Shake Hands With The Devil
Political conspiracy, international espionage, civil war, hundreds of thousands of lives on the line, and those in power lying through their teeth. It sounds like the selling-tag of a thriller novel, but it pretty accurately describes Roméo Dallaire's account of the Rwandan genocide, Shake Hands With The Devil.
Between April and June, 1994, 800 000 Rwandans were murdered while millions were displaced and the tiny country ravaged, first by extremists attempting to exterminate another ethnic group, then by an all-out civil war. We've heard all those stats, but Roméo Dallaire, Lieutenant General of the UN peacekeeping mission, narrates the political and military nuances in the initially delicate, then quickly deplorable, situation in Rwanda.
The UN entered Rwanda in 1993, attempting to negotiate a stable government between tensely opposed political parties and the growing open hatred between Hutu and Tutsi groups. As the military leader of the mission, Dallaire tells us that from the start the mission was direly under-equipped and unnoticed - a mere blip on the UN /world map. His book is subtitled The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, and he chronologically tells of failure, after failure, after failure to fulfill the international mandate to step-in.
It's a scathing look at the UN and the superpowers who had the capability to stop the genocide, but ignored the small, unprofitable African country. Plagued by inefficiency, slow responses, and manipulated by people with vested interests, the UN sent a token force that was too small and ill-equipped to fulfill its purpose. As the head of this force, Dallaire gives a fascinating insider's perspective into the frustration and psychological horror of watching the genocide unfold, but not having the resources to stop it.
Like I said, the book reads like the plot of a Michael Crichton novel, and is very well-written - except the backstabbing politicians, ruthless armies, and selfishly motivated world leaders are as real as the piles of bodies that lined the roads of Rwanda. The book is graphic (it faithfully reports the violence) and there are scenes you have to drag your eyes through. Dallaire's thorough account isn't a light read either, as he throws the reader into the chaos of unfamiliar names and places. But his detail is what makes it compelling to the end.
In his widely-quoted preface, Dallaire says a few things that set the tone and purpose of the book:
"In just one hundred days over 800,000 innocent Rwandan men, women and children were brutally murdered while the developed world, impassive and apparently unperturbed, sat back and watched the unfolding apocalypse or simply changed channels. Almost fifty years to the day that my father and father-in-law helped to liberate Europe -- when the extermination camps were uncovered and when, in one voice, humanity said, "Never again" -- we once again sat back and permitted this unspeakable horror to occur... The genocide in Rwanda was a failure of humanity that could easily happen again.
After one of many presentations following my return from Rwanda, a Canadian Forces padre asked me how, after all I had seen and experienced, I could still believe in God. I answered that I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him."
This is not an uplifting story - "the failure of humanity" is a condemning and accurate summary. But Dallaire's hope is that his book motivates today's readers to action, to the realization that the faith we have in blue flags and berets, in our own governments, is misplaced unless we are the ones to pressure our governments and mobilize them into action.
Between April and June, 1994, 800 000 Rwandans were murdered while millions were displaced and the tiny country ravaged, first by extremists attempting to exterminate another ethnic group, then by an all-out civil war. We've heard all those stats, but Roméo Dallaire, Lieutenant General of the UN peacekeeping mission, narrates the political and military nuances in the initially delicate, then quickly deplorable, situation in Rwanda.
The UN entered Rwanda in 1993, attempting to negotiate a stable government between tensely opposed political parties and the growing open hatred between Hutu and Tutsi groups. As the military leader of the mission, Dallaire tells us that from the start the mission was direly under-equipped and unnoticed - a mere blip on the UN /world map. His book is subtitled The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, and he chronologically tells of failure, after failure, after failure to fulfill the international mandate to step-in.
It's a scathing look at the UN and the superpowers who had the capability to stop the genocide, but ignored the small, unprofitable African country. Plagued by inefficiency, slow responses, and manipulated by people with vested interests, the UN sent a token force that was too small and ill-equipped to fulfill its purpose. As the head of this force, Dallaire gives a fascinating insider's perspective into the frustration and psychological horror of watching the genocide unfold, but not having the resources to stop it.
Like I said, the book reads like the plot of a Michael Crichton novel, and is very well-written - except the backstabbing politicians, ruthless armies, and selfishly motivated world leaders are as real as the piles of bodies that lined the roads of Rwanda. The book is graphic (it faithfully reports the violence) and there are scenes you have to drag your eyes through. Dallaire's thorough account isn't a light read either, as he throws the reader into the chaos of unfamiliar names and places. But his detail is what makes it compelling to the end.
In his widely-quoted preface, Dallaire says a few things that set the tone and purpose of the book:
"In just one hundred days over 800,000 innocent Rwandan men, women and children were brutally murdered while the developed world, impassive and apparently unperturbed, sat back and watched the unfolding apocalypse or simply changed channels. Almost fifty years to the day that my father and father-in-law helped to liberate Europe -- when the extermination camps were uncovered and when, in one voice, humanity said, "Never again" -- we once again sat back and permitted this unspeakable horror to occur... The genocide in Rwanda was a failure of humanity that could easily happen again.
After one of many presentations following my return from Rwanda, a Canadian Forces padre asked me how, after all I had seen and experienced, I could still believe in God. I answered that I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him."
This is not an uplifting story - "the failure of humanity" is a condemning and accurate summary. But Dallaire's hope is that his book motivates today's readers to action, to the realization that the faith we have in blue flags and berets, in our own governments, is misplaced unless we are the ones to pressure our governments and mobilize them into action.