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Paul Rusesabagina
Photograph via Wikimedia Commons
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Paul Rusesabagina

born 1954

Sheltered over 1,200 people at the Hôtel des Mille Collines

Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Rwanda Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.

Why they are here

A hotel manager who sheltered more than twelve hundred people during the 1994 genocide, including his own family — the story told in Hotel Rwanda.

In 1994 Paul Rusesabagina, the Hutu manager of a luxury hotel in Kigali, sheltered over 1,200 people including his Tutsi wife and their children, while extremists killed more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in a hundred days.

His later relationship with the Rwandan government has been bitterly contested, including his imprisonment and eventual release.
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