Romeo Dallaire and the Rwandan genocide

Romeo Dallaire on Rwandan genocide

by Carl-Stéphane Huot

"Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sun, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die, One for the Lord on his dark dark throne in the land of Mordor where the shadows extend, One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

"Recentlywas published simultaneously in English and in French the tragic story of Canadian Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire about the genocide inRwanda.This story is important because it is written by the hand of the man who had receivedUNmission the to come betweenand Hutus  Tutsis that the killings did not take place. For various reasons, he set out in his book, the killing has still occurred. The book, whose title is French I shook hands with the

Devil:The Failure of Humanity inRwanda,certainly interest many Europeans, primarily the French and the Belgians, the respective governments, for reasons policies have greatly contributed to the genocide took place.

It happened in Rwanda ..

This small African country, a little over 26 300km², is wedged between Congo, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. First colonized by the Germans in 1898, the country will come under Belgian control during the First WorldWar,which will keep up the aristocracy and the Tutsi monarchy in power until then, keeping 85% Hutu government .

In 1959, the revolt of the Hutus will force the Tutsi leaders into exile and will trigger a civil war which will continue until 1993 (date of treaty Arusha peace), with the complicity of the French and Belgian political leaders, besides neighboring countries had their share of refugees.

In order to maintain the cease-fire, UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda), under the command of General Dallaire was established. However, for political reasons, everything went wrong, and that led to the 1994 genocide, which was estimated between 800 000 and 1 million deaths.

General Romeo Dallaire had, from the start, to face the red tape of the UN to get any thing for his troops, such as food, medicines, toilet paper and water, plus all the necessary logistics to an army in the field, he obtained virtually no, not to mention well-equipped and trained troops (those of Western nations) that made ​​him sorely lacking.

He was offered many troops of the Third World, but could not accept because he could neither train them, or feed them or equip these troops being supplied him completely unprepared for a UN mission, besides a certain moral problem with the blatant lack of respect for human rights by their governments.

Asking information to France, Belgium and the United States including the region and political issues of the African Great Lakes area, he met with an end of inadmissibility, although subsequent events would show him that the governments of the major powers had a well-established network of contacts, which allowed them among others to stay in touch with the leaders of the two belligerents. Pushing to the limit its limited mandate from the UN, he gradually managed to obtain different disturbing information on what was going on behind the scenes.

Besides that Tutsis were receiving increasing amounts of weapons from Uganda, Hutu extremists, many of which were part of the MRND, the party in power since 1975, founded by President Habyarimana, were already preparing the next genocide. The youth wing of the extremist party, the Interahamwe, high in the morbid hatred of Tutsis, will be the backbone of the massacre of the latter. Including using the identity cards required by the Belgians before decolonization, extremists could file before methodically eliminate Tutsis from 7 April 1994.

However, despite the UN force among other things was aware the location of certain weapons caches, General Dallaire could involve his troops, the UN ban. The major powers - including the French who supported the Hutus and the Tutsis Belgians supported by interposed military advisers - seemed to know very well what was coming and to have given tacit agreement. On 7 April 1994, the incident that would trigger all happened when Habyarimana's plane crashed. Immediately, the massacre began, and in the same day, ten Belgian UNAMIR soldiers were shot, probably in order to from the Belgians, a tactic that succeeded beautifully.

One hundred days nightmare

The 100 days were a nightmare for Dallaire and his troops. Powerless to stop the massacre because devoid of equipment and information, as well as the support of the great powers, they could only watch helplessly the massacres by Hutu extremists. Despite the threats ensued and all the problems are caused by the UN bureaucracy, they refused to give in.

"Powerless to stop the massacre because devoid of equipment and information, as well as the support of the great powers, Dallaire and his troops could only watch helplessly the massacres by Hutu extremists.

"However,with hindsight, Dallaire believes that with 5 or 6,000 men he could have prevented or at least greatly reduce the scale of the genocide. The Hutu troops led Interahamwe were generally unruly, drunk or drugged most of the time, and several confrontations between them and the best troops of Dallaire turned to the advantage of the latter, making it suspect to the general could have quite easily overcome by appropriate means.

In order to force the Western powers to intervene, he amply served the media to make the public genocide. He was finally more or less successful, when the public demanded actions of its leaders. The French finally decided to intervene by Operation Turquoise, but this was mainly the result of amplifying the killings for a time, the perpetrators of genocide assuming correctly that the French would protect them from any form of justice that may apply against them.

Can also came a long procession of NGOs, rather than address the needs on the ground, especially if applied it to stay under the media spotlight to promote their own image. They also found help in spite of themselves Hutu or Tutsi fighters, because the aid is found more often than in the hands of the belligerentsfollowing:.

The most controversial act of the French Government was certainly the  Have announced that the government would bring 50 young Rwandans in France for treatment, a plane was coming to take them to Kigali airport at a specific time. It arrived 9 hours later, so that his arrival in France corresponds to the time with the most media impact. Meanwhile, one youth was dead, and the status of several other had seriously deteriorated.

The massacre finally ended, but that was mostly due to the fact that the Tutsi, commanded by General Paul Kagame decided . to take things in hand, and regain control of Rwanda by arms, they made ​​surprisingly quickly, further evidence of indiscipline Hutu troops

at the end of the book, the latest developments are quickly told: with Mental health problems increasingly evident, Dallaire was replaced at the end of summer 94. He subsequently several suicide attempts, and finally found the strength to write this book, to testify to that he had seen. It is also one of the main witnesses at the trial for crimes against humanity that is currently taking place in Arusha, almost 10 years after the conflict.

What are we to make of all this-

1. That a Christian nation to 90%  and not some exotic religion claiming its share of blood - would come to these extremes to serve us again, if necessary, to warning against any form of nationalism, vector of the deadliest hate human historyNations.
2. 2) That the United  - for which I had until recently some respect, even though I knew his bureaucratic tendencies - is little more than a puppet powerless to change anything without the support of member countries and pressure from their citizensindividuals.
3. 3) That, against the courage of  - one thinks, for example, anonymous members the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders who have dedicated themselves to the people of Rwanda during the conflict never shrink from what they saw as their duty - now more than ever is still needed against the forces of darkness. This testimony of General Dallaire, despite some weaknesses, deserves to be read and ponderedDallaire.

AS ALWAYS DISORDERS ARE RELIGIONS

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