How bad could it get? America’s ugly election

Paul Kagame’s regime grows more

brazen in attacking its critics

Rwanda’s celebrated hotel manager

We don’t need

another hero

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The Economist

September 5th 2020 

Middle East & Africa

39

2

1

in anticipation of just such an event. “He’s

always been paranoid about them arresting

him, shutting him down, because he had a

voice,” said his son, Trésor. “In Rwanda, to

have an opinion is a crime.”

The film “Hotel Rwanda”, which starred

Don Cheadle, made Mr Rusesabagina (pic-

tured on the right) a celebrity in the West. It

showed how during the genocide of 1994

that claimed some 500,000 lives he shel-

tered 1,268 terrified Tutsis and moderate

Hutus in the Mille Collines. A Hutu on joc-

ular terms with the army generals and mili-

tia leaders who masterminded the geno-

cide, Mr Rusesabagina used charm, cigars

and booze to buy time for the hundreds of

Tutsis who had taken refuge under his roof.