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General still battling own internal demons
National Post ^ | November 4, 2003 | Isabel Vincent

Posted on 11/04/2003 9:46:59 AM PST by Squawk 8888

UN dysfunctional, troops cowards, he says in new book

Nearly 10 years after returning from a catastrophic tour of duty in Rwanda, Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire has come to realize that he has two sets of eyes.

The first set -- he calls them his "outside eyes" -- act like a camera and recorded the horrific acts of the 1994 genocide.

The second set -- the "inside eyes" -- look into his soul and won't let him forget what he saw.

Lt.-Gen. Dallaire saw a great deal in Rwanda he would like to forget, and which has since led to two breakdowns and a battle with alcohol. Unable, he has recounted many of them in his new book, Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.

They were horrific scenes: blood-soaked children hacked to death, their bodies thrown like rubbish on roadsides; pregnant women who had been murdered, their fetuses ripped from their stomachs; the dismembered bodies of 10 of his own soldiers.

While in Rwanda, Lt.-Gen. Dallaire never allowed himself to get emotional over what he was seeing.

"We were simply putting off our feelings until later," he recounts in his book, which was released this week and is already a bestseller in Canada. Salter Street Films in Halifax recently bought the rights to his book, and plans to start shooting a feature film next year.

But since leaving Rwanda his "inside eyes" continue to relive the horrors he saw in the small African country, where 800,000 people were slaughtered in a matter of months while he was charged with upholding a fragile peace accord between warring factions.

The failures of that mission, brought about by what he readily admits was his own inexperience coupled with the international community's intransigence and inability to react to the biggest genocide since the Holocaust, replays itself in his head at the slightest provocation.

In an interview yesterday, he said mundane things continue to set him off -- a trip to the produce aisle of a supermarket sends him back to the market in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, where he saw hundreds of dead bodies and desperate Rwandans on the verge of starvation.

"When I go to the produce area, I simply freeze because I am seeing the marketplace in Kigali," said Lt.-Gen. Dallaire, who secured a medical release from the Canadian Armed Forces in the spring of 2000 after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition he says afflicts thousands of soldiers who have returned from conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Afghanistan.

"These things come back and come back and come back and they are digitally clear and in slow motion. They never go away," he said, adding he devotes a great deal of his time to raising awareness of the disorder -- a situation that has sparked some controversy in military circles.

"Your heart goes out to the guy," said Major-General Lewis MacKenzie, now retired, who commanded UN forces in Central America and in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. "But he has become a kind of poster boy for post-traumatic stress disorder. Reliving the horror is not necessarily going to help soldiers deal with stress."

Indeed, military analysts are divided about how soldiers should deal with the events they have witnessed in the field. One school of thought says reliving the trauma only increases the trauma.

"Bullshit," responded Lt.-Gen Dallaire, who acknowledged yesterday that in the years after he left Rwanda, he battled debilitating depression, alcoholism and tried on more than one occasion to commit suicide. The only thing that helped, he said, was recounting his experiences again and again to anyone who offered a sympathetic ear.

Writing the book was also a form of therapy, although it was not easy, he said. Not only did he have to relive the horror of Rwanda over nearly 600 pages, in the middle of the project, his ghostwriter, journalist Sian Cansfield, committed suicide.

Although the book's publisher, Random House Canada, said Ms. Cansfield's suicide last summer was not linked to her research on the book, Lt.-Gen. Dallaire specifically referred to Ms. Cansfield, who is one of many people to whom he has dedicated his book, when he wrote, "It seemed to me that the UNAMIR [United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda] mission was still killing innocent people."

Shake Hands With the Devil is a brutally honest and sometimes controversial recounting of Lt.-Gen. Dallaire's sojourn in Rwanda. He is extremely critical of the dysfunctional nature of the UN, and recounts how he was sent to a country he knew almost nothing about to uphold a shaky peace.

The mission to uphold the Arusha Peace Agreement was a logistical nightmare from the first day, and Lt.-Gen. Dallaire describes pleading with UN officials in New York for everything from extra ground forces to paper and pencils.

He is also scathing about some of the troops in the multilateral force under his command. He describes the racism and lack of discipline of the Belgian soldiers, and the cowardice of the Bangladeshi contingent. According to his account, the Bangladeshi soldiers would only take their orders from Dhaka, and as thousands of people were being slaughtered in Kigali, they refused to put themselves in harm's way. Some 2,000 Rwandans died because of their inaction, the General writes.

In a photograph that came to symbolize the failure of Lt.-Gen. Dallaire's mission, Bangladeshi officers rushed an evacuation aircraft "like a scared herd of cattle" when it landed in Kigali in the early days of the genocide. The photograph -- which appeared on the front page of The Washington Post -- tainted the entire mission "as scared rats abandoning a sinking ship," he writes. "Even in their departure, the Bangladeshi contingent was able to bring my mission even further down in the eyes of those who saw us as a joke in the first place."

Still, he stayed on in Rwanda, even as the UN, and particularly the United States, turned away. At the time, the crisis in the former Yugoslavia occupied the world's attention. The United States had just emerged from its catastrophic mission in Somalia, and pressured the UN's then secretary-general, Boutros Boutros Gali, not to send reinforcements to Rwanda.

"I vowed to stay there to save one Rwandan life," said Lt.-Gen. Dallaire, who could barely feed the soldiers under his command and had to scrounge water and gasoline for generators after the genocide began in April, 1994.

Today, in addition to his work raising awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder, Lt.-Gen. Dallaire works as a special representative of the Canadian government working with former child soldiers around the world. He has travelled to Sierra Leone and Brazil, where he saw children working as soldiers for drug trafficking gangs.

He is also committed to what he calls conflict resolution, and will take up a prestigious post at Harvard University next fall to hammer out a plan that would see such middle powers as Canada lead efforts to change the nature of peacekeeping.

"In the past, the UN has simply stumbled into areas," he said. "Today, we need a whole new lexicon to deal with modern conflicts. We need conflict resolvers -- soldiers who are permitted to act in the ambiguity of complex missions."

He wants to create a cadre of troops who are well-versed in sociology, anthropology and history as well as military tactics, who could be called up to deal with such complicated situations as the one in Rwanda.

"The real crime is not to learn from Rwanda," he said. "It's like raping a person once and coming back and doing it again and again and again."


TOPICS: Canada; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: africa; clintonlegacy; dallaire; genocide; rwanda
I saw a documentary about his mission a couple of years ago. His new book should be required reading for anyone who thinks the UN should be trusted in matters of security.
1 posted on 11/04/2003 9:46:59 AM PST by Squawk 8888
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To: Squawk 8888
Required reading for any Leftist insisting that Iraq be turned over to the UN.
2 posted on 11/04/2003 9:55:34 AM PST by pabianice
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To: Squawk 8888
"in the middle of the project, his ghostwriter, journalist Sian Cansfield, committed suicide."

Wow! This MUST be a depressing book.

3 posted on 11/04/2003 9:56:55 AM PST by RANGERAIRBORNE ("It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." -Sherlock Holmes)
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To: Squawk 8888
It is worse than that.

Rwanda genocide occcured during Clinton misrule in the WH.

Clinton actually not only denied US help to stop genocide but PREVENTED others from intervening.

Africans were willing to send menpower into Rwanda and asked U.S. for logistics. Clinton asked $$$ for that, cynically knowing they have no money.

Look up congressional hearings about Rwanda.

Rwanda genocide is another Clinton legacy.

4 posted on 11/04/2003 10:07:45 AM PST by DTA
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To: Squawk 8888
Leftist Spin Alert: "the biggest genocide since the Holocaust". That could only be true if one classifies all the Communist genocides as something different. Something special, like "socialist population adjustments". Pol Pot, one of the most rabid socialist theorists turned mass murderer killed, by most estimates, about 2 million. The Gulags of Russia claimed more than 800,000 in the post WW2 era. And Mao is probably still the leader in mass killing in the post-Hitler era.

Of course they all meant well. Let's hold hands and sing the International again!

5 posted on 11/04/2003 10:12:45 AM PST by Jack Black
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To: Squawk 8888
...blood-soaked children hacked to death, their bodies thrown like rubbish on roadsides; pregnant women who had been murdered, their fetuses ripped from their stomachs; the dismembered bodies of 10 of his own soldiers...

...our African brothers celebrating multi-culturalism!!

6 posted on 11/04/2003 10:47:05 AM PST by martin gibson
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To: Jack Black
Yes, they do seem to have skipped over a few other genocides; I wonder why they would do that????
7 posted on 11/04/2003 11:45:39 AM PST by RANGERAIRBORNE ("It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." -Sherlock Holmes)
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To: Jack Black
Actually, it would be more accurate to call it the fastest genocide since the holocaust, which was noted in the documentary. Those 800,000 were killed in just 8 months; Hitler took six years, Stalin and Mao each had three decades to do their dirty work.
8 posted on 11/04/2003 12:13:45 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (Earth first! We can mine the other planets later.)
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To: RANGERAIRBORNE
Probably because the Holocaust is the only one that most people know about. Back in the 70s the schools taught about Hitler's deeds, but no mention was ever made of Armenia, Ukraine, China or Cambodia.
9 posted on 11/04/2003 12:16:42 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (Earth first! We can mine the other planets later.)
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To: Squawk 8888
I was just listening to a broadcast made by Chuck Missler of Koinonia House Ministries entitled "Behold a Pale Horse". It is available online via RealPlayer here. The fourth section entitles "Are there groups who want to see people die faster?" Missler discusses comments by ...

1) Jacques Cousteau who suggested the killing of 300,000 PER DAY to mainatin a sustainable world population,

2) the Red Chinese program of forced abortion,sterilization and infanticide and helps finance the United Nations "family planning program",

3) Bertrand Russell's call for virus to control world population,

4) Gorbechev's call for population control,

5) Margaret Sanger and the abortion industry,

6) the Tuskegee Study,

7) banning of DDT,

8) the possibility that AIDS was manufactured,

9) AND THE RWANDA MASSACRES.

Here is a transcript of that portion of the report ...

What really happened to Christians in Rwanda between April and July of 1994 is a shocking story. After the Christian Tutsis were disarmed by governmental decree in the early 1990s, Hutu-led military forces began to systematically massacre the defenseless Christians beginning in April 1994 and continuing until July 1994. Using machetes rather than bullets, the Hutu forces created a state of terror within the helpless Christian population as they systematically butchered thousands.

The United Nations immediately convened hearings on Rwanda, but Madeline Albright, American Ambassador to the United Nations, argued strenuously that neighboring African nations should not be allowed to intervene until the "civil war had come to an end." In reality, there was no civil war, since those being slaughtered bad no weapons with which to defend themselves; it was simply a matter of mass murder. In addition to blocking intervention by neighboring nations, Madeline Albright also insisted that the word "genocide" not be used, and that United Nations forces stationed in Rwanda were not to be allowed to intervene. In the three months that followed, between one-half and three-quarters of a million Christians were systematically dismembered, hacked to death, and slaughtered in the bloody carnage that ensued. Tens of thousands of Christians were murdered in churches; tens of thousands more were murdered in hospitals and schools. On several occasions, United Nations soldiers stationed in Rwanda actually handed helpless Christians over to members of the Hutu militia. They then stood by as their screaming charges were unceremoniously hacked to pieces.

At the end of the carnage in late July 1994, the American government rewarded the Hutu murderers with millions of dollars in foreign aid. The American press has been silent about the fact that almost all people slaughtered were Christians, and that it was our government's policy that was primarily responsible for blocking efforts by neighboring African countries to intervene.

I highly encourage you to listen to this recording. Transcripts of these reports can be found here.
10 posted on 11/04/2003 12:18:10 PM PST by tang-soo
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To: Squawk 8888
I saw the title & figured it was about Weaseley Clark.
11 posted on 11/04/2003 12:18:11 PM PST by Sloth ("I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!" -- Jacobim Mugatu, 'Zoolander')
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To: martin gibson
our African brothers celebrating multi-culturalism!!

I think we still haven't gotten far enough away from our own glass houses. Tribalism and superstition may be the biggest obstacle that Africans need to overcome, but the same could be said of Europe during the first half of the twentieth century.

12 posted on 11/04/2003 12:20:00 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (Earth first! We can mine the other planets later.)
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To: pabianice
Like the Euro-weenies on the bigweek newsgroup who are whining about the very same thing right now. I posted the link to the article there.

They actually think the UN can do a better job than us in Iraq! No wonder Europe is being left behind and forgotten by us, they think like a UN minion.

13 posted on 11/04/2003 12:45:14 PM PST by Gringo1 (Learn to speak Spanish or you cannot order a happy meal.)
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To: Squawk 8888
I think we still haven't gotten far enough away from our own glass houses. Tribalism and superstition may be the biggest obstacle that Africans need to overcome, but the same could be said of Europe during the first half of the twentieth century.

First half, hell! How about the entire European phase of WWII? How about Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Rumania. All in the second half of the 20th Century.

14 posted on 11/04/2003 1:54:03 PM PST by pawdoggie
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To: pawdoggie
OOps! Disregard first sentence....(math was never a strong suit).
15 posted on 11/04/2003 1:55:08 PM PST by pawdoggie
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To: pawdoggie
OOps! Disregard first sentence....(math was never a strong suit).
16 posted on 11/04/2003 1:55:09 PM PST by pawdoggie
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To: pawdoggie
OOps! Disregard first sentence....(math was never a strong suit).
17 posted on 11/04/2003 1:56:04 PM PST by pawdoggie
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: seamole
Didn't realize they did BfC; I'm generally leary of most Canadian production houses because of their reliance on government favours. OTOH I've seen some pretty good docs made in Canada, chances are if the CBC doesn't air it then it's OK.
19 posted on 11/04/2003 5:23:32 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (Earth first! We can mine the other planets later.)
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