Shake Hands with the Devil - Roméo Dallaire - Part 8 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 199

July 18, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 8 - pages 369-411 (e-book)
Reading Time - 60 minutes

The more I read this book, the more disgusted I am with the United States and former President Bill Clinton. Their inability/unwillingness to step into Rwanda resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and suffering for millions. It is unconscionable.

Chapter 13 - Accountants of the Slaughter

Finally, in mid May, the UN Security Council passed a resolution to strengthen the UN mission but the resolution had been gutted by the US. Dallaire was expecting 5500 troops but days went by and no troops arrived. It would take months for troops to arrive, long past the point when they were needed. The soldiers of the UN mission were reduced to the role of accountants keeping track of how many were being killed. The US and UK resisted the use of the term "genocide" but with every day, new reports reinforced what was happening. When troops did start coming in, the burden fell to countries like Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, India, Nigeria and Canada. All of them, with the exception of Canada, were too weak logistically to deploy without First World assistance. The US graciously offered 50 cold-war era APCs (Dallaire had asked for hundreds) for a price (millions) and when they were arrived, they were stripped of everything useful - tools, radios, manuals, spare parts.

It was also clear, the more territory the RPF acquired, that they were conducting their own massacres, on Hutus that were isolated behind their lines. Both sides were complicit in the genocide but an even greater humanitarian crisis was building as over two million Hutus, egged on by extremist radio, fled westward in front of the retreating RGF forces. Thousands had already fled into Tanzania where extremist leaders kept them in the throes of fear. The same was likely to happen with the westward fleeing refugees who would end up in Zaire. This would create a huge regional problem in central Africa and Dallaire warned the US but... it came to nothing.

Finally, some reconnaissance officers from the second wave of troops started appearing, some of them Canadians. Dallaire expressed gratitude for the two Canadian Hercules aircraft who had ferried in supplies (water, food, medical supplies) while shuttling wounded UN troops out to safety. Until the airport had to be shut down due to bombardment by the belligerents. Meanwhile, the killings continued.

Dallaire began to suspect that the UN mission was a distraction which allowed the UN and its member countries to say that they were doing something. But... the UN mission was saving dozens, or maybe hundreds, while hundreds of thousands were massacred and millions became refugees.

I honestly don't know how the UN troops kept going and it's clear why so many of them were psychologically damaged by their time in Rwanda. The human psyche can only handle so much and those troops were pushed beyond that...