Imagine seeing a hotel manager bargaining for his and your life, with men twice his size, machete in hand. Paul Rusesabagina used his diplomatic connections, wits, flattery, and alcohol to save the lives of the refugees in the Mille Collines Hotel. Paul Rusesabagina, in a time of terror and hatred, had the courage to protect over 1,200 refugees in the Mille Collines Hotel from the Hutu militia.

            Paul Rusesabagina was born on June 15, 1954 in Murama-Gitorama, Rwanda, to a Hutu farming family. He enrolled in the Hotel Management Program at Utalii College in Nairobi, Kenya. After graduating from this program, he was hired as the assistant general manager of the Mille Collines Hotel in Rwanda. Then in 1992 he was promoted to general manager of the nearby Diplomat Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda (Book Rags 1).

            In 1987 Rusesabagina married his wife Tatiana, a Tutsi. They had children and had a good life together, at least until the genocide started. The killing started when Rwandan President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down with the President of Burundi on board as well. That night the Hutu Interahamwe militia took the streets slaughtering Tutsis. This was the start of the genocide in Rwanda (Book Rags 1-2; Oprah 1).

            Tension between the Hutus and Tutsis had been building up since the 1960s when the Hutus took power after Rwanda gained independence from Belgium. Before they became free, the Tutsis had held power, because in 1916 the Belgians said that the Tutsis were the superior race and set up a protectorate led by the Tutsis. But when the Hutus rebelled in 1959 the Tutsis fled the country and Belgium withdrew from Rwanda and the Hutus took over. During the 1960s the Tutsis who had been forced to flee tried to return, resulting in massacres. Then in 1973 the Army Chief took over and sets up a one party state. Finally in 1990 and 1991 the Tutsi organization, RPF, invaded and the Hutus began training their militia. All this led up to the breakout of violence on April 6, 1994 (The Real Hero 6).

            When the violence started 26 people gathered in Paul’s home for protection, but when it became too dangerous, they all had to get into a safer location. This location was the Mille Collines Hotel, for which Paul used to be the assistant manager (Oprah). While there he sought the protection of the UN peacekeepers, but this didn’t last long, because they pulled out about half way into the genocide because there was too high of a risk on their own lives. So Paul had to resort to his diplomatic connections and charm to keep the people alive in the hotel. He had to deal with military leaders on many occasions using flattery and alcohol to calm them down enough to persuade them to leave (Book Browse). One particular incident was when a reporter that was in the hotel took footage of the killings and was going to try to get it to the media in Europe and America to persuade people to come and help. When the Hutus found out about this they sent for the reporter to be killed, but Paul saved this reporter by flattering the general, saying that they shouldn’t send a man of such high status to come kill a lowly person, and the general left, though assuring Paul he would send someone else to kill the reporter, but that never happened. This was one of many encounters that Paul Rusesabagina handled so well (Hotel Rwanda).

            In the 100 days of the genocide between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people were killed. Paul Rusesabagina was credited for saving 1,268 refugee Tutsis and moderate Hutus. After escaping from Rwanda Paul moved to Belgium were he drove a taxicab, and now he owns a trucking company in Zambia. Also he travels the world talking about what he saw, trying to get people to not let something like this to ever happening again. Also Rusesabagina has started a charity in Boston to help orphans whose parents died in the genocide. The charity also helps orphans of AIDS (Jakarta).

            Paul has now written an autobiography entitled “An Ordinary Man.” And he has also received many awards for his courage, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. But the struggles still affect Rwanda to this day. Now the Tutsis have control of the country, and there are still tensions between Hutus and Tutsis. And in addition, there were 100,000 prisoners after the genocide, and since then there has only been trials for 5,000 of them. So there is still much to be done to bring peace to this nation, but all the work Paul has done and will continue to do will help (Oprah).

            Through all of his hardship, both during and after the genocide, Paul Rusesabagina has shown great courage, mental strength, strong leadership, and saved not only his life, but the lives of over 1,200 others. Amazingly he has gone on to write a book, start charities, win awards and get his life and career back on track. All this is why Paul Rusesabagina is my hero and role model.