Click here for the Wheel's interview with Paul Rusesabagina.

Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan exile who sheltered more than 1,200 civilians as a hotel manager, gave his account of his experiences during the Rwandan genocide at the State of the Race speech Tuesday in Glenn Memorial Auditorium.

In his speech titled “Hotel Rwanda: A Lesson Yet to Be Learned,” Rusesabagina questioned whether the world has learned to pay attention to genocides and exhorted students to take action.

Rusesabagina, whose story inspired the 2004 movie “Hotel Rwanda,” began saving lives the first day of the genocide when he took 20 people into his home and shielded them from the Hutu militia.

But Rusesabagina’s speech was met with protest from those who believe that his role has been exaggerated and misleading. Protestors stationed outside Glenn handed out fliers prior to the event, promoting a follow-up discussion organized by the Rollins School of Public Health in November.

Rusesabagina shared how he remembers exactly where he was and what he was doing when his wife Tatiana called him on April 6, 1994, just as Americans remember where they were on Sept. 11, 2001.

She told him the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi had been killed and that the country was in disarray. Since the 15th century, the Tutsi and Hutu tribes have fought for control of Rwanda. Tensions continued to escalate until 1994, when the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were assassinated and the genocide began.

He told how he used his verbal skills with the Hutu soldiers and convinced them not to kill the refugees by offering to pay them off with cash back at his hotel, Milles Collines.

“Words can save and words can kill,” he said.

Because there was no security present when he got to the hotel, Rusesabagina worked to have five officers from the Rwanda National Police protect the hotel, something they did until everyone was evacuated two months later.

He told of the difficult life in the hotel, describing how there was no electricity or running water. The refugees rationed out the swimming pool water, taking a few drops at the beginning of the day and a few at the end just to survive.

On April 23, 1994, Rusesabagina was confronted by the Hutu militia, who gave him 30 minutes to release the refugees before they would start shooting. After phoning contacts around the world for help, including the White House, the United Nations and the Peace Corps, he finally got the help he needed from the assistant general of the police. Rusesabagina said the assistant general saved their lives.

He said the toughest decision he had to make was when his family’s name was on a list of people allowed to evacuate. He chose to stay behind with those not on the list while his wife and four children were rushed to safety.

“My conscience wouldn’t let me leave,” Rusesabagina said.

He said that he does not want to be thought of as a saint or a hero. He declared that he did not decide to risk his own life; instead he said that “God decided for me.” This sacrifice was “for nothing” as the caravan of evacuees was brought back to the hotel after being fired upon.

Rusesabagina described how at times he relied on the help of others to stay alive. The general chief of staff warned off the Hutu militia at one point, threatening that he would shoot them if they did not leave.

On June 18, 1994, roughly two months after the ordeal began, 1,260 refugees were evacuated from Rusesabagina’s hotel.

But when the genocide was over in mid-July, between 800,000 and 1 million Rwandan civilians had been killed.

Rusesabagina urged the audience to think about whether the world has learned its lesson after vowing never to let an atrocity like the Holocaust happen ever again.

“‘Never again’ turned into again and again,” he said, describing the continuing genocide in Rwanda and Darfur.

College freshman Zia Johnson found Rusesabagina an interesting speaker.
“You never get to hear the actual story. You just get the Hollywood version,” Johnson said.

During the question and answer session following his speech, Rusesabagina responded to one of the more prevalent accusations concerning the money he allegedly accepted in return for the shelter and security offered at his hotel.
“I didn’t charge any money to anyone,” he said.

Rusesabagina’s critics also accuse him of trying to destabilize the current government, which helped end the genocide in 1994.

A flier issued by a group of students and faculty members took issue with the format of the State of Race event, saying that presenting only Rusesabagina’s view did not meet standards of “transparency, accountability and evidence-based education.”

The group, led by Professor of Global Health Susan Allen, is trying to organize an event for November which will feature Andrew Young, a professor from the School of Policy Studies at the Georgia State University.

Young, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, produced the documentary “Rwanda Rising” about the genocide.

The flier also promises appearances by James Kimonyo, the Rwandan ambassador to the United States, and genocide survivors from the Milles Collines hotel.

“The speakers will not be paid, so unlike the funding role departments and center sponsors played for the Rusesabagina event, the School of Public Health’s sponsorship of the Andrew Young event is academic and intellectual,” Allen wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel.

The follow-up event has not been definitively scheduled yet. Allen wrote that Young has four available dates in November, so the group will try to program the event accordingly.

— Contact Julie Harab at julie.harab@emory.edu