‘Hotel Rwanda’ figure tells of genocide

ORONO – Paul Rusesabagina, the real-life hero depicted in the film “Hotel Rwanda,” shared his experiences and recollections of the Rwandan genocide with students at a nearly full Maine Center for the Arts Monday night.

Before he spoke, however, more than a dozen members of Maine’s Rwandan community protested outside the MCA, claiming Rusesabagina was using his newfound fame for personal gain.

Despite their protest, some of the Rwandans later entered the facility and listened to the speech without making any attempts to disrupt it.

After explaining a brief history of Rwanda, and the events leading to the genocide in 1994 where about 800,000 people were killed in less than 100 days, Rusesabagina told the audience of his methods and troubles as an assistant hotel manager trying to save more than 1,200 refugees from being slaughtered by the relentless Hutu militia.

As a manager at the Mille Collines Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda, Rusesabagina sheltered Tutsis and some moderate Hutus for 71 days using words and deception to keep the militia from killing them all.

“I believe in the power of words,” Rusesabagina said. “You can save a life with words and you can kill with words.”

The refugees, along with Rusesabagina used the hotel’s pool for drinking water, and scrounged for food.

In his speech, he recalled seeing beheaded and mutilated bodies on the side of the road while attempting to shuttle a van full of people, including his family to the hotel.

He was stopped by militia and told to kill the Tutsi “cockroaches.” With some negotiating, though, no one was hurt and they were allowed to move on. In another instance, Rusesabagina witnessed rebels drinking beers on top of piles of dead bodies.

“What we went through, what we saw was a total disaster,” Rusesabagina said. “The world was upside down.”

Rusesabagina even had the opportunity to leave the hotel, but he could not leave behind the 1,260 Rwandans inside to suffer a brutal death.

“If all these refugees are killed, I will never be a free man,” he told his wife in 1994. “I will be a prisoner of myself.”

But some members of Maine’s Rwandan community weren’t on the same page with Rusesabagina. Before the speech, about 15 Hutus and Tutsis gathered in front of the MCA to protest recent statements and actions by Rusesabagina.

The group felt that Rusesabagina was using his new fame for his own personal agenda and were angry that he recently predicted another genocide would happen.

Pierott Rugaba, who represented the group from Portland, held a sign that read, “Genocide is not simply about the physical elimination of a people. It is also about the intention to erase them from the collective memory of human life.”

The protestors, braving the frigid weather, made it clear that they were not speaking against the movie and its humanity.

“We are not protesting against the movie,” Rugaba said. “I have no problem with it.”

Rugaba later said, “He’s using his fame from Rwanda. Rwanda does not need it. We’ve suffered too much.”