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Morgan Liu

Mrs. Martin

CHC 2DE

September 26, 2011

Shake Hands with the Devil

In 1994, Gen. Romeo Dallaire led a doomed peacekeeping mission in Rwanda; consequently, he

witnessed the slaughter of almost a million people. His guilt and the things he had seen sent him down a

mental health spiral that still plagues him today. By the end of the genocide, Dallaires handwriting haddeteriorated, he began to self-harm, and he suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

When Dallaire arrived back in Canada from Rwanda, he developed a drinking problem; he raged at his

family, and he tried to kill himself. In 2000, he was found passed out drunk on a park bench in Montreal.

Photographer Stephane Beaudoin, alerted by a police report, said I felt sad for him. I thought, This man

has done so much for us. How did he come to be here? Even today, Dallaire continues to take pills andattend therapy sessions to calm his ghosts. Romeo Dallaires personal struggle showsjust how terrible

the genocide truly was; the victims of the genocide werent only the Rwandans, but also the man whochose to bear witness to the slaughter.

At the time Rwanda needed them most, the easily distinguishable blue helmets of the United

Nations peacekeeping forces were scarce, almost absent in the country. Though it was not the actions ofthe UN that started the massive genocide and civil war, it was their inactions that allowed the killings to

continue. In the fateful months leading up to the horrific genocide, the UN sent Gen. Romeo Dallaire to

Rwanda to help the Tutsi and the Hutu people sign the Arusha Accords and reach a mutual agreement

and peace. However, they did not inform him of the unrest or the long festering hatred the Hutus felt

towards the Tutsis. Going in without any training or intelligence, Romeo Dallaire had to quickly adapt to

the situation with a lack of materials, support, and communication; under the Chapter Six mandate, the

UN forces were also not allowed to use force until fired upon. In the first opportunity the UN had to stopthe genocide, Dallaire sent them an urgent request to seize the arms caches that the Hutus had hidden.

Instead, they told him to inform President Habyarimana, one of the conspirators, of his discovery. Soon

after the genocide began, the UN abandoned the people of Rwanda. It was only Dallaires determinationand refusal to leave, that the UN Security Council voted to pull all but 250 soldiers out of Rwanda.

Though they did protect some Tutsis, such as the ones gathered in the Amahoro stadium, the UNAMIR

mission was a failure to the people of Rwanda, and the lost opportunities would haunt Dallaire forever.

The lack of political will in Rwanda in 1994 was due to a number of factors, including racism,

the belief that there was nothing to gain there, and the mistakes made in Somalia before. The lack of

political will allowed and encouraged the Aqza and the Interhamwe commit genocide. The United States

chose not to stop the Hutu hate radio transmissions, as the cost would be too high. Belgium colonized the

country, and then abandoned Rwanda during its time of need after ten Belgian soldiers were killed.

During the genocide, Romeo Dallaire spoke to the media, and tried to shame people of the world into

helping. He spoke candidly to the media, unusual for a commander. The disinterested nations of the

world were apathetic, and allowed the genocide to continue; the mostly disinterested media ignored the

genocide, calling it a few tribal killings; the disinterested people of the world turned off theirtelevisions. The lack of political will was responsible for allowing almost a million people to die, andgenocides will continue to happen without the political will and institutional mechanisms to stop it.