After almost two years of being held hostage by the Rwandan Government, the family of Paul Rusesabagina filed a $400m U.S. lawsuit against Rwanda’s government. Paul Rusesabagina, Hotel Rwanda’s hero is an internationally recognized human-rights activist. Rusesabagina gained international recognition including the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom after he heroically saved some 1,200 people during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, hiding individuals in the hotel which he worked. His family said that in late August 2020, Rusesabagina was lured from his Texas home and was tricked into re-entering Rwanda where he was then arrested and has since been detained. He was in Dubai for a meeting, then boarded a private plane afterwards which he believed was taking him to Burundi but instead took him to Kigali, capital of Rwanda.

The government then paraded Rusesabagina in handcuffs the next day claiming that he had been arrested using an international arrest warrant however there was never any confirmed other nation which helped with this. He was charged with and has now been found guilty of backing a deadly rebel group responsible for deadly attacks in 2018 and 2019 in Rwanda despite Rusesabagina being 66 and living in San Antonio, Texas. Many, including his family have called this a complete farce and merely a guise for kidnapping and unjust detention. The lawsuit calls for $400m and will continue to grow everyday that Rusesabagina remains held in captivity.

Mr. Rusesabagina’s family made a statement alleging that the Rwandan government and other high ranking officials conspired to “Facilitate and execute an elaborate plot to lure” him from his Texas home to Rwanda “where he would be tortured and illegally detained for the remainder of his life”, as reported by the BBC.This lawsuit, especially being filed in the United States, will put large amounts of high profile pressure on the Rwandan Government to release Rusesabagina. The symbolism that he holds as defiance to the racial violence in Rwanda make his release not only imperative merely from a personal justice standpoint but also as a statement against the tolerance of any continued violence in the region. 

The Rwandan Genocide took place over a span of 100 days and resulted in the death of over 800,000 Rwandans, vast majority Tutsi killed by Hutu extremists. By the end of the genocide, 1 in 10 Rwandans were dead within the entire country. The current president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame has had a strict policy regarding speaking of the genocide – to talk about race is illegal in Rwanda – as well as cracking down on any public dissent or opposition to his leadership. Rusesabagina spoke openly of his criticism of the Kagame Government and President Kagame himself. This has gradually turned him into a state enemy to Rwanda. 

The release of Rusesabagina is vital not only for individual justice but also for Rwanda’s future. Many have criticized Kagame’s gag laws on race as being a hinderance to truly reconciling and moving on from the 1994 genocide. Rusesabagina symbolizes free speech with a direct tie to the racially violent past and therefore freeing him will show that advocacy and freedom of speech may prevail. The Family’s lawsuit will be vital in this case but it must be a vehicle supported by the international community so that countries like the U.S. may boost its visibility, continuing to put further pressure on the Rwandan government.