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Silencing the critics
Mr Rusesabagina’s pragmatic heroism won
him a Hollywood film deal, international
praise and an admiring audience in Ameri-
ca, which became a donor to the new gov-
ernment established by Paul Kagame, a for-
mer rebel leader. But the regime chafed at
Mr Rusesabagina’s outspoken criticism of
the Tutsi elite now running the country. He
poured scorn on Rwanda’s rigged elections
and mocked what he saw as token attempts
at ethnic reconciliation. “We have changed
the dancers but the music remains the
same,” he wrote in a memoir.
On social media Mr Kagame’s backers
are circulating a clip filmed in 2018 which
appears to mark the moment when Mr Ru-
sesabagina came out in favour of armed
struggle. “The time has come for us to use
any means possible to bring about change
in Rwanda,” he said, calling on Rwandans
to support the National Liberation Front,
the armed wing of a coalition of opposition
groups which included his own. “All politi-
cal means have been tried and failed.”
His family insist the 66-year-old grand-
father never actually intended to incite vio-
lence, which he abhorred. Anyway, the
much-hyped opposition coalition he was
part of has largely collapsed since he made
the statement, suggesting he posed no real
security threat to Rwanda.
This makes Mr Rusesabagina’s rendi-
tion all the more surprising, given the in-
ternational condemnation it courts. The
real motive may have been jealousy, says a
former confidant of Mr Kagame: “There can
only be one post-genocide hero in Rwanda
and that’s Kagame. He wasn’t going to share
the limelight with anyone.”
The operation is the most brazen that
his government has launched against per-
ceived enemies abroad. Quick to remind
the international community that it did
nothing to stop the genocide, Rwanda’s
leaders see Israel as a model and inspira-
tion. This extends to the efforts of the Israe-
li security services to track down and ab-
duct or kill those deemed enemies of the
state abroad.
Ever since a former Rwandan interior
minister, Seth Sendashonga, was shot dead
in Nairobi in 1998—an assassination for
which disillusioned members of Mr Ka-
game’s intelligence apparatus have since
admitted responsibility—the government
has shown the same readiness to ignore
borders. In South Africa at least three at-
tempts have been made on the life of an ex-
iled former army chief-of-staff, Kayumba
Nyamwasa, prompting the government to
expel Rwandan diplomats suspected of ar-
ranging the attacks. In early 2014 Patrick
Karegeya, a former external intelligence
chief, was found strangled in a Johannes-
burg hotel. Mr Kagame, who had known
both men since childhood, denies respon-
sibility. But the magistrate at Karegeya’s in-
quest ruled that the attackers were “di-
rectly linked” to Rwanda’s government.
In February Kizito Mihigo, a gospel
singer, died in Rwandan police custody.
Friends reject official claims that the young
man hanged himself. Last month a Congo-
lese gynaecologist, Denis Mukwege, who
won the Nobel peace prize for his work
with rape victims, said he had had a stream
of death threats after calling for those re-
sponsible for human-rights abuses in the
east of the Democratic Republic of Congo to
be held accountable.
un
reports accuse the
Rwandan army of committing mass atroc-
ities there in the late 1990s.
A Rwandan human-rights campaigner,
Rene Mugenzi, who describes Mr Rusesa-
bagina’s arrest as a “kidnapping” since no
extradition hearing was held, sees the lat-
est operation as evidence of extreme intol-
erance by a regime whose impressive eco-
nomic development has never been
matched by a respect for human rights:
“The risk Rusesabagina represented to Ka-
game was reputational, not military. He
could reach places in the American estab-
lishment that matter to Kigali. Now they
want to destroy his reputation in court.”
7
A hero and a pretender
A
s celebrations go
, it was sombre. A
century earlier French officials stood
in Beirut’s imposing Résidence des Pins
(the French ambassador’s villa) and carved
Lebanon out of their mandate in Syria. On
September 1st Emmanuel Macron travelled
there to mark the event—and to lecture the
politicians who have helped turn Lebanon
into a failed state.
Lebanon has always been a plaything
for foreign powers. America, Iran, Israel,
Saudi Arabia and Syria have all meddled in
the tiny country’s tortured politics. As Leb-
anon sinks into economic and humanitar-
ian crisis, two of its old colonial masters,
France and Turkey, are making worrying
bids for renewed influence.
This was Mr Macron’s second visit since
a massive explosion at Beirut’s port on Au-
gust 4th killed almost 200 people. The
prime minister, Hassan Diab, resigned
soon afterwards. For weeks the president,
Michel Aoun, declined to consult parlia-
ment about a successor. But he abruptly
summoned
mp
s to meet on August 31st.
Wags likened him to a child rushing to fin-
ish his homework before daddy returned.
Mr Macron speaks for many when he
calls for political change in Lebanon, ruled
for decades by a coterie of ageing, corrupt
men who deploy fear and exploit sectarian
loyalties to stay in power. “The objective of
this visit is clearly to mark the end to a po-
litical chapter,” Mr Macron said. Yet the
man who will lead this new beginning is
hardly a break from the past. The unexpect-
ed choice for prime minister was Mustapha
Adib, Lebanon’s ambassador to Germany,
who won the support of 90
mp
s out of 128.
For many, that very support makes Mr
Adib suspect. He is a political unknown,
but hardly an outsider. He advised Najib
Mikati, a billionaire businessman who
served two stints as prime minister and is
battling corruption charges. Mr Adib won
the backing of Saad Hariri, another billion-
aire ex-prime minister and the country’s
leading Sunni politician. The two main
Shia parties, Hizbullah and Amal, and Mr
Aoun’s Christian allies are also behind
him. A man handpicked by the establish-
ment is unlikely to confront it.
Even a genuine reformer would be over-
whelmed by Lebanon’s problems. Its econ-
omy has collapsed. The currency has lost
80% of its value on the black market since
October. Annual inflation hit 112% in July;
food prices leapt fourfold. Over half of Leb-
B E I RU T
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