NAIROBI, Kenya — When Paul Rusesabagina, the resort supervisor who saved greater than 1,200 Rwandans through the 1994 genocide, landed in Dubai final Thursday, he texted his members of the family on the messaging utility WhatsApp to guarantee them he had arrived safely.
That was the final the household mentioned they heard of him till Monday, when authorities within the Rwandan capital, Kigali, paraded him in handcuffs in entrance of the media, and mentioned he was being held on expenses together with terrorism, arson and homicide.
“We had been shocked and shocked,” Carine Kanimba, one of his daughters, mentioned in a phone interview from Washington on Tuesday.
The case of Mr. Rusesabagina has triggered consternation in the USA and Belgium, the place he has lived in exile over a few years, and in Rwanda, the place residents debate his worldwide status as a human-rights activist. In Rwanda, he is called a fierce opponent of the nation’s president — Paul Kagame — who has clamped down onerous on dissent.
It’s nonetheless unclear how Mr. Rusesabagina obtained from Dubai to Rwanda. The Rwandan authorities mentioned Mr. Rusesabagina was arrested by an “worldwide arrest warrant” however didn’t specify when or what nation may need helped.
The Rwanda Investigation Bureau said on Monday that Mr. Rusesabagina, 66, was suspected of being “the founder, chief, sponsor and member of violent, armed, extremist terror outfits,” together with the Rwanda Motion for Democratic Change, or M.R.C.D., and the Celebration for Democracy in Rwanda, or P.D.R.-Ihumure, each opposition events.
The M.R.C.D. has a militant wing often called the Nationwide Liberation Forces, which operates within the area and has been linked to assaults in Rwanda.
Rwandan officers mentioned on Tuesday that they might not launch any extra details about the case at the moment, and that investigations had been ongoing. The minister of justice didn’t reply to interview requests.
Ms. Kanimba mentioned that her father had gone from the USA to Dubai for what he mentioned was a brief assembly, and that he was to return on Tuesday to the USA, the place he lives. However as a substitute, she mentioned, Mr. Rusesabagina was “kidnapped” and arrested on “false expenses” for his criticism of the Rwandan authorities and Mr. Kagame.
“He wished to talk for the individuals whose voices had been suppressed,” mentioned Ms. Kanimba, 27, who works in impression investing. “It’s time for the world and worldwide group to talk up for him.”
Mr. Rusesabagina turned identified after the 1994 genocide, through which, in line with many accounts, he sheltered greater than 1,200 individuals within the Milles Collines resort in Kigali, the place he labored as a supervisor. A educated hotelier who studied in each Kenya and Switzerland, he was mentioned to have risked his life to shelter each Hutus and Tutsis from the genocide that killed as many as a million Rwandans in 100 days.
His story was captured within the 2004 Oscar-nominated movie “Lodge Rwanda,” which starred Don Cheadle as Mr. Rusesabagina. In 2006, he printed an autobiography, “An Strange Man,” which detailed the tumultuous days when he held off killers who had been concentrating on those that had sought his safety.
Mr. Rusesabagina acquired worldwide recognition, together with the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2005.
Lately, Mr. Rusesabagina turned a central determine in numerous actions that had been attempting to unseat Mr. Kagame’s authorities. In 2010, Rwandan authorities accused him of serving to to fund the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, which is energetic within the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and contains members who’re accused of having hyperlinks to the Rwandan genocide.
Mr. Rusesabagina additionally joined forces with the primary prime minister of Rwanda, Faustin Twagiramungu, to create a diaspora-based opposition coalition.
“His story exhibits the volatility of Rwandan politics and the unpredictable selections many actors from the genocide have made since,” mentioned Phil Clark, a professor of worldwide politics on the Faculty of Oriental and African Research, College of London, whose analysis focuses on the African Nice Lakes area.
“Rusesabagina’s alleged hyperlinks to armed teams in japanese Congohave made him a goal for prosecution,” he added.
Through the years, some have raised questions about the account of Mr. Rusesabagina’s heroism through the genocide, Mr. Clark mentioned.
“It’s well-known in Kigali that Rusesabagina handed over some Tutsi to the Hutu militias and made a substantial revenue by demanding safety cash from some survivors,” Mr. Clark famous, including, “His function through the genocide was a lot much less heroic than broadly assumed.”
A Belgian citizen and an American resident, Mr. Rusesabagina lives in exile in San Antonio. He’s the daddy of six youngsters and 7 grandchildren, mentioned Ms. Kanimba. Because the coronavirus pandemic restricted journey, he continued to advocate “peace and alter” in Rwanda, she mentioned.
Officers in the USA and Belgium have given no “substantive response” to requests from his household to intervene, mentioned Kitty Kurthy, a spokeswoman for the household and the Lodge Rwanda Rusesabagina Basis, which says it really works on points associated to genocide and battle worldwide.
