Excerpted from the book Inside the Hotel Rwanda: The Surprising True Story ... and Why It Matters Today, published by BenBella Books. But the director Terry George and the screenwriter Keir Pearson unearthed his story and helped bring “Hotel Rwanda” to global screens in 2004. I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. Hotel Rwanda was the shocking true story of how the country of Rwanda disintegrated into civil strife and genocide in 1994. Rusesabagina charged them exorbitant prices for scraps even after hotel management in Brussels sent a fax demanding that all food was free to the over 1,000 trapped in the no-man's land between life and death. A hostage is a person in some form of captivity who has a perceived value in barter. It is worth noting that three days before the beginning of the genocide, Colonel Théoneste Bagosora asserted that "the only solution to the political impasse was to eliminate all the Tutsi.". If you want an account of how love can truly conquer all, read this book. -- Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire (Retired) Force Commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force for Rwanda between 1993 and 1994. The true story of Paul Rusesabagina, pictured here at the NPR West studios in Culver City, Calif., inspired the critically lauded film Hotel Rwanda. It included an interview with Rusesabagina, and screenwriter Pearson was fortuitously handed a "story" on a silver platter. Author Edouard Kayihura, with co-writer Kerry Zukus, capably expose the lies offered by Hollywood. According to the narrative, screenwriter and Harvard alum Keir Pearson told Harvard Magazine in 2005 that a friend told him about Rusesabagina, whom he had heard about while living in Tanzania in 1999. He worked as the manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali, during a period in which it housed 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees from the Interahamwe militia during the Rwandan genocide. On May 22, Ghanaian Major General Yaache, a sector commander and military observer of UNAMIR, and his humanitarian team, which included French statesman Bernard Kouchner, held an important meeting at the Hotel des Diplomates with Colonel Bagosora and the Interahamwe to officially discuss hostage transfers. Inside the Hotel Rwanda exposes Rusesabagina as a carnival barker shouting his own delusional accomplishments, and reveals a sinister genocide denier who is paid substantially for saying the genocide never took place. Reprinted by permission. With Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix, Xolani Mali. You have 4 free articles remaining this month, Sign-up to our daily newsletter for more articles like this + access to 5 extra articles. At the time, the international community did nothing and the genocide's memory leaves a stain on many consciences. But one thing we never considered ourselves to be was hostages. Or was Rusesabagina collaborating with the enemy? George and Rusesabagina join NPR's Neal Conan. Inside the Hotel Rwanda: The Surprising True Story⦠And Why It Matters Today, Inside the Hotel Rwanda: The Surprising True Story… And Why It Matters Today, Don't Boycott Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics. castrated, gagged with their own genitalia. Did he think putting her on the truck after providing the passenger manifest would protect all the refugees on board? (BenBella Books, Hardcover, March 25 2014, 240 pages). As time went on, the RPF side began collecting prisoners of war. The author invokes Jews who survived the Holocaust. In 2004, the Academy Award–nominated movie Hotel Rwanda lionized hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina for single-handedly saving the lives of all who sought refuge in the Hotel des Mille Collines during Rwanda’s genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. The book, which was written with Kerry Zukus, builds on Kayihura's memories and supplements them with testimony from other refugees – or prisoners – in the hotel. Available on Amazon. “Everyone who saw the movie Hotel Rwanda MUST read this book in which true survivors tell their story. Gradually, tension builds outside the Hotel des Mille Collines' smoothly whitewashed walls – until the president's plane is shot down, and the whole country seems to go off like a bomb. The story is about Paul Russesabinga who is a manager of a hotel. He is now the president of a Rwandan opposition party, PDR-Ihumure. I would be shot where I stood, for no one, no organized entity, was standing in the way of public killings. We may have been incrementally safer, but we were not, in fact, safe. A paperback novel published by Newmarket Press, titled Hotel Rwanda: Bringing the True Story of an African Hero to Film, released on 7 February 2005, dramatizes the events of the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, as depicted in the film, and expands on the ideas of how Rusesabagina sheltered and saved more than 1,200 people in the hotel he managed in Kigali by summarizing … Hollywood myth-making sells tickets, but does irreparable damage to the historical record. Rwanda was colonized first by the Germans and then the Belgians who took over during World War I. There was no individual "hero" of the Hotel Rwanda, and Hollywood is not the place one would expect to discern historical fact. Their book, Inside the Hotel Rwanda: The Surprising True Story…and Why It Matters Today painstakingly deconstructs Rusesabagina’s self-serving myth about what transpired. In a new book titled, “Inside the Hotel Rwanda,” a Genocide survivor, Edouard Kayihura, recounts how Rusesabagina’s self-portrayal as a real life ‘Superman’ is nothing but a folly that digs holes into the memory of Genocide survivors, especially those who maintained refuge inside Hotel des Mille Collines for most of the 100 days of the Genocide. The interim government cajoled the Interahamwe, telling them they could not kill the people in the hotel because those people would be exchanged for their members and families in the RPF zone. The film tells the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who used cunning to shelter refugees. Both promoted the Tutsis as their surrogates to rule the country. Paul Rusesabagina (Kinyarwanda: [ɾusesɑβaɟinɑ]; born 15 June 1954) is a Rwandan politician, activist and humanitarian. Kayihura is a survivor of the genocide and one of the 1,268 people who took refuge inside the hotel. The "devil" in this case included Rusesabagina's drinking partners and extremist Hutu associates. “ Inside the Hotel Rwanda reveals the real story of the events at the Hotel Mille Collines during the genocide in Rwanda. By the time Pearson found Rusesabagina, the former hotel manager was working as a taxi driver in Brussels. David Banks, NPR hide … Graffiti of Bagosora found in 2009 in building where ten Belgian UN troops were castrated, gagged with their own genitalia and then executed by Bagosora's Interahamwe (G. Nienaber). Hollywood has done this before. Read this book and feel the fear of the refugees while they listened to taunts and screaming from members of the Interahamwe who lurked outside the walls of the hotel like so many jackals circling for the kill, while the "hero" got drunk with the murderers. Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, houses over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, Africa. I know the devil exists and therefore I know there is a God. Actually, certain people within the militias and the interim government had earlier on considered taking us hostage, as a pawn in future negotiations. But it is Kayihura's account of the testimonies of hotel survivors and his own recollections that serve as a forensic blueprint for truth. Some of us wondered why Paul Rusesabagina, suspected of giving our names to RTLM hate radio, had put his own wife on one of the transports. Hotel Rwanda (2004) Plot. I have encountered buried evil while walking fields in Rwanda. He also owns homes in several countries, including one in the United States in Texas. General Romeo Dallaire (played by Nick Nolte) was reduced to a composite figure named "General Oliver." This movie gives great insight to the Rwandan genocide. And as captives in this luxurious dungeon, we had one very bad prison guard [Paul Rusesabagina], who, like many classically corrupt sentries, exploited us and treated us poorly. In the hotel, we thought of ourselves as many things: refugees, hotel employees, victims. Everyone should read this book, especially if you saw the movie Hotel Rwanda which claims to be a true story but is full of lies! RTLM radio still pumped them full of roaring hatred and murderous thoughts on a daily basis. There is a problem because Paul's wife is a Tutsi and the Hutu's have set out to kill the Tutsi. Twenty years ago this week around 1 million people died in the mass killings now known as the Rwandan genocide. This is something we all wish we had been more aware of when we spent the latter days of the genocide within the hotel compound. Part of HuffPost Entertainment. A major turning point in the war occurred on May 22 when the RPF took control of the Kanombe Military Camp, and eight hundred Rwandan soldiers and their families surrendered to General Dallaire. These people were easily led, with minds full of irrational fears and paranoia, and deep-seated personal insecurities that made them suspicious and jealous of anyone of reason or intellect. They drank and got drunk together. Like our experience in the hotel, it is not necessary that the world know our names or even that we know one another's names, but we act heroically each and every day. The hero hotel manager is exposed as a Hutu extremist and bully who stooped to stealing money from the refugees, charging them for free food offered by humanitarian organizations, cutting phone lines and threatening to turn over anyone who defied him to the genocidaires. Yes, we must forgive, but we must also nurture the memory of hate and not forget. This went into the peacekeepers' thinking when they decided their best move would be to get the refugees back to the hotel, where they could protect us until the negotiations were further along. The head of a brown, mallow-sweet femur trips the body and impales the soul, and the urge is to bury the hate and anger along with the bone. Inside the Hotel Rwanda is a heroic book, written as the tide of genocide denial grows stronger everyday. Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, houses over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, Africa. He handed them over to the Red Cross, which handed them over to the RPF and oversaw their captivity. The movie needed a hero, but why choose the duplicitous, cowardly Rusesabagina? I recall General Dallaire's book, Shake Hands With the Devil. Copyright © 2014. Rusesabagina drank expensive wine with the devil's handymen while God watched. In a wartime situation, it is as a trading chip for other hostages. The Toronto Film Festival Audience Award winner, Hotel Rwanda tells the story of the Oskar Schindler-like Paul Rusesabagina, an ethnic Hutu hotel manager in Kigali who is supposed to have saved the lives of more than 1,200 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, who sought refuge at his property while the genocide was taking place. But was hope just a mirage? Hotel Rwanda. We sweep it under the rug, terrified of the emotions that evil unearths. Terrorism prosecution for one who inspired ‘Hotel Rwanda’ begins. To continue reading login or create an account. Yet at the time it was all happening, we were mostly kept in the dark regarding the political intrigue going on around us and involving us. He speaks of Elie Wiesel and Simon Wiesenthal who looked upon atrocity as a "call to give back.". The tenor had not changed since April 6. Inside the Hotel Rwanda is a riveting account of the tenacity of survivors in the face of evil. On Wednesday, the terrorist trial of the man who inspired the movie “Hotel Rwanda” started with his claim that he should not be prosecuted by a... More Posts. Yet there were those among us still nursing their wounds from the beatings they took at Sopecya Station. “This … Guests: Terry George, wrote and directed the movie Hotel Rwanda, about the genocide that took place Rwanda in 1994. Inside the Hotel Rwanda is at once a harrowing memoir, a critical deconstruction of a heralded Hollywood movie, and a political analysis aimed at exposing a falsely created public image. This book will stir the emotions of anyone who has ties with Rwanda and it should be taken very, very seriously. Inside the Hotel Rwanda: The Surprising True Story... and Why It Matters Today revisits the terrible days of April 1994 through the testimonies of those who took refuge in the once up-scale hotel that was reduced to a refugee camp where the only water came from the chlorinated swimming pool. They were the hate-filled bigots of our nation, now fully immersed in government-sanctioned violence. The UN peacekeepers felt if this was allowed before any formal agreement for peace or a cease-fire had already been reached, the prisoner exchange would be imbalanced. April 6 will mark the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. At times we considered ourselves prisoners—glad to be alive, but at the same time stuck inside this building with nowhere else to go. In his new book Inside the Hotel Rwanda: The Surprising True Story… And Why It Matters Today (Benbella Books), Edouard Kayihura attempts to set the record straight. Americans are afraid of extreme emotion, but it serves the purpose of forcing us to confront evil. Paul with the help of the United Nation is doing their best to prevent conflict from occuring. Tap here to turn on desktop notifications to get the news sent straight to you. ©2021 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. None of these refugees were hurt or killed during the attacks. Rusesabagina shared a lot with General (Augustin) Bizimungu, Georges Rutaganda, and Colonel Bagosora during the entire period of the genocide. Learn how the refugees shared last scraps of food and hid cookies found in the hotel storerooms. Since then Rusesabagina has been compared to Oskar Schindler and Gandhi, commands high fees as a speaker, and has established a foundation. Get angry over the beer and wine that Rusesabagina shared openly with murderous genocidaires who visited with him regularly in full view of the refugees who were drinking poisonous swimming pool water out of garbage pails. Whoever had hostages—especially higher-profile ones—would already have the upper hand in any negotiation. In doing so (the survivors), we become like heroes, heroes a billion strong. Had he been identified, he would have been marked for death and his body added to those stacked like cordwood alongside roads and in ditches. Now, Hotel Rwanda survivor Edouard Kayihura has collaborated with journalist Kerry Zukus to set the record straight once and for all. Meanwhile, we at the hotel, deep within Hutu Power/FAR territory and many of us simpatico to the RPF cause, provided a bargaining chip for the FAR to use in getting some of their people back from the RPF. Writer and Author with special interest in international issues. Generation X believes that Oliver Stone's conspiracy film JFK is fact rather than creative speculation, and Gorillas in the Mist did tremendous damage to the reputation of Dian Fossey, inventing events that never occurred. The RPF controlled the Amahoro National Stadium in Kigali and used it as an internment camp. But the story of a heroic hotelier, Oskar Schindler-like protecting his guests, is not quite what it seems. The story of the hotel was immortalized in a much-celebrated 2004 Hollywood movie. Likewise, people ask, is the movie Hotel Rwanda a true story? It is a reenactment of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which some of the most vicious atrocities in human history took place. Many of the killers who marched under the Hutu Power banner were now corralled there or else had friends who were there. I f true, the story of Paul Rusesabagina, as told in the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, would be truly inspirational. All of the explicit testimony and the detailed human tragedy cannot overcome the mythmaking Hollywood machine, but in the hands of thoughtful readers it can offer a roadmap for humanity and compassion.