Roméo Dallaire

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Roméo Dallaire (2006)

Roméo Antonius Dallaire (born June 25, 1946 in Denekamp , Netherlands ) was from 1993 to 1994 as major general of the Canadian troops, commander of the United Nations blue helmet troops at the UNAMIR mission in Rwanda .

Use in Rwanda and subsequent periods

In 1994, the largest genocide after the Second World War took place in Rwanda , the genocide of the Tutsi . Between 800,000 and a million people were murdered within 100 days. In a later report, Dallaire wrote that with 5,000 men, he probably could have stopped the Hutu genocide of the Tutsi . From April 24, 1994, Dallaire no longer spoke of massacres or ethnic mass murders in his reports to the UN headquarters , but of genocide and wanted to oblige the world community to act. The fact that the UN did not comply with Dallaire's urgent requests was not least due to the veto powers in the UN Security Council . The US in particular avoided the use of the word genocide, as such, according to the Charter, would have forced the UN to intervene. The United States had restricted operations in Africa due to the events in Somalia in 1993 ( Operation Irene ) . Even France shied away from an intervention against the supported them, trained and equipped army of the country that has been dominated by Hutus back.

One of the first victims of the genocide in Rwanda was Agathe Uwilingiyimana , Rwanda's prime minister and legitimate successor to President Juvénal Habyarimana , who was killed on April 6, 1994 . Fifteen Ghanaian and Belgian blue helmet soldiers hired by Dallaire were arrested while trying to protect them from being murdered. While the five Ghanaian soldiers were later released, the ten Belgian soldiers were left to an angry crowd who mistreated and killed them. In view of the murder of its soldiers, Belgium fled its troop contingent from Rwanda. Dallaire lost its best trained and equipped soldiers. He still wanted to strengthen UNAMIR , but tried in vain to change the mandate based on Chapter VI of the UN Charter. Instead, the UN Security Council decided on April 21, 1994 to withdraw most of the UNAMIR contingent from the country, as the ceasefire was considered to have failed. Dallaire remained in Kigali against the instructions from UN headquarters in New York with a symbolic presence of 270 soldiers . As far as possible, he tried to show his remaining troops during the genocide, despite the restraint that was imposed on him, and was able to create security zones to a very limited extent.

Suffering from post- traumatic stress disorder after the experiences in Rwanda , Dallaire was discharged from the Canadian army in 2000. Convinced that he was complicit in the genocide in Rwanda, Dallaire made two suicide attempts . Dallaire's testimony before the ICTR in February 1998 and the result of an official investigation report by the UN confirm the allegations of failure to provide assistance to the United Nations system. Dallaire made the members of the UN Security Council, the General Assembly and in particular the Belgian government jointly responsible for the genocide in Rwanda. In 2003 he published the book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda , in which he dealt intensively with the events of 1994 and explains the role of the international community in this conflict in more detail. The German translation Handschlag mit dem Teufel: The global community's complicity in the genocide in Rwanda was published in 2005.

In the film Hotel Rwanda , Roméo Dallaire served as a model for the character of Colonel Oliver (played by Nick Nolte ). Also in 2004, the documentary Shake Hands with the Devil - The Journey of Roméo Dallaire starring Roméo Dallaire was released. In 2007 the Canadian drama Shake Hands with the Devil was released , which is also based on Dallaire's book.

In 2005, Dallaire was appointed Senator in the Canadian Senate by Prime Minister Paul Martin . There he represented the province of Québec as a liberal politician . In 2008, Dallaire joined the call for a Parliamentary Assembly to be set up at the United Nations . On June 17, 2014, he resigned from his position as senator. Today he is primarily involved in opposing the use of child soldiers.

Quotes

“I know that there is a God […] because I shook hands with the devil in Rwanda. I've seen, smelled and touched it. I know that there is the devil, and therefore I know that there is a God. "

Awards

Works / editions

  • Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure Of Humanity In Rwanda. Random House Canada, Toronto 2003 ISBN 0-679-31171-8
  • (with Jessica Dee Humphreys :) They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children. The global quest to eradicate the use of child soldiers. Random House Canada, Toronto 2010, ISBN 978-0-307-35577-5 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Roméo Dallaire  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dallaire's biography on the Wall of Honor of the Royal Military College of Canada .
  2. ↑ Marcel Bohnert: On dealing with the burdened past in post-genocidal Rwanda. Regensburg: Roderer, 2008, p. 21ff.
  3. ↑ Helmut Slop: Psychology: Commanded helplessness. In: Troop service - magazine for training, leadership and deployment in the Austrian Armed Forces, issue 4/2008. Retrieved April 19, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Marcel Bohnert: On dealing with the burdened past in post-genocidal Rwanda. Regensburg: Roderer, 2008, p. 38f.
  5. ↑ de.unpacampaign.org ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / de.unpacampaign.org
  6. ↑ [1]
  7. ↑ Roméo Dallaire: Handshake with the Devil , p. 19
  8. ↑ 2003
  9. ↑ The "Literary Review of Canada" rated this book in 2016 as one of 25 books that had the greatest influence in Canada in the last 25 years.
personal data
SURNAME Dallaire, Roméo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dallaire, Roméo Alain
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian general, commander of the blue helmet troops in Rwanda
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Denekamp , Netherlands