Lantos Award to Hotel Rwanda's Paul Rusesabagina condemned

A Rwandan genocide survivors' group has criticised the awarding of a US human rights prize to a Rwandan hotelier who sheltered people during the genocide.

Paul Rusesabagina, who inspired the Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda, was given the prize by the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.

But Ibuka said “he exaggerated his own role in helping his hotel refugees escape the 100-day slaughter in 1994.”

Ibuka, and other genocide survivor groups, have also accused Mr Rusesabagina of having links with Rwandan Hutu militants based in DR Congo - and a prosecutor has alleged he sent money to commanders there.

Mr Rusesabagina now lives in exile and is a fierce critic of the government.

Ibuka is close to President Paul Kagame, whose forces ended the killing of some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus when they captured the capital, Kigali.

Proxies

The 2004 film Hotel Rwanda told the story of how Mr Rusesabagina, a middle-class Hutu married to a Tutsi, used his influence - and bribes - to convince military officials to secure a safe escape for the estimated 1,200 people who sought shelter at the Mille Collines Hotel in Kigali.

According to the executive secretary of Ibuka Janvier Forongo "Our problem is what they're doing, it's because of that film Hotel Rwanda - that is not a true story, he was charging them money for those who survived in that hotel".

Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation, said “the former hotel manager was also given the award for his continued courage in speaking out about political oppression in Rwanda, the lack of democracy, the squelching of the free press, imprisonment of political opponents, these are causes of concern and it takes courage to speak out when there is a government in Rwanda that really does not brook criticism well”.

Mr Rusesabagina told newsmen that such accusations were an attempt to divert the international community's attention from the real problem in Rwanda, such as its repression of the opposition.

Previous winners of the Lantos prize include Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and holocaust survivor Ellie Wiesel.

BBC/Waziri/Ekata