Rusesabagina’s family believes more lies could free him from jail

Since the arrest and trial of Paul Rusesabagina for terrorism-related crimes, his family embarked on a campaign to pressure Rwanda to release him. One most active family member so far has been his stepdaughter Carine Kanimba who has been throwing lies around, with the help of gullible and friendly global media. Her goal has always been to whitewash her father of the crimes he is accused of. At the same time, she wants everybody to believe that he is the victim of a witch-hunt by what she calls a regime that does not tolerate dissent.

But this is the biggest con. Rusesabagina faces 13 charges including terrorism, recruiting child soldiers, kidnapping, and arson. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, notably testimonies in court and  his own declaration of war against Rwanda, the family remains in denial.

Maybe after realising that the youngest daughter’s campaign and lobbying did not bear fruit, the eldest sister,  Anaise Kanimba, decided to jump into the fray. She used The Washington Post to rehash the same tired lies and distortions about her father’s current predicament.

On June 26, she wrote an op-ed titled: “Rwanda kidnapped my father. Here’s why the world should work for his release,” as if it is the world that instigated him to invest himself in terrorism against Rwanda.

Like Carine, Anaise carefully crafted deceit aimed at reminding people about her father’s 'heroics' during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. She lied to the world that he was targeted because he was a vocal critic of President Paul Kagame. It is not surprising that The Washington Post run this story with Rusesabagina’s picture at The White House receiving the Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush  in 2005.

“My father, Paul Rusesabagina, saved more than 1,200 innocent people during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. His act was later dramatized in the Oscar-nominated film.” While lauding her father’s 'heroism', she does not realise that this sounds hollow in Rwanda where victims are still reeling from the consequences of the terrorist attacks of his militia.

She then continues to frame her father’s arrest as a case of someone who was abducted by Rwandan intelligence agents. But  those who have been closely following the trial in the High Court differ. Rusesabagina was lured to Rwanda by his friend, Bishop Constantin Niyomwungeri, who was concerned by his terrorist activities.

The daughters' plan is to portray Rusesabagina in a very positive light, and at the same time depict President Kagame as a villain, over-shadowed by their father’s heroism.  “Ever since the movie, which depicts my father’s heroic actions during the Rwanda genocide, he has been falsely accused of series of crimes, absurdly including arson and terrorism. This how Rwandan President Paul Kagame tries to silence his critics.”

Why would President Kagame envy a Hollywood-made hero, whose fame is only recognised by his promoters in the West and the global north media? Even if he was a hero, his heroism died the day he started funding acts of terrorism against his country.  To create more drama, Kanimba linked her father’s alleged “kidnapping” to the recent controversial accusations that Rwanda used the Israeli high-tech Pegasus Sypaware to spy on her sister Carine.

Another big lie peddled by Kanimba is that “in 2010, Rwanda tried to get Belgium and the United States to cooperate with their campaign of false accusations against my father. (My father holds Belgian citizenship and is a permanent resident of the United States.) Both nations refused because the allegations had no merit, and the Rwandan government was unable to produce any evidence to support them.”

During trial, Prosecution revealed that part of the evidence proving the man’s involvement in acts of funding terrorism was obtained from Belgian Prosecution authorities and the FBI. This includes wire transfers of funds to armed groups.

Allegations of torture in a so-called “slaughterhouse”, denial of food, water, and medicine, as well as international lawyers have already been debunked. Like her sister, she urged the world to implement the request by the Lantos Foundation to the US to apply the Magnitsky Act on Rwanda.

This is no coincidence as it is the same Lantos Foundation which catapulted Rusesabagina to global fame by awarding him a prize, despite a protest from genocide survivors. In the end, one wonders what his daughters think they can achieve by repeating the same lies.  They should wait for the finale of the trial on August 20 when the Court is slated to issue the verdict.