AfroAmerica Network
Kigali, Rwanda
03.23.01
Rwandan President General Paul Kagame will give an award to former Hotel Des Milles Collines Manager Paul Rusesabagina next month.
On April 07, 2001 Kagame will honor Rusesabagina and thank him for providing shelter to about 1000 people who sought refuge at Hotel des Milles Collines in April, May, and June 1994. Rusesabagina, working with former Rwandan government officials and ex-FAR sheltered and provided food and health care to Hutu, Tutsi, and expatriates who sought refuge in the hotel to escape massacres and assassinations by the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) and Interahamwe.
After the victory of the RPF in July 1994 Rusesabagina resumed his work as hotel manager but he received so many threats from Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) supporters who wanted his job that he had to flee to Belgium. Today he is a Belgian citizen. Last year he received an award from the Immortal Chaplains Foundation, a US based foundation.
Kagame wants Rusesabagina to receive the award in Rwanda to demonstrate that Rwanda is at peace now. A group of British citizens are sponsoring this event to express their solidarity with the Rwandan people. Rusesabagina has not said whether he will resume his activities in Rwanda after receiving Kagame's award.
Meanwhile, AfroAmerica Network has learned that 8 Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR) lieutenants have arrived in Belgium fleeing Kagame's regime. Lieutenant Claude is one of them. His sister is married to Fidele Nsekalije, the Governor of Gisenyi. Fidele Nsekalije is the son of a former Rwandan minister and Ex-FAR retired colonel, who served under President Juvenal Habyarimana.
Major Mupenzi, commander of a special intelligence unit has also crossed into Uganda. He has joined Major Furuma who fled Rwanda early this year.
AfroAmerica Network has also learned that the Rwandan Government has confirmed that the former Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister Anastase Gasana will serve as Rwandan ambassador to the United Nations. Political sources say the RPF is sending him to the UN with mission to run media campaigns against Rwandan exiles that live in the US. His targets are likely to be former National transitional Assembly Speaker Joseph Kabuye Sebarenzi and former Prime Minister Pierre Celestin Rwigema. According to these sources Kagame has chosen a person who will do anything and say anything to please him.
Gasana was expelled from the government for corruption. The National Transitional Assembly led by Joseph Sebarenzi Kabuye asked Gasana to resign after an investigative commission determined that he and a businessman had embezzled government funds.
It is ironic that the current UN Secretary General will have to authorize the accreditation of Mr. Gasana. When United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan visited Rwanda, it is Gasana, then Foreign Affairs Minister who introduced him to the Rwandan Transitional Assembly. In his introductory speech, Gasana accused Kofi Annan of causing the genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda. In 1994 Kofi Annan was Deputy UN Secretary General for Peace Keeping Operations.
Gasana is also a former advisor to the President of the National Revolutionary Movement for Development. In that capacity he and former PETRORWANDA Managing Director Desire Murenzi founded Interahamwe, a militia accused of carrying out the genocide of Tutsi in 1994. Human Rights organization in USA have already voiced their indignation on Gasana's nomination.
"The nomination of Anastase Gasana as Ambassador, anywhere, is a very serious matter. The precedent of United Nations accrediting the founder of the notorious Interahamwe, who are accused of acts of genocide and crimes against humanity is not a light matter. The credibility of the UN itself is at stake. We have to make sure the UN Secretary General and UN officials understand that", said officials of the US based Organization for Peace, Justice, and Development in Rwanda, Inc.
(c)AfroAmerica Network, March, 2001.
For contact, please e-mail us: mail@afroamerica.net
Celebrate Women Month. Visit us at www.afroamerica.net to check resources on woman health, achievement, challenges, and hopes.
Do not forget to visit our web page:
http://www.afroamerica.net/afroamerica.html
http://www.afroamerica.net/rwanda.html
Soon to come: Coverage on Rwandan Refugees in the Republic of Congo.