The inspiration for ‘Hotel Rwanda’: ‘Don’t close your eyes’
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(PORTLAND TRIBUNE) — Paul Rusesabagina offered simple advice about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where he is credited with saving more than 1,200 lives in his hotel, and his more recent imprisonment based on his criticism of human rights violations by that African nation.
He told a World Oregon audience in Portland on the 30th anniversary of that genocide: Do not remain silent.
“My message is simple: Whenever you see people in danger, do not forget to talk about them,” he said during a June 10 appearance at Revolution Hall in the final talk of the 2024 International Speaker series.
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“The very time you become silent, they will be forgotten. If you raise your voice and talk, by all means, the message will save their lives.”
The world was silent three decades ago about the events in Rwanda. But Rusesabagina said there is ample time for the United States and the European Union, among others, to speak up about the exploitation of workers mining minerals vital to high-tech devices such as smartphones in the Democratic Republic of Congo — and the complicity of neighboring Rwanda and Uganda in that trade.
The worst thing, he said, is “to close your eyes and ears and pretend not to see or hear what is happening. The world should not close its ears and eyes. The would should open its eyes and see what is going on in the Congo, where Rwanda and Uganda have invaded that country.”
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