Rwandan hotelier ‘starving’ | Abroad

“We are incredibly scared and I don’t know if my husband has access to water and food,” said Taciana Rusesabagina, referring to her husband’s last phone call last Friday. In it, the hotel manager who saved more than 1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from certain death during the genocide said that he would not be given any more food, drink or medicine. There would also have been a line drawn by the weekly telephone conversations with the family.

Solitary confinement

Prison authorities deny the allegations and say that inmates with special needs are taken into consideration without further ado. Because of his high blood pressure, Rusesabagina needs a special diet, medicines and plenty of water. “When he was transferred to Nyarugen prison at the time, he was given his own cell and special menu. However, he was transferred to a shared cell when he complained about his so-called solitary confinement. He gets the same food as others and gets medical care.”

Rusesabagina, a Belgian citizen and leading critic of President Paul Kagame for his authoritarian regime and intolerance to criticism, was kidnapped, blindfolded and gagged in Dubai last August, and flown to the Rwandan capital, Kigali. Here he was charged with murder and forming an armed group to carry out deadly attacks in Rwanda.

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