Photo: Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagi

I would like to express my great feeling of solidarity with the Assyrians Without Borders organization and all Assyrian people. As a survivor of the Rwandan genocide who lost many family members and friends in 1994, I very much understand the lasting repercussions of a terrible conflict that is rooted in a long history of violence. My organization, the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation, was founded not just to help my fellow Rwandans, but also to help all people who have suffered in the past from genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Just as importantly, we seek common ground with all people to prevent these horrific crimes in the future.

As a genocide survivor who now cannot return to my country because of current political realities, I also feel kindred for the Assyrian community. Like Rwandans, the Assyrian people have a long history of conflict. Like my people, the vast majority of Assyrians were and are simply caught up in conflicts that they did not make. This violence is led by individuals who seek their own personal power, regardless of the cost that is born by the average citizens around them. Over time this leads to human rights abuses, exile and untold death and suffering. Thus there are many common attributes that can be seen between your people and mine, and between our causes.
I hope you will join me in my current journey, which I believe is also yours. My foundation and I seek to tell the truth about what is happening in Rwanda and other conflicts around the world, past and present. The trials of the Assyrian people is certainly one of these areas. Only when the truth is known and accepted can we hope to find justice for those who were wronged. With justice we may be able to work toward reconciliation of all of our peoples, and when societies are reconciled we can finally move toward peace. Peaceful coexistence within our own countries and with others is certainly our ultimate goal.
I thus extend my heartfelt support to your organization and people, and hope we can work together for lasting truth, justice, reconciliation and peace in the future.

Paul Rusesabagina
President, Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation
www.hrrfoundation.org