A message from Paul Rusesabagina

CHICAGO - April 5, 2024 - PRLog -- On April 7th, we will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, one of the worst events in human history. I join my fellow Rwandans around the world in grieving those terrible events. 800,000 people were killed during those horrific three months, family and friends, and all Rwandans were deeply wounded. I have worked all of my life since that time to tell the world about the genocide, but also to make sure that we understand that human rights violations continue in Rwanda through today.

Given the current conditions in Rwanda, I am sad and deeply disappointed in the Biden administration's decision to send a high-level U.S. delegation - led by former President Bill Clinton - to Kigali.

Today, the Rwandan government continues to commit enormous human rights violations. These have been widely covered in the media and noted by the U.N. and President Biden's own State Department. In particular, Rwanda's ongoing, open invasion of the Congo has led to millions of innocent deaths.

Since 1996 Rwanda has never stopped killing Congolese. As you read this letter today, the killing continues. According to the U.N. DRC Mapping Exercise Report, Rwanda has killed over 400,000 Rwandan refugees and millions of Congolese, simply because they were born in a country with minerals.

While commemorating the atrocities of 1994, the Rwandan government will use this event in another attempt to cover up their current crimes. I cannot understand the U.S. participating in Rwanda's public relations stunts as these atrocities continue.

During the 1994 genocide, I sheltered 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees in the Hôtel des Mille Collines. In my greatest moments of desperation, when armed mobs came to kill us, I called President Clinton at the White House and pleaded for help. He didn't pick up the phone because it was easier to look the other way while Africans were being killed.

Mr. Clinton later offered an apology for American inaction during the genocide. He said, "Never again must we be shy in the face of the evidence." To Mr. Clinton, I say, all you have to do is open your eyes and the evidence of ongoing human rights atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo by Rwandan troops and proxy forces will be there, confirmed by American satellite intelligence.

In 2020, the Rwandan government lured me from the U.S. and kidnapped me only because I was a humanitarian critic of their regime. I was tortured, imprisoned, and subjected to a show trial. After two years and seven months of international outcry, President Biden intervened to secure my release. I owe him my life. When President Biden freed me from that Rwandan prison, he stood up for America's greatest ideals of human rights.

By sending a delegation to Rwanda now, President Biden is offering the killers in Rwanda a great gift on a platter. If the U.S. was serious about learning a lesson from the 1994 genocide, they would condemn Rwanda's ongoing violence and human rights atrocities, both inside that country and in the DRC, no matter the political inconvenience.

Please join me in respecting the enormous loss of life in 1994 by fighting against the injustices occurring now.