Apr 6, 2014
CLICK 'Pod' icon (above left) to listen to the radio interview.
(IMPORTANT NOTE: @KerryZuckus points out that Rusasebagina's is just one side of a complex story. Zuckus believes that in"INSIDE THE HOTEL RWANDA": a different 'truth' is perhaps exposed. wp.me/p3lmJ2-4g - cut & paste link - via @rwandaissues
Twenty years ago, beginning on April 6 1994, more than 800,000
people were killed in Rwanda in
a horrific genocide
that spanned 100 days. To mark the 20th anniversary of
the horrendous events of
that time, KGNU's Claudia Cragg
speaks where with Paul
Rusesabagina, the part played by actor Don Cheadle in the film
'Hotel Rwanda'.
Genocide continues to be a
tragic global issue. To raise awareness of and commemorate the
20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide,
the autobiography of Paul Rusesabagina, who
saved thousands of lives during the horrific events of 1994 has
been re-published.
In his book,
An Ordinary Man, Paul Rusesabagina provides an inside look into
his life both before and after the horrendous mass murder
in Rwanda.
As the manager of the exclusive 'Hotel Les Milles
Collines' he sheltered more than 1,200 Tutsis and Hutu
moderates from the killings. The story brings
the reader inside the hotel during
those 100 days, relates the anguish of those who saw loved ones
brutally murdered, and describe Rusesabagina's ambivalence at
pouring scotch and lighting the cigars of killers in the Swimming
Pool bar, even as he was trying to cram as many refugees as
possible inside the guest rooms upstairs. Rusesabagina explores his
inner turmoil as he discusses the racial complexity within his own
life (he is a
Hutu married to a Tutsi) and his complete estrangement from the
madness that surrounded him during the genocide