[ad_1]
Ruwanda President Paul Kagame. (File, Netwerk24)
- Paul Rusesabagina, who sheltered people during the 1994 genocide, was arrested Monday.
- Authorities did not want to elaborate on how the arrest occurred.
- Investigators accuse him of terrorism, arson, kidnapping and murder.
Rwandan investigators announced Monday that they had arrested Paul Rusesabagina, whose heroic actions during the 1994 genocide were portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film “Hotel Rwanda,” accusing the prominent critic of the government of terrorism.
The Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) said that Rusesabagina, who lives in Belgium, had been detained “through international cooperation” and was being held at a capital police station on serious charges.
“With the cooperation of the international community, Paul Rusesabagina was arrested and is now in the hands of RIB,” acting RIB spokesperson Thierry Murangira told reporters in Kigali.
Murangira declined to detail how the arrest occurred or the degree of involvement of international authorities in the arrest of the outspoken critic of President Paul Kagame, claiming that doing so “could jeopardize the investigations.”
Eric Van Duyse, spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, told AFP that the Rusesabagina authorities informed them of Rusesabagina’s arrest “but we have no details of the circumstances.”
Murangira said that Rusesabagina, who has campaigned for political change in Rwanda from abroad, was the subject of an international arrest warrant and “is suspected of financing and creating terrorist groups” operating in East Africa and abroad.
Investigators accuse him of terrorism, arson, kidnapping and murder, including against his own compatriots on Rwandan soil in two incidents in June and December 2018.
During the 1994 genocide, as director of the Hotel des Diplomates in Kigali, Rusesabagina used his influence and connections to protect 1,268 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from being massacred by the Interahamwe militia.
American actor Don Cheadle played him in the 2004 Oscar-nominated film “Hotel Rwanda.”
From Belgium, where he sought asylum with his wife and children, Rusesabagina became a fierce critic of Kagame, who has been in power since 1994 when his forces overthrew the genocidal regime.
Rusesabagina has accused the Kagame government of killing opposition figures and detaining and torturing activists both at home and abroad.
The RIB has called the Rwanda Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), which Rusesabagina co-founded abroad, and its armed wing, the FLN, are “extremist terrorist groups.” Rwanda has also accused neighbors, including Burundi and Uganda, of harboring the group.
Rusesabagina, in a video posted on YouTube in December 2018, said that the FLN was seeking to “liberate” Rwanda from an oppressive government in Kigali.
Once championed in western capitals as a reformer, Kagame has come under fire for overseeing constitutional changes to prolong his rule and cracking down on opposition voices.
