Shake Hands with the Devil - Roméo Dallaire - Part 7 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 198

July 17, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 7 - pages 327-368 (e-book)
Reading Time - 60 minutes

Had a minor hiccup here when the ebook expired from the library! Had to sign it out again and that took a bit of time... but, hopefully back on track. I am not taking such detailed notes on the book anymore... suffice to say... the genocide was horrendous.

Chapter 12. Lack of Resolution

With the departure of most of his troops, Dallaire decided to step up the media campaign, as any sort of media can be worth a battalion of soldiers. He offered a BBC reporter full access to all of the UN mission activities as long as he gave an accurate and truthful story. Other journalists noticed the BBC's stories and started to flow into Rwanda to document the slaughter. Dallaire wanted to use the media to try to prod the international community into action. And, on April 24, Oxfam was the first organization to use the term genocide to describe what was happening in Rwanda.

The killing continued and the Red Cross and Doctors without Borders were continually threatened. The extremist radio station broadcast a message to "kill Dallaire", the "white man with the moustache". Dallaire still tried to negotiate a ceasefire but nothing seemed to work. His troops continued to do rescue missions - a family here, a few nuns there but they were getting shot at by both sides, even though both sides said that they wanted the UN mission in Rwanda. At several points he met with leaders of the militia, the machete wielding génocidaires, and felt like he had shaken hands with the devil.

Dallaire submitted a plan for reinforcements and, had it been followed in a timely manner, experts later agreed, it would have stopped the killing. But while the UN debated, and the US stalled, the killings continued. Dallaire mused: "What was the spark that lit the fuse that blew up into all this degradation and perversion? And why were we so feeble, fearful and self-centred in the face of atrocities committed against the innocent?" Even after the high commissioner for human rights arrived and deemed what was happening a genocide, the Security Council did nothing.

It's depressing to read about such inaction on the part of an organization tasked with maintaining peace and order in the world. And, as I read this chapter, I found it much more disjointed than the preceding chapters, a reflection of the disjointed events from that time and Dallaire's own slow descent.