Rwandan hero to give final spring talk for Assembly Series

April 9, 2007 -- The final lecture for the spring 2007 Assembly Series will feature Rwandan hero Paul Rusesabagina at 11 a.m. April 18 in Graham Chapel. It is free and open to the public. He will speak on his experiences, his ongoing support of Rwanda, the genocide in Darfur, and current issues involving international humanitarian aid.

The story of the Rwandan genocide in the spring of 1994 is horrific: For 100 days, the Hutu-led Interahamwe slaughtered the Tutsi population, resulting in the death of approximately 800,000 people.

Most Tutsis or moderate Hutus found nowhere to turn for their survival, with very few exceptions. One was the Hotel Mille Collines, a luxury hotel in central Kigali that was at the time temporarily managed by Paul Rusesabagina. Putting himself at great peril, Rusesabagina used his influence and connections to fend off almost daily attempts to kill the 1,200 people in the hotel.

Since Rusesabagina's extraordinary story has been told through the Oscar-nominated film, "Hotel Rwanda" and through his own memoir, An Ordinary Man, he has been hailed internationally as a hero and, for many, as a voice for those in African nations currently experiencing wholesale victimization.

Born in Rwanda in 1951, Rusesabagina was of mixed heritage. He served as an assistant general manager for the Hotel Mille Connies from 1984 to 1992, then was promoted to general manager for the Diplmate Hotel, both based in Kilgali and owned by Sabena Airlines. His wife, Tatiana, was a Catholic Tutsi, and therefore a taget of government-sponsored attacks. Although his wife and children were beaten during an attempted escape from the hotel to a safer place, they sirvived and in 1996 the family emigrated to Belgium.

For more information, visit the Assembly Series Web site at assemblyseries.wustl.edu, or call 314-935-4620.

In addition to receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, Rusesabagina has been given a number of humanitarian awards, including the Immotral Chaplains Prize for Humanity, the Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan, and the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award.