“The whole world closed ears and eyes, turned backs, and ran away,” said Paul Rusesabagina as he described the international community’s reaction to the start of the Rwandan genocide for a Latin School audience on April 22.



During a day-long visit to Latin, Rusesabagina, whose story of saving the lives of more than a 1,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by sheltering them in the Mille Collines Hotel was documented in the movie Hotel Rwanda, shared his experiences and stressed the importance of international intervention to prevent atrocities.

“What is going on in the African continent is a disaster,” he said, describing current violence in the Sudan, Uganda, and the Congo. In the Sudan “thousands of innocent people are being killed and more than a million are displaced in their own country without food, shelter, or water. That is why we need you.”



Invited as the final speaker of the year for Latin’s Initiative For Ethics (LIFE), Rusesabagina called on students, parents, faculty, and guests at several events to learn about what is going on in Africa and pressure the U.S. government to take political action.

Rusesabagina explained that, although reluctant initially to have his story told through film, he soon realized that Hotel Rwanda could be the most effective vehicle for getting the message out about what happened in his country and what could happen elsewhere.

In April 1994, as Hutus were massacring Tutsis and foreigners were fleeing the country, Rusesabagina was temporarily put in charge of the Mille Collines by its Belgian owners. With little hesitation and at great risk, he immediately opened the doors for relatives, friends, neighbors, and strangers seeking refuge.



At the time he thought: “One day all this will come to an end and I will have to face history and my own conscience. [When that day comes] will I be a happy man?”

So, Rusesabagina bullied, bribed, negotiated, and pleaded with powerful connections in Rwanda and abroad to save his charges—several times coming close to being killed himself.

Near the end “I was sure of just one thing: that I would be killed. How, when, where—those were my only questions.”

After two and a half months the refugees at the Mille Collines were evacuated to safety. Rusesabagina and his family tried to return home one more time. But eventually, after their lives were threatened again, they immigrated to Belgium. He now manages a trucking firm, runs a foundation to educate children in Rwanda, and lobbies to bring the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide to justice.

Another special guest to Latin on April 22 echoed Rusesabagina’s sentiments about the responsibilities of the international community. Stephanie Nyombayire lost more than 100 relatives during the Rwandan genocide. Now a freshman at Swarthmore College and a spokesperson for the Genocide Intervention Fund, Nyombayire was invited to the school by STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) to speak about the situation in Sudan.


As part of a project with MTV-U (MTV’s campus network), Nyombayire recently traveled to Chad to interview Sudanese refugees. STAND participated by sending disposable cameras along. Refugee workers will teach camp children how to use the cameras to document their lives. Once the film is used up, STAND hopes that the cameras will be returned to Latin for processing and the photographs can be displayed. In the meantime, photographs of camp life taken by the MTV-U crew are being exhibited in Latin's Gallery 1.

© 2008 The Latin School of Chicago

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