SAN ANTONIO – Jan. 20, 2022 – PRLog — Something odd is going on in San Antonio. On Friday night, San Antonio DreamWeek is giving a platform to representatives of the Rwandan Government which kidnapped and tortured the 2020 DreamWeek Keynote Speaker and Hotel Rwanda hero Paul Rusesabagina.
What are the DreamWeek creators thinking? They are showcasing the same government that abducted San Antonio resident and US Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Paul Rusesabagina in August of 2020. He remains imprisoned on bogus charges in Kigali, Rwanda.
This bears repeating: DreamWeek honored Rusesabagina two years ago. Today, they are providing a propaganda platform to his captors.
Rwanda is acknowledged by most independent analysts to be a totalitarian regime whose president-for-
Its security services have conducted multiple assassinations in foreign countries, and Rusesabagina’s abduction was in clear violation of international law — condemned by the Clooney Foundation, Human Rights Watch, the European Union Parliament, PEN America, the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice, the American Bar Association and multiple other organizations.
The U.S. State Department has condemned Rwanda for myriad abuses, including “forced disappearance by the government; torture by the government; harsh and life-threatening conditions in some detention facilities; arbitrary detention; political prisoners or detainees; politically motivated reprisal against individuals located outside the country.” Freedom House ranked the nation a miserable 22 out of 100 on its scale of respect for civil rights.
DreamWeek should be aware that all the happy talk about “milestones in rebirth and growth” on Friday will conceal an unpleasant reality under the government’s propaganda.
On April 6, 2021, a Rwandan diplomat was discovered to be spying on Professor Bill Israel’s class at Saint Mary’s University. The victims included American students and three members of the family of Hotel Rwanda hero Paul Rusesabagina as well as Kathleen Tobin Krueger, wife of former Texas U.S. Senator and U.S. Ambassador Bob Krueger. The incident was reported to the U.S. State Department and the FBI.
Charles Ntageruka, the Second Counselor at the Rwandan Embassy in Washington, spied on students and guests at the St. Mary’s University class using Zoom. A second suspect, Moses Rudasunikwa, came as an uninvited guest via Zoom, but declared himself sympathetic to the imprisoned Rusesabagina and his family. Only later did he acknowledge he had been surveilling Rusesabagina in the U.S. in cooperation with the Rwandan Embassy in Washington since 2007. Rudasunikwa is one of the organizers of Friday’s event. Professor Celine Jacquemin who invited him to the St. Mary’s event, is featured as a speaker for Friday’s program.
In 2012, the government of Sweden discovered that Rwanda diplomats were using the Embassy as a shield to hide their efforts to spy on Rwandans in Sweden. When the Swedish authorities discovered this, they expelled the Rwandan diplomats who were doing the spying.
The US authorities should follow the lead of Sweden. The DreamWeek panelists should be expelled from the United States for their deeds, not welcomed with open arms.
DreamWeek says it is dedicated to “a more equitable and enlightened society,” but this panel full of apologists for a vicious dictatorship is anything but a step in that direction. It is instead a direct insult to those who have suffered under the regime — including those in San Antonio.
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