Rusesabagina fears Rwanda's backlash

Paul Rusesabagina — often referred to as the Oskar Schindler of Africa — was a witness to numerous killings as homicidal mobs cut thousands of people into pieces with machetes.

As the manager of the Belgian-owned luxury hotel the Mille Collines during the "terrible 100 days" of genocide in Rwanda, he rescued some 1,200 people who used the hotel as a safe haven.

Now that he is promoting his book "An Ordinary Man," speaking out against genocide as he tours the United States, he is once again fearful he may lose his life, he said from a hotel in St. Louis.

Rusesabagina, whose accent is very thick, said that he has discovered that "speaking out" has caused the Rwandan government to worry about him.

"I'm a threat to them," said Rusesabagina. "The Rwandan ambassador to London has moved from his residence and is now staying behind my house in Belgium. The President of Rwanda has a death squad. In Brussels, I worry more for my life than anywhere else. Some of my friends have advised me to forget about my house and go elsewhere. I'm thinking about it."

Speaking of genocide apparently does not make for good public relations. "Yet the whole country is traumatized," he said. "Some people are undergoing therapy. But it is 'angels' who are doing it. The government is not organizing it. Besides, finding a psychologist for everyone is not easy."

Rusesabagina and his family miraculously lived through the wholesale butchering of friends and loved ones, so now they are practicing some therapy of their own. "The best therapy is sharing. Talking about it with my wife and children has helped us solve a lot of problems. My family was sickened by the genocide, and at first they didn't want to recall it. But I had to sit down with them and talk about the details. The best teacher is to repeat a good lesson."

The worst part for Rusesabagina remains the memory of watching his neighbors as they cut each other down with machetes. Some people who feared being killed in such a horrible way jumped off buildings. It was devastating as a million people were displaced. "It was like an explosion — and when the whole region was burning, they added oil to the fire. Imagine how many generations were lost."

Rusesabagina also resents the fact that the United States and the United Nations failed to come to the aid of the genocide. He believes that, had they done so, they could have stopped the horrible killing in a comparatively short time with a few thousand troops.

But he is not bitter about it. "The Clinton administration didn't help, but I don't blame the American people. They are innocent. The administration was fresh from the tragedy of Blackhawk Down in Somalia. It was still fresh in American minds. That is one of the reasons the United States didn't intervene. They pulled out even the few soldiers they had sent."

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