entered the Mille Collines. Bizimungu and Rusesabagina go back and Bizimungu ordered to halt the mass execution. The militia reluctantly followed Bizimungu’s orders and filed out of the hotel for the last time. This resulted in a joint order provided by the UN, RPF, and Rwandan Army that ordered an evacuation of the hotel.
 * June 18 - The Hotel Mille Collines was evacuated and not one person that was a refugee was killed or harmed in any way by militia.
 * 1996 – Paul and his family leave for Brussels, Belgium to have a new life.

Awards Received

 * 2000 – Receives Immortal Chaplains Prize for Humanity.[2]
 * 2005 – Receives Wallenberg Medal of the University of Michigan
 * 2005 – Receives National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award
 * 2005 – Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom[3]
 * 2007 – Receives Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Guelph
 * 2008 – Receives Honorary Degree from Gustavus Adolphus College [1]
 * 2009 – Receives Honorary Degree from Loyola University Chicago, at the Bachelor of Arts Commencement
 * 2011 - Receives the 2011 Tom Lantos Human Rights Prize from The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice

Books
His story was first told in Phillip Gourevitch's book "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families," which was published in 1998.

Autobiography
His autobiography entitled An Ordinary Man (written with Tom Zoellner ISBN 0-670-03752-4) was published by Zach Bell in April 2006.

Film
Paul's work is dramatized in the 2004 movie Hotel Rwanda in which he is played by Don Cheadle. There are few differences with the actual story.


 * Tatiana Rusesabagina was not in fact angry about Paul putting her and her children on a truck to escape the Hôtel des Mille Collines but was instead sad about the decision—which she nevertheless accepted due to the circumstances. Paul did not make his decision at the last moment, but rather he discussed the matter with Tatiana and the children the night before they attempted the evacuation.


 * Paul and his family did leave Rwanda two years after they escaped the Hôtel des Mille Collines.


 * Paul Rusesabagina said in a lecture that the film was "less violent" than the actual genocide, claiming that "you couldn't invite someone to watch the real thing."

Feud with Paul Kagame
Rusesabagina and Rwandan president and former head of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) Paul Kagame have become public enemies of each other. In his autobiography, Rusesabagina alleges "Rwanda is today a nation governed by and for the benefit of a small group of elite Tutsis...Those few Hutus who have been elevated to high-ranking posts are usually empty suits without any real authority of their own. They are known locally as Hutus de service or Hutus for hire." He has also criticized Kagame's election to president.

On April 6, 2006, Kagame suggested, "[Rusesabagina] should try his talents elsewhere and not climb on the falsehood of being a hero, because it's totally false." Francois Xavier Ngarambe, the president of Ibuka, the umbrella body of survivors' associations for the genocide, said of Rusesabagina, "he has hijacked heroism. He is trading with the genocide. He should be charged." Terry George, the director of Hotel Rwanda, characterized the comment as part of a smear campaign.

In 2008, the book Hotel Rwanda or the Tutsi Genocide as seen by Hollywood, by Alfred Ndahiro, a public relations advisor to Kagame and journalist Privat Rutazibwa, was published. It provides an alternative take to the portrayal of Rusesabagina's actions as seen in Hotel Rwanda. Rusesabagina issued a response to the charges of the book, which in turn was responded to.

Rusesabagina has consistently denied allegations put forward by the Rwandan government accusing Rusesabagina of helping the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a Rwandan rebel group. In a 2010 interview with CNN Rusesabagina said :"I have sent no money to terrorists ... He [the prosecutor] is not only lying, but lying with bad logic.....This is pure and simple fabrication from Kigali."