Rwanda’s anti-genocide activist speaks in U.S. this week; Clinton apologizes, again

Rwanda’s anti-genocide activist speaks in U.S. this week on Rwanda’s future; the past looms large, again. Bill Clinton apologizes for his administration’s failure to halt genocide

A special report by Chido Nwangwu

USAfricaonline.com, USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston,  CLASSmagazine and The Black Business Journal

USAfrica, Nov. 1, 2009: Paul Rusesabagina, the Rwandan man whose personal, real life story titled “An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography” brought remarkable and insightful context into the Rwandan genocide and inspired the 2004 epic film “Hotel Rwanda,” will speak on Tuesday Nov 4, 2009 at the University of Northern Iowa. The event will hold at 7pm inside the school’s Lang Hall Auditorium.

A few hours ago October 30, 2009, U.S former President Bill Clinton, again, apologized for his administration’s costly failings to intervene in a timely manner to forestall or halt the genocidal slaughters in Rwanda. His 1998 apology was criticized as some disingenuous; especially a  prominent insider’s view by David Heaps, who was a consultant for the Ford Foundation in Africa from 1960 to 1971. He wrote in The New York Times of March 26, 1998, that “The Clinton Administration took the lead in opposing international action. Its policy was a calculated political decision. Shocked by unexpected American military casualties in Somalia and a humiliating withdrawal, Washington insisted that a cease-fire in Rwanda, clearly impossible to attain quickly, had to precede humanitarian aid.

Perhaps the most important single reason for American inaction is still not admitted. Impoverished and perennially troubled little Rwanda had no strategic, political or economic significance. All it had were the mutilated victims of the most horrendous orgy of mass killings in modern times.”

Clinton also claimed he did not know the scope and details of the murderous killings in Rwanda; a point frontally debunked by U.S. National Security Council and military intelligence reports. David Corn, a senior editor at the Washington DC-based Nation magazine reminds that: In public, he (Clinton) had more to say about the caning of a young American in Singapore than the murders of hundreds of thousands in Rwanda.

As the National Security Archive report points out, Clinton was being pressed by prominent individuals to take action. On April 21, Rwandan human rights activist Monique Mujawamariya, whom Clinton had welcomed to the White House five months earlier, implored him to act against the “campaign” of “genocide against the Tutsis.” She argued that the United States had “a moral and legal treaty obligation to ‘suppress and prevent’ genocide.” Members of Congress lobbied Clinton as well. On May 13, Senators Paul Simon and James Jeffords sent a letter to Clinton criticizing his lack of “leadership” and declaring “swift and sound decision-making is needed.” They urged Clinton to impose sanctions, establish an arms embargo, and boost the U.N. forces in Rwanda and allow them to intervene more directly. “An end to the slaughter is not possible without this action,” they wrote.

The National Security Archive report notes, “Although stated policy was that Rwanda did not affect traditional vital or national interests before or even during the genocide, considerable resources were nevertheless available and employed to ensure that policymakers had real-time information for any decision they would make. In sum, the routine–let alone crisis–performance of diplomats, intelligence officers and systems, and military and defense personnel yielded enough information for policy recommendations and decisions. That the Clinton administration decided against intervention at any level was not for lack of knowledge of what was happening in Rwanda.”

Four years after the killings, Clinton told the Rwandans (and the world) that he had not tried to stop the genocide because he had not known what was truly occurring. Ignorance was not the reason. It had been a political decision. Clinton was fibbing to the survivors of genocide.”

USAfricaonline.com hás several article/reports/insights on Rwanda’s genocide at www.usafricaonline.com/rwanda.genocideyears.html

They include the special report by Gerald Caplan, the author of ‘Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide’ and founder and volunteer co-ordinator of “Remembering Rwanda” and the commentary

“Eight lessons of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide” by USAfrica Publisher Chido Nwangwu

https://usafricaonline.com/chido-8lessons-rwanda-genocide/

Rusesabagina, born June 15, 1954, is expected to take more questions on those issues. He has been recognized and honored by local and international organizations for using his relatively valuable position as the assistant manager of the Sabena Hôtel des Mille Collines and later the manager of the Hôtel des Diplomates, both in Kigali, Rwanda.

Wikipedia records that: during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Rusesabagina used his influence and connections as temporary manager of the ‘Mille Collines’ to shelter 1,268 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from being slaughtered by the Interahamwe militia. a who has been internationally honoured for saving 1,268 refugees during the Rwandan Genocide.

Rusesabagina’s efforts were the basis of the Academy Award nominated film Hotel Rwanda (2004). He currently lives in Belgium with his wife, children, and two adopted nieces. Formerly a taxi driver in Brussels, he later opened a trucking company.”

He founded the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation (HRRF), an organization which has been providing psychological care and material assistance to children who were orphaned by the genocidal killings in Rwanda. HRRF also supports thousands of women who were abused during and after the Rwanda genocide. He also is the recipient of numerous awards, including the

He has become an icon of courage and recipient of numerous awards including the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award. But those recognitions have come alongside a long-running, bitter, public feud between Rusesabagina and Paul Kagame (Rwanda’s president and former head of the Rwandan Patriotic Front).

A major shot was fired by Rusesabagina in his book where he charged that “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.” In one of his varied responses, President Kagame on April 6, 2006, asserted that  “(Rusesabagina) should try his talents elsewhere and not climb on the falsehood of being a hero, because it’s totally false.”

Kagame and Rusesabagina’s recently troubled homeland, Rwanda, has been rebuilding and creating a model for inter-ethnic accommodation and harmony after the murderous killings of mainly Tutsis.                                                             •Chido Nwangwu, recipient of the HABJ 1997 Journalism Excellence award and adviser on Africa business to former Mayor of Houston, is the founder and publisher of Houston-based USAfricaonline.com, The Black Business Journal, CLASSmagazine, PhotoWorks.TV and USAfrica.TV

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President Obama, hate-mongers and mob cons. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfricaonline.com, www.Achebebooks.com, CLASS magazine, The Black Business Journal,  USAfrica.TV, and the largest digital images/pictorial events domain for Africans  abroad www.PhotoWorks.TV

https://usafricaonline.com/president-obama-hate-mongers-and-mob-cons-by-chido-nwangwu/

https://usafricaonline.com/chido.obamavshatemongers09.html

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