Rwanda’s leader turned belligerent last December when, during a visit to Washington, he was asked about the country’s most famous political prisoner and personal enemy.
President Paul Kagame said that no US pressure could “bully” Rwanda. Paul RusesabaginaThe hotel owner whose heroism during the 1994 genocide inspired the movie “Hotel Rwanda”.
“Can make an invasion and flood the country – you can do it,” he added sourly, at an event during the Biden administration. America-Africa Summit for leaders from across the continent.
Early the next morning, however, one of Mr. Kagame’s top aides quietly met with President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, to discuss the terms of a potential release. .
It was an important step in a complicated, secretive effort to free Mr. Rusesabagina, which culminated on Wednesday when he returned to the United States, where he was reunited with his tearful family in a base of the United States Army in Texas.
His daughter, Anaïse Kanimba, 31, said in an interview: “We all broke down when we saw him.
The release of Rusesabagina, a 68-year-old dissident and permanent resident of the United States, is more than a victory for patient and quiet diplomacy. It addresses the growing burden in Washington’s relationship with a small but important African ally that is rising above its weight on the continent and accused of causing conflict in the region. eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo could explode into a regional war.
Mr. Rusesabagina’s plight is also a delicate challenge for the United States as it seeks to re-establish relations with African countries to fight back. China rose And Russian influence on the continent.
That means strengthening ties with leaders like Mr. Kagame, a thorny dictator whose track record of rebuilding Rwanda after genocide has been overshadowed by a repressive rule that does not allow any dissent – a trend for which the case of Mr. Rusesabagina has become iconic.
Josh Geltzer, Mr. Biden’s deputy homeland security adviser, described the months-long negotiations over Mr. Rusesabagina as an attempt to overcome “real bilateral discomfort” and a “non-status” Acceptable”.
However, some American officials do not always believe that they should rescue Rwanda prisoners.
Rusesabagina was glorified globally after the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, which depicted him as the savior of more than 1,200 people at the luxury hotel he managed during the genocide.
But in Rwanda, Mr. Rusesabagina’s criticism of Mr. Kagame sent him into exile in Belgium, then the United States.
He disappeared in August 2020, days after leaving his Texas home on a trip he thought was to Burundi. Rwanda agent trick him boarded a private jet that took him to the Rwandan capital Kigali, where he was detained, charged with terrorism, and after what legal experts are called a deeply flawed trial, sentenced up to 25 years in prison.
His family lobbied hard for his release with the help of celebrities like Don Cheadle, the actor who played Mr. Rusesabagina in “Hotel Rwanda,” and Scarlett Johansson. But the State Department has been slow to accept his cause – partly because he is not an American citizen, and also because of the murky nature of Rwanda’s allegations that he funded an armed group. killed civilians, a US official said. anonymous conditions to discuss internal discussions.
However, powerful U.S. senators took Rusesabagina’s case on both sides of the aisle, including Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, and Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican and is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Writing letters and, at one point, withholding $90 million in aid to Rwanda, senators pressed the government to help.
They have results in May 2022, six weeks later the court appeal process has ended, when the State Department officially declared Mr. Rusesabagina “illegitimately detained” — a status that put his case on the administration’s priority list. But the effort immediately ran into difficulties.
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That same day, General Stephen J. Townsend, commander of US forces in Africa, flew to Kigali, where he was staying. next to a smiling Mr. Kagame. Mr. Rusesabagina’s supporters were furious to learn that General Townsend hadn’t even raised the case with the Rwandan president – a sign, some senators sayconflict with American priorities in Rwanda.
Mr. Rusesabagina’s family heated up Rwanda by filing a $400 million lawsuit in a US court in Mr. Kagame’s name. The Rwandan leader is also under Western scrutiny because his country’s relationship with the M23, a rebel group in eastern Congo is pushing the region into chaos. He denies any connection, but relations with the United States are increasingly strained — a crisis that took shape in the wake of Foreign Minister Antony J. Blinken’s visit to Rwanda in August.
Mr. Blinken forcing Mr. Kagame about Mr. Rusesabagina, an unmistakable signal that the case had become an American priority. Four days later, John Tomaszewski, an aide to Mr. Risch, visited Mr. Rusesabagina in prison. He showed Mr. Rusesabagina the proposed text of the prisoner’s letter asking for Mr. Kagame’s pardon.
Mr. Rusesabagina said he was willing to give it a try.
Mr Tomaszewski said: “Paul’s family had doubts that he would continue to send the letter. “But Paul was pragmatic.”
Things started to move quickly. State Department officials worked quietly with Rusesabagina’s family to include words that would placate Kagame and suggest that, if released, Rusesabagina would stop being critical of him. Rwandan government.
Family members said they didn’t like the concessions, but accepted it anyway.
In November, the White House headed by Mr. Sullivan conducted secret negotiations. The Rwandan side is led by Mauro De Lorenzo, an American-born African researcher at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, who acquired Rwandan citizenship and became a staunch defender of his policies. Kagame.
Mr. De Lorenzo himself arrived at Mr. Sullivan’s office at 8 a.m. one day after Mr. Kagame’s belligerence outburstin the first face-to-face conversation about the possibility of Rusesabagina’s release.
The discussion then turned to how emancipation might unfold, US officials said. Although the Rwandans are not demanding money or exchanging prisoners, they do want the family to drop the case. They resolutely upheld the criminal conviction of Mr. Rusesabagina. And they want the United States to issue a statement protesting “political violence” – the kind of violence Rwanda has accused Mr. Rusesabagina of leading.
The US agreed to those requests, leading to Mr. Kagame’s first public hint of a possible March 13 release.
However, the Rwandans are sensitive about the possibility of releasing a prisoner they have long asserted as the mastermind of terrorism. Mr. Kagame did not want to be seen as yielding to US pressure.
So he turned to Qatar, an investor in Rwanda that often uses its vast gas reserves to help solve international crises.
When Mr. Rusesabagina release From prison on the night of March 24, American diplomats drove him straight to the home of the Qatari ambassador to Rwanda, where he stayed for three nights.
When Mr. Rusesabagina flew out of Kigali on March 27, it was on a Qatari government jet.
US officials flew with Mr. Rusesabagina to Qatar’s capital, Doha, where he was greeted by American attorney Ryan Fayhee. Two men check into the St. Regis, where ex-convicts enjoy their first glass of wine in several years.
On Wednesday, they arrived in Houston, where Rusesabagina was transferred to a military medical facility near his home in San Antonio, which specializes in treating trauma survivors. (Basketball star Brittney Griner gets treatment at the same facility after she was released from Russia in December.)
Two days later, Mr. Rusesabagina returned home, surrounded by his wife, six children and supporters who campaigned for his release. They popped champagne, shared a barbecue, and sang “God Bless America.”
That same day, his lawyers formally dropped the case against Mr. Kagame. But Rwanda still faces a number of lawsuits in Africa, Europe and the United States related to Rusesabagina’s arrest, said Kate Gibson, his lead lawyer.
Another issue also stands out: whether Mr. Rusesabagina, now safe on American soil and arguably more popular than ever, will stick to his pledge to cut back on criticism of his old nemesis, Mr. Kagame. .
Declan Walsh And Abdi Latif Dahir reported from Nairobi, Kenya, and Michael D. Cut from Washington.
