LOS ANGELES - “The two most abused words are ‘never’ and ‘again’,” said Paul Rusesabagina at Claremont McKenna College last week. “A few weeks ago, there was a ceremony at Auschwitz and they said, ‘Never again’- and yet it is happening again in Sudan.”

Rusesabagina, the real-life hero whose story is depicted in the film Hotel Rwanda, is touring the United States to call for international action to stop genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan as he tells his own story.

In the spring of 1994, over a span of 100 days, militiamen and citizens from the Hutu ethnic majority killed an estimated 800,000 moderate Hutus and members of the Tutsi minority. Rusesabagina, a Hutu himself and manager of the four-star Milles Collines Hotel in Kigali at the time, used craftiness, bribery and government connections to save the lives of 1,268 Tutsi refugees, many of them children.

Rusesabagina, special advisor for Hotel Rwanda began his U.S. tour following the Academy Awards.

Comparing Modern Genocides	Rwanda 1990-1994	Darfur, Sudan 2003-
Population (before genocide)	7.6 million	6 million
Deaths	Estimated 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu (April-July, 1994)	Uncertain, estimated 350,000-400,000
Internally displaced persons (refugees in their own country)	1.5 million Tutsi (1990-1994)	1.66 million
Refugees	200,000 Tutsis in Uganda (1959-1994) 2 million Hutus in Zaire (July 1994)	205,500 in camps in Chad

Film vs. Reality

As genocide unfolds in Darfur, Rusesabagina says he agreed for a film to be made about him in order to remind the world of their abandonment of Rwandans over a decade ago. He turned down several filmmakers who wanted to make a documentary because he wished to reach a broader audience. So, when the mainstream production companies United Artists and Lion Gates Films proposed the idea for Hotel Rwanda, he agreed.

Though Rusesabagina was a special advisor to the filmmakers, some changes were made to the story. For instance, a few weeks after the genocide began, an attempt was made to evacuate the refugees who, through their contacts abroad, had managed to secure exit visas. Though his wife and children left, Rusesabagina decided to stay behind because he was the only person who could help the refugees remaining in the hotel.

“We discussed it, not like in the film,” which shows him making a split-second decision. “I told my wife ‘If I leave these people and they are killed, I will never go to my bed and sleep, I will never eat and feel satisfied, I’ll always face my conscience. We might meet, we might not, but we love each other.’ It was a very hard decision to make, but it had to be made.”

Soon after the convoy left, however, it was ambushed. Rusesabagina heard the name of his toddler son being read over the radio station RTLM, which incited hatred and issued orders throughout the genocide.

A few minutes later, the convoy returned to the hotel. The film shows most of the refugees returning unscathed, including Rusesabagina’s wife Tatiana, but in actuality, they were severely beaten.

Timeline of Hutu and Tutsi Relations in Rwanda

1300s – Tutsis migrate into what is now Rwanda, which was already inhabited by the Twa and Hutu. 1890 – Germans colonize Rwanda. They are the first to discriminate between Hutu and Tutsi, appointing Tutsis to top positions though they are a minority. 1923 – Rwanda becomes a Belgian protectorate after Germany loses WWI. Belgian authorities issue separate identification cards for Hutus and Tutsis 1959 – Hutus revolt, forcing Tutsi King and 200,000 refugees into exile in Uganda. 1962 – Rwanda declared independent with a Hutu as president. 1973 – Juvenal Habyarimana, also Hutu, ousts previous president in a military coup. More Tutsis flee the country. 1978 – Juvenal Hyarimana becomes president. 1990 – Forces of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), mainly made up of Tutsis, invade Rwanda from Uganda. 1993 – President Hyarimana signs a power-sharing agreement with the RPF in Arusha, Tanzania. The United Nations agrees to send a peacekeeping force. 1994 – On April 6, President Hyarimana and the president of Burundi are murdered when their plane is shot down over Kigali. Extremist Hutu militias and members of the military begin to systematically massacre Tutsis. UN peacekeepers are pulled out and within 100 days, approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus are killed. The genocide stops when the RPF takes over Kigali, creating a mass flow of 2 million Hutu refugees to Zaire. 1994 – The RPF permits Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, to serve as president in order to foster national unity. Paul Kagame, the RPF leader, becomes vice president. 2000 – Bizimungu resigns, Kagame becomes president. 2003 – In August Kagame is elected president in the first elections since the 1994 genocide, which EU observers say were marred by fraud.

“[Tatiana] did not come back the way you see in the movie,” he said. “She came back, lying in the truck, bleeding. She lay in bed for two weeks without being able to turn herself.”

‘It’s Happening Again’

Two weeks after the genocide ended, Rusesabagina returned to the Milles Collines Hotel to start anew. In September 1996, however, he and his family were forced to leave Rwanda and seek refuge in Belgium.

Now a businessman in Brussels, he has started a non-profit organization called the Paul Rusesabagina Foundation to aid genocide survivors in Rwanda, especially children. He is also working to increase international efforts to stop the killing of innocent civilians in other places in Africa.

“Many other genocides are still taking place,” Rusesabagina said. “In Africa especially, and in many other parts of the world.” He cited UN reports, according to which 3.8 million people have been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1996 .

His main focus, however, was on Darfur, a region in western Sudan where government-backed militias have killed an estimated 400,000 people and left nearly 2.5 million homeless since fighting between the government and rebel groups started in February 2003.

Rusesabagina visited there last month and says it reminded him of Rwanda during the years 1990-1994, when 1.5 million refugees surrounded Kigali after fleeing their villages.

The large number of orphans is also reminiscent of the Rwandan genocide, where half a million children lost their parents. During his visit, he went to Amnabak refugee camp in Chad and was greeted by thousands of children.

“Many young people gathered fast and demonstrated,” he said. “They held a blackboard that said, ‘Welcome to our guests, but we need education’. It was the same as Rwanda since 1994.”

In his talk, Rusesabagina called on American citizens to raise their voices and drive policymakers to take stronger action towards the Sudan government.

“Twenty years ago, the whole world and especially the American people fought apartheid in South Africa,” he said. “Americans demonstrated. Today, people can do that again.”

Disillusioned by the UN after it pulled out its peacekeepers in the midst of the Rwandan genocide, Rusesabagina still places hope in UN reform and the creation of a peacemaking force with a stronger mandate. He also suggests freezing the assets of African dictators held in American and European banks, as well as placing an embargo on selling arms to Sudan and the DRC.

He met with President Bush a few weeks ago and says that the President seems very committed to helping the people of Darfur.

As for the future of his own country, where fighting continues between Hutus and Tutsis, Rusesabagina believes only negotiations between the two sides to establish a genuine power-sharing agreement will bring peace.

“We need to get together around a table and talk,” he said. “It happened in South Africa and so far it has been proven that it was a good solution.”