To Orwell Today,

Hello Orwell,

I found your details on the internet. Having seen the film: 'Hotel Rwanda' a few nights ago, I am trying to find out the connection between the European countries of France and Belgium and that of the African country, Rwanda.

I found the film very painful and heart-warming at the same time and I don't want to stop there.

Please let me know if you can help and if you cannot, please point me in the right direction. Please also keep up the good work! Thank you, in anticipation.

Kind regards,
Gus

Greetings Gus,

I have a problem with the movie "Hotel Rwanda" because it gives the false impression that the genocide wouldn't have happened if more people had been like Paul Rusesabigina, the hotel manager who was allowed to live even though he was a Hutu helping Tutsis.

In reality, the only Hutus who could save Tutsis were ones that were friends or associates of the genocide masterminds. Thousands of Hutus said "NO" to killing Tutsis and they were hacked to death with machetes in broad daylight, along with the Tutsis they refused to kill.

The masterminds of the genocide knew that Rusesabagina was sheltering Tutsis in the hotel because they were living in the hotel themselves. There were other important people living in the hotel too - including the representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations. And a Hutu priest from the biggest Catholic Church in Kigali was also staying at the hotel and bringing Tutsi women there for protection, in exchange for payment in sex. The genocide masterminds knew about this because they sent killers to his church on a regular basis to haul away Tutsis and moderate Hutus who had run there in hopes of sanctuary. Instead, they were like lobsters in a fish-tank waiting to be pulled out and killed.

Most of the Tutsis who were given shelter by Rusesabagina - except his wife - were members of the elite who had money to give, which he supposedly used to buy booze and other luxury items for the killers - to keep them happy. And he was given freedom to go and purchase these supplies, passing through roadblocks and driving over dead bodies without being added to the death list for sheltering Tutsis at the hotel.

I can understand, however, how people who watch "Hotel Rwanda" can be lulled into ignoring the not-even hidden relationship between Rusesabagina and the genocide masterminds because it is presented in such a matter-of-fact way. The movie doesn't hide the fact that he's friends with the killers - it even shows his behind-the-scenes meetings with them - and in so doing it subtly desensitizes people to the horror of it all.

Life in the hotel goes on its merry way - wining and dining on the roof - while outside the UN-protected gates the most efficient slaughter of human beings in the history of the world - aside from dropping bombs on them - is being carried on with no one attempting to stop it, except an army of Rwandans made up of Tutsis and truly moderate Hutus.

To answer your question about where to go for information on the connection between Belgium, France and Rwanda I suggest you read some of the essays listed under the Rwanda section of my website at RWANDA'S GOOD MAN KAGAME.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

PS - Rusesabagina wrote an autobiography* last year based on his celebrity status as a Hollywood hero. He entitled his book AN ORDINARY MAN and although I haven't read it, the reviews say he chose the title because he wanted to convey to people that he was nothing special, that anybody could have done what he did. But as I explained above, not just anybody COULD have done what he did, and so he WASN'T just "an ordinary man".

PPS - Rusesabagina goes on the University Speakers Circuit influencing the minds of gullible students, and next week he'll be at Northern Arizona University** where he'll probably repeat his recent accusations that the present government of Rwanda is planning genocide against Hutus.

RUSESABAGINA RAVES RE RWANDA (Reader Michael says Rusesabagina invited to give presentation in University in the US)

Rusesabagina says Rwanda smearing him (accused of profiting from genocide) & Hotel Rwanda hero at Lake Superior U (talking discrimination & complacency). Soo/SaultStar, Oct 31, 2008. Go to 17.Falsification of Past

HOLLYWOOD RWANDA TUTSI GENOCIDE, review of book by Alfred Ndahiro & Privat Rutazibwa

HOTEL RWANDA HERO'S BOOK, review of book by Paul Rusesabagina

Hotel Rwanda movie sparks public feud (heroism of Rusesabagina vs Kagame). National Post, Apr 29, 2008

RUSESABAGINA IMPOSTA RWANDA (reader Sharangabo says Rusesabagina of Hotel Mille Collines may be an impostor or a genius)

HOTEL RWANDA HERO HOAX (Reader Richard wonders if Rusesabagina is being used as a genocidaire front man)

Reader Sharangabo says the new Rwanda movie "Shake Hands With the Devil" will be premiered in Toronto soon

Reader Ntarugera says the world certainly deserves seeing a film based on Paul Kagame's life instead of the Rusesabagina rubbish...

Rwanda: Rusesabagina, Genocide and Identity Politics. American Chronicle, Jan 16, 2007
...A year ago, in his autobiography, Rusesabagina tested the public opinion waters when he said that Rwanda was controlled by a Tutsi elite and any Hutu who cooperated with the Tutsi was "an empty suit". At the time, I found this statement highly offensive and insulting to all Rwandans who are trying to rebuild their country. I asked many people one question: "What would you think if someone was touring Germany 12 years after the holocaust and said that Jews once again run Germany and that any good German who cooperates is not worth anything."...

"Hotel Rwanda" hero fears new Hutu-Tutsi killings, Reuters, Jan 11, 2007
Paul Rusesabagina, whose story was depicted in the 2004 Oscar-nominated "Hotel Rwanda", accused Kigali of laying the foundation for another genocide by punishing killers from "only one side" of the country's deadly ethnic conflict. "Actually we are not very far from another genocide," Rusesabagina, a critic of the Rwandan government, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday in Cape Town..."Since 1994, Tutsis have been killing Hutus, and even now there are many who are being killed, or who simply disappear," he said. "Everything has been taken over by the Tutsi. The Hutu who are 85 percent of the population are intimidated." In Kigali, Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande poured scorn on Rusesabagina's comments. "He's just out of touch with the reality of Rwanda. A firm foundation has been built and only daydreamers like Rusesabagina can think about bloodletting atrocities again," Murigande told Reuters. "He is a mere propagandist out of touch with reality." Rusesabagina, 51, and his family have lived in Belgium since 1996 with two brief trips home in that time....Kagame, his wife and most of his cabinet watched the Kigali premiere of "Hotel Rwanda" in February 2004, but has since dismissed the movie as an attempt to re-write Rwanda's history. Last year he described its portrayal of Rusesabagina, played by Don Cheadle, as false. "It has nothing to do with Rusesabagina," Kagame told reporters during a visit to Washington. "He just happened to be there accidentally, and he happened to be surviving because he was not in the category of those being hunted."

** Rwanda hero to share life story. Northern Arizona University, Jan 18, 2007
The man whose heroism inspired the movie Hotel Rwanda will discuss his story of humanity, courage, perseverance and hope at 10am, January 27, 2007 in Northern Arizona University's Ardrey Auditorium. During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Paul Rusesabagina was temporary manager of the Hotel Mille Collines in Kigali, Rwanda. Using his influence and connections, he protected more than 1,260 individuals from slaughter. His lecture is sponsored by Northern Arizona University's Martin-Springer Institute, which invited him to speak on "Hotel Rwanda: A Lesson Yet to Be Learned" as part of International Holocaust Day...."I've become a humanitarian, and I never thought I would become one," Rusesabagina said. "As a humanitarian, I wanted to take this message on a wider scale, to raise awareness of what happened in my country so that the international community can help others who suffer now." Gretchen McAllister, director of the Martin-Springer Institute, said Rusesabagina represents the common man. "He's an individual who did not set out to make a difference or to save lives," she said. "But now he speaks out against genocide through sharing his story."...Rusesabagina is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award and the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award. Copies of Rusesabagina's autobiography, An Ordinary Man, will be available at a signing following the presentation.

* Hero of "Hotel Rwanda" tells own story in new memoir. Voice of America, May 4, 2006
"...All those generals who helped us, I was convincing them. I was sitting with them around a drink, talking to them...."I did what I believed was the right thing to be done," he says, "to stand up for people and say 'no' to killers...You have upstairs scared refugees and in the hotel lobby, the hotel bar, the militia men, their hunters, are coming to have a drink...."

60 MINUTES READING RWANDA (I said, "I wonder how much money the TRUE story of the genocide would make if it were made into a spectacular, and how much the people would love it" and went off on my usual tangent about how there should be a movie made about Paul Kagame and the Rwandese Patriotic Front riding down from Uganda to liberate Rwanda. And how the fact that there isn't a movie being made about the true story of Rwanda is an Orwellian example of the past being falsified and the truth going down the memory hole.)

THE REAL HOTEL RWANDA (I, personally, didn't like the movie, "Hotel Rwanda", considering it trivializing of the plight of the Tutsi the way it soft-pedalled the butchering going on outside the hotel, by instead focusing all of its action on soap-opera type events going on inside the hotel...)

RPA-KAGAME A PT-109 MOVIE (I have said in the past that I wish a movie would be made about Rwanda based on the story of Paul Kagame's life. It would encompass Rwanda's recent history (from his birth in 1957 onwards) and up to the present day and in doing so it would give people an example of heroism at its highest level - instead of low level bureaucratic heroes depicted in the movies so far...)

HOLLYWOOD HUTU HOTEL HERO (I am not like most North Americans who know only the Hollywood version of the Hutu hotel hero or Senator D'Allaire who they also name a hero, or Nelson Mandela who the government of Canada makes into a super-hero, despite his Corporate Communism...)

ABANDONING RWANDA & MAKING MOVIES (I wonder what you think about the latest movies about Rwanda, ie "Hotel Rwanda" which is a Hollywood version being heavily promoted all over Canada and USA and "Sometimes in April" which was filmed in Rwanda and aired there this weekend? Also, in Scotland, a computer game of the Rwandan genocide is being distributed to schools. It supports the UN's actions in Rwanda. My opinion of all of these productions, based on reading reviews, is that they were created by the Ministry of Truth (Lies) and don't give credit where credit is due for the starting and the stopping of the genocide...)

RWANDA'S GOOD MAN KAGAME and HOW KAGAME BECAME RWANDA'S LEADER

16.Minitrue and 25.Prolefeed and 17.Falsification of Past