Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Hotel Ruanda
Interview with Paul Rusesabagina
Are there hotel managers that aren't friendly? I don't think so. Also Paul Rusesabagina, the former manager of a luxury hotel in Rwanda is as friendly as one can be. It's been ten years since the horrible events, we cannot even imagine. During the genocide in his home country he saved hundreds of people's lives in his hotel. Nevertheless he remained modest. Paul doesn't want to be called hero. He seems to be fine. A golden watch, a signet ring. He smiles again. But what he has to say in his English with an African accent isn't funny at all.
OutNow (ON): You have seen Hotel Rwanda probably more than once and you are talking to all sorts of people these days. How do you cope with that?
Paul Rusesagabina (PR): The way I talk about my stories is a kind of therapy to me. It helps me to get it out. If you keep something within, it may burst one day. But if you keep on sharing it with other people it helps.
ON: How traumatic was the whole time?
PR: It is not easy to describe. Sometimes when you feel like sleeping you wake up because of killings that go on almost within your establishment. It was torturing for me.
He's getting a Bonus
ON: How do you cope with being a survivor of something like this?
PR: I sometimes sit down and thank God. I was sure of one thing in 1994. I was sure that I was going to be killed. Fortunately I was not killed. Now I call the time from 1994 to today a bonus. (He cracks up) It's just a bonus.
ON: Sometimes feature films of real events need to compromise. How much of Hotel Rwanda is still true?
PR: The interaction with the United Nations general was not done that way. But all you can see about Hotel "Mille Collines" is more or less the way it happened in a very light way. Because what actually took place was horrible. It is not what you can see on the screen because you can not show that. But otherwise it is about 90% the truth of what took place. Of course every good chef, whenever he cooks a meal, he is going to add a bit of salt and pepper and some other spices according to his dish and the way he wants to serve it. I'll give you an example. When you see me on the roof of the hotel with my wife, we share a true story. Before I met my wife, she was working in the north. The northern people of Rwanda were already killing Tutsis. I knew she was a Tutsi, so when we met she told me she was a nurse and that she was scared. I didn't tell her anything, we just became friends. But I had some contacts so I let her transfer from her area to Kigali (the capital) through the ministry of health. That is a true story. But having a nice time on the roof of the hotel, as it is shown during the film, that was in order to spice up the meal.
ON: What do you think of Don Cheadle playing you?
Well done, man!
PR: That was very good. He did a fantastic job. He took a lot of time with me; sending me e-mails. He wanted to know exactly what I a kind of person I was from my childhood up to the time we met. And he took his time to come down to South Africa two weeks before filming and we stayed together sharing everything. He wanted very much to do this movie the right way. He even happened to have a dialect coach to teach him my accent. He was very concerned to get it well done.
ON: When you go back to Rwanda to promote the film will you be a hero or will there be some people that dislike you because of your role there?
PR: Actually, I am not a hero. I don't think I will be one. Of course there are people who wouldn't like to see me like this. That is certain. It goes without saying.
ON: Have you ever seen the Film Schindler's List and do you feel connected to it?
PR: I never knew that film until I was given that film by Terry (George, the Director of Hotel Rwanda). It has a nice a story.
ON: Did you recognize yourself in that movie?
PR: I am very different from Schindler. Schindler happened to stand up for five years. He was a very strong man.
ON: But you were very clever too.
PR: I don't think so.
ON: Why?
PR: I am not strong. And I know myself better!
ON: But in the film you are shown as a very clever improviser.
PR: I doubt that I am very clever. Maybe I am good at talking to people.
ON: Have you been back to Rwanda since then?
PR: I left Rwanda in 1996. I went to Belgium. I just went back seven years later with the filmmakers.
ON: Do you think that you will ever move back to Rwanda?
PR: So far I don't think about moving. There is no lasting peace. If there was a lasting peace I would be the very first person to fly back.
ON: Don't you believe in a lasting peace?
PR: No. There is a kind of intimidation. That's all.
ON: Do you think it could happen again?
PR: If the situation remains what it is, it remains scary. It is a situation whereby you see a kind of reconciliation initiated by the winner, the way he wants it to be done, without any compromise. That is not a real reconciliation. A lasting reconsolidation is always negotiated by both sides. It is not a one way street. It is a two way street.
ON: What you do you think was the root of that problem? Do you blame the Belgians?
PR: I would first of all blame the Rwandans because this is rooted in the Rwandan history a long time before. When the Germans took over Rwanda they never changed anything. They maintained that policy of saying that the Tutsi are cleverer and smarter, more elegant and intelligent. Tutsis are made to rule and Hutus are there to respect. That was the first mistake they made. When Rwanda was given to Belgium as a protectorate in 1923 they didn't change the policy either. They went on by writing the ethnicity in every identity card. Which was a very big mistake. But again by 1959 there was a kind of a revolution what they called a mass revolution. But the mass revolution was not really a mass revolution; it was a Hutu revolution to take the power from the Tutsis and the Belgians.
Paul and his wife
ON: Is there really a difference between Hutu and Tutsi?
PR: I myself was born and grew up in a mixed family. But I have never seen any difference between my mother and my father. My wife is here. She can come down if you want. You will not see any difference between the two of us.
ON: Were there any other reasons for the conflict besides the ethnical differences?
PR: There are many problems in Rwanda. First of all there is the fear of the other. Rwandeses do not like to share. Either they have it or they don't have anything. A second reason for the conflict is impunity. Impunity has always been behind what has been going on in Rwanda since ages. I'll give you an example. In 1959, when many Tutsis left Rwanda, their goods - plantations, cattle and stuff - were taken by the Hutus. And I have never seen anyone put on trial because he took from his neighbour's house. It has always been like that. The third reason is an economical problem. Rwandeses are very poor. And whatever you suggest to poor people they will always accept. When this fear comes into the hand of bad leaders it becomes worse, especially when the leaders happen to misuse the media. The media can be a very good weapon if you are fighting for a good cause. But it is a very bad weapon if people are fighting for a bad cause. The leadership that took RTLM Radio to dehumanize some group of people, Tutsis and their moderate Hutu friends, used it to eliminate a lot of people. Rwandans people do not buy news papers. They rather listen to the radio. Each and everybody moving around knew that who ever had the chance to take a house thirty years ago, is still keeping it today. Whoever got a land which was not his, is still keeping it. This was legally accepted in the major's office.
ON: How many radio stations did the Hutu power have during the genocide?
PR: They were just using RTLM but all the people were listening to it. The entire official messages where meant to come through that channel.
Paul Rusesabagina
ON: What would have happened if the international community would have bombed that radio station?
PR: Unfortunately they didn't do it. Because that was the means of communication. Once the means would have been broken, that would have helped a lot of people to survive. The radio was telling people: "Don't forget! Clean you neighbourhood! Even the bushes around you are very dirty. There is an infestation. Look out to remove that infestation. Help out to kill. They are not yet all." Killing became a duty.
ON: Was this station running all day and night long?
PR: It has started working almost 24 hours.
ON: Are you still working in the Hotel business?
PR: No. I left the Hotel business in 1995. I had to resign from Sabena after all I have seen. I opened my own businesses but it couldn't last because it was so hard to run away and leave Rwanda. I was a refugee.
ON: What is your business now?
PR: Now I have a trucking business in Zambia in Southern Africa. I work in Africa and I live in Europe.
ON: Where does your family want to live?
PR: My wife would love to live in Rwanda but since there is no lasting peace she first of all doesn't want to risk the lives of the children.
ON: What do you think Hotel Rwanda will do for your country?
with Director Terry George
PR: I hope that this movie can play the role of a clock that wakes people up, in Rwanda and all around the world. I hope it brings all of us back to our duties, obligations and responsibilities towards mankind. People in Africa are almost forgotten. They have got nothing to eat. They are killed like flies and no one cares. I was in Darfur a few weeks ago. I was very sad to see what I saw. 1.6 Million displaced within their own country. 200,000 people refugees in Chad who sleep on the sand and dust of the Sahara. Too hot during the daytime. Too cold during the night time. No cloths. No water. Nothing. No hope for the next generation. Hundreds of thousands of children who are not going to go to school. When the kids saw us they provided a kind of demonstration. About 2000 took a black board and wrote "Welcome to our guests! But we need education." This is becoming a shame to mankind.
ON: What should the Western World do to really make a change?
PR: Everything that takes place in Africa always has a western influence behind it. If we play a bad role we are also able to play a good one. Why can't we change our attitude and play the role of educating, of bringing people to the right way, helping them?
ON: Thank you very much.
PR: You are welcome.
